Ryan McGowan: Hearts should've won by eight or nine, always wanting to be bigger than Hibs and VAR confessions on 2012

More than 3,000 miles away in Kuwait, Ryan McGowan is reflecting on how connected the world has become since this backpacking footballer from Australia first pitched up on our shores as a teenager.

“I pitched up at Hearts, a long, long way from home and if training had been lousy I couldn’t call my mum right away and moan about it,” he says. “I had to trudge down to the local shop, buy an international phonecard and wait until about ten at night when it would be breakfast-time back in Adelaide.

“Look at us now. You and me are talking on Zoom. And I’m not kidding, on my social media, Instagram or Twitter, I’ve had at least one message every week since 2012 about that game. Usually more than one. And this week, plenty already.”

That game is that final – that derby. Hibernian 1, Hearts 5. The worst-ever day for one set of supporters; the greatest-ever for another, with the Scottish Cup the prize to go with an internet-busting amount of bragging rights.

Though he’s played for nine clubs since leaving Tynecastle, McGowan talks like one of the scarf-twirling Jambos who could have autogyrated all the way back to Edinburgh after the final whistle. His goal celebration was that of a fan who’d won a competition to be on the park for a few seconds – by happy coincidence at the moment there was the opportunity to score in a Hampden showpiece from Tom Forsyth range. And the detail in his analysis of the contest strongly suggests he’s watched it back once or a hundred times.

For instance, I suggest that however dominant Hearts were, and however weak Hibs’ response, winners will always carry a bit of luck. Wasn’t Ian Black fortunate, as old match reports argue, not to be red-carded in the tenth minute for taking out Leigh Griffths with