Roberts relaxed as he reflects on THAT howler at Hampden

PATRICK ROBERTS helped Emerson Hyndman get over his homesickness when he arrived from Texas.

Today he just wants to send his mate home sick.

The former Fulham trainees go head to head in the white heat of Hampden today, back in the same city as each other on loan deals but on opposite sides of the divide.

And winger Roberts insists his friendship with the 21-yearold American will be put on hold until the final whistle.

He said: “Emo is a good friend of mine, he was only young when he came across to join Fulham, just 15 and he didn’t know an awful lot about England.

“But I showed him what it was like and tried to make him feel at home. We used to share a car to training and we struck up a good friendship.

“And I have spoken to him since he arrived at Rangers but we haven’t had a chance to meet up much since he came up here. I’ve just tried to keep him straight on what there was to do in Glasgow.

“He’s a great lad, though, and a fantastic player - but once we get on the pitch it’ll be different.”

With a League and League Cup medal already banked this season, Roberts says the mood at Parkhead is like night and day compared to when they hit the wall in the semis last season.

Despite 90 per cent of the personnel being the same, he insisted: “It’s a completely different team.

“We’ve been on a good run of form, and the belief in the team is there. With the new manager coming in and changing things around you can say it’s a new team a year on.

“We’ll be going into the game mentally different, and physically and performancewise things have been brilliant.

“There’s more confidence and belief.”

Roberts hit the headlines in that game, which Rangers won on penalties after a 2-2- draw.

His nightmare miss inside the six-yard box will go down as one of the Hampden howlers of all time but he’s circumspect as he reflects on it.

He said: “It happens. It can happen to anyone. Obviously it was a big game but it was out of my mind a couple of weeks later.

“I got a bit of stick from the boys and from my brother — just banter, really.

“So 12 months on, hopefully it doesn’t happen again!”