Lawrence Shankland reveals he sold Hearts Scottish Cup final programmes as he eyes personal Hampden hat trick

Lawrence Shankland was at Hearts' last two Scottish Cup Final success. Now the skipper wants to fire them back to this year's and be involved on the park.

The Tynecastle top scorer was a kid on the books at the Gorgie club when the Jambos faced off against Gretna in 2006. And they almost came a cropper against the then Division 2 side, needing penalties to see off Kenny Deuchar and Co to claim the famous old trophy. Shankland was back at Hampden in 2012 as Paulo Sergio led the club to its finest hour, overseeing a 5-1 hammering of city rivals Hibs to secure the ultimate Edinburgh derby bragging rights.

Shankland was at Queen's Park by then and working for the Hampden-based club selling programmes outside the National Stadium. He'll be in Sunday's edition, but hopes the semi-final against Rangers is just the penultimate stop on the way to silverware. Aberdeen or Celtic will be lying in wait for Sunday's winners. The capital club have reached three of the last five finals without winning any of them and Shankland is determined to put that right.

"I was at the 2006 final because I was at Hearts as a kid, so I was at that game," he said. "It was great. It's good to see teams outwith the Old Firm winning cups. It's quite unusual at times and Hearts are big club who want to be winning trophies. Fingers crossed we can be the next ones.

"I was working at the 2012 for Queen's Park. I was giving out the programmes! The one before that would've been Gretna in 2006. I'm getting old - that doesn't seem that long ago! I met the guy who owned Gretna at the time outside, Brooks Mileson? I got a photo with him and I'm sure he was smoking a fag! I'd have been about 10 or 11 when I was at Hearts. We got tickets through the club. Good