I’M DUE WON
Haring hoping it will be third time lucky in Cup Final after hard luck story in 2019 and 2020
PETER HARING could be forgiven for thinking he’d walked under a ladder and across the path of a black cat en route to his previous two Scottish Cup Finals with Hearts.
The Austrian has suffered nothing but Hampden heartache against Celtic in 2019 and again a year later.
But as he prepares for today’s showdown against Rangers, Haring is convinced it can be third time lucky for him.
The 28-year-old hobbled off in the 2-1 defeat in 2019 after he aggravated a pelvic injury which eventually sidelined him for 16 months.
The midfielder returned in time to take his place on the bench for the delayed 2020 final – only for the Jambos to be on the wrong end of a shootout defeat after a thrilling 3-3 draw.
But as he prepares for a third final in four years the former SV Ried ace said: “Absolutely I’m hoping it’s third time lucky.
“I know what it’s like to be there and I’m looking forward to it.
“The first final was just an injury that happened, it was very unlucky.
“It’s done now, I am not thinking about it anymore.
“There’s no time any more where I think how it was when I was injured or I shouldn’t have done this or that, it’s done.
“I am feeling really good, better than ever, so there’s no point wasting any energy thinking about that any more.
“I think the experience of playing at Hampden can help, and the ones who haven’t played in a cup final before saw what it was like in the semis against Hibs.
“When I came to Hearts there were always two massive targets.
“One was playing in Europe, and this season we have finally managed to do that.
“The other was that this is a club that wants to win trophies and is capable of winning trophies.
“We haven’t managed to do that yet but that has been one of the big, big targets when I signed .
“It’s going to be a big, big day for all of us and I just really hope we can make it happen.”
Haring hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow Austrian Thomas Flogel, who was a key member of the Hearts side which beat Rangers to lift the trophy in 1998.
He said: “I knew of him but I didn’t know him personally before.
“He was here during my first season, he came over for something at the club with the Cup-winning team in the Gorgie suite.
“So I had a chat with him and he’s a good lad, he gave me some advice as well. I got to know him then.
“This is massive for the club, we saw that at the Hall of Fame dinner the other week when the 2012 team was honoured.
“We all know what that means to the club and how much it means for every player here.
“We are going to do all we can on Saturday to be one of those.”