John Souttar's message to Hearts as he bows out with outstanding performance at Hampden against Rangers

The Rangers manager was forced to take evasive action as his summer signing skidded into the visiting technical area after making another key interception with his head to stop another attack.

The pair will be reacquainted again soon enough. But the Rangers-bound defender did everything in his power to stop his future boss from picking up the Scottish Cup with a performance at Hampden which underlined exactly why the Ibrox boss wanted him in the first place.

He was thanked by Robbie Neilson in the dressingroom afterwards but opted to bow out with the minimum of fuss after doing his talking on the pitch. The Scotland international did take a moment after the dust at settled at the national stadium to thank the club as his six-year stay at Tynecastle comes to an end. He kept it simple.

"Thanks for everything @heartofmidlothianfc", read his message on Instagram. It was met with support from team-mates.

Craig Gordon wrote in reply: "Sorry to see you go. You gave everything to Hearts. You saved your career through hard work and determination. You have been an inspiration and great role model for every player, young and old at our club.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Michael Smith, who wrote: "Been a pleasure mate what a player. Good luck." Midfielder Cammy Devlin added: "Class soap. All the best brother."

The best Hearts player on the pitch, Souttar was a colossus and didn’t deserve to bow out on the losing team. He may have been making his first start for 11 weeks, but the centre-back looked like he had never been away.

The 25-year-old hadn’t started a competitive match since the ankle injury he sustained against Dundee United at Tannadice on March 5.

If he was undercooked, it didn’t show. The composure on the ball for