No surprise if Levein opts for the young guns

CHALK and cheese. That’s the natural assumption about how the Hearts starting line-up at Hampden on Saturday will compare to the more youthful side which was selected at Celtic Park last Sunday.

But things are never quite as straightforward as that. Not when Craig Levein is sweating on the fitness of so many first-team regulars. The fact that Olly Lee is now a major doubt for the Scottish Cup final, following the knee injury he suffered in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Celtic, only compounds matters for the Hearts manager. Levein was already facing an anxious wait on whether the experienced trio of Arnaud Djoum, Peter Haring and Uche Ikpeazu will be available for selection in the Mount Florida showpiece. Coupled with the fact that talisman Steven Naismith will be another high-profile absentee, there could conceivably be a string of places up for grabs. The way in which teenagers Andy Irving, Aaron Hickey and Connor Smith acquitted themselves at a packed Celtic Park certainly suggested that they won’t be overawed by the occasion if they’re given the call. Harry Cochrane is also waiting in the wings and would be a prime candidate to take Lee’s central midfield slot, if he doesn’t recover in time. Jake Mulraney, whose smartlytaken equaliser in the 2-1 loss was his first goal of the campaign, has full faith that the kids will be alright in any case — and has backed Levein to spring a surprise. ‘It was a disappointing result, but we managed to put out a lot of young players,’ said the Irish winger. ‘The average age of the side must have been 21 or 22. ‘I thought they all handled it really well. It’s just a pity we couldn’t come away with a result. The young boys gave a great account of themselves.

‘You never know, some of them could have done enough to get into the team for next weekend.

‘The manager can make some surprise decisions at times — I love it. He can just throw young boys into the side whenever.

‘It’s good for the kids here to see someone like Connor Smith come in and play in the derby against Hibs recently. That says it all.’

Last weekend’s game had a strange feel to it. It rarely felt anything less than a warm-up for the main event at Hampden.

It concluded with Celtic lifting the Premiership trophy for an eighth successive year, buoyed by the performances of two of their own youngsters in Mikey Johnston and Karamoko Dembele.

Mulraney, however, believes that Celtic’s aura has been slightly diminished over recent months and retains belief that Hearts can cause them problems, despite their own indifferent form.

‘We were definitely playing for our places,’ he said. ‘Everyone is trying to get into that cup final team.

‘It’s a cup final, so anything can happen. We created chances against Celtic on Sunday and we believe we can definitely score goals against them.

‘We’ve beaten Celtic already this season and we’ve seen throughout football in the last two weeks that in a one-off game, anything can happen.

‘Celtic are a fantastic side. They are a massive club and have players who can hurt you, but I’m not into this aura thing.

‘It’s just 11 players against 11. It’s another game of football.’

A season which started with such promise — six victories from their opening seven games saw Hearts sit top of the table — has tailed off quite dramatically.

Mulraney is adamant that it hasn’t been as bad as critics would suggest — and would love to lift the cup as a way of easing the pressure on Levein.

‘We started well and were at the top of the league but then we suffered a few key injuries with some of the main boys,’ he said.

‘They were big guys to lose but a few weeks ago we were still going for Europe and had a cup final to look forward to.

‘The season hasn’t been as bad as some people are making out.

‘There’s definitely a big motivation to do it for the gaffer. He’s been brilliant with all of us, particularly the younger lads.

‘I’ve played in a final before and we have boys who have plenty of experience of doing that in our squad and we have boys who are internationals.

‘It’s huge and the biggest stage but we are all right in terms of experience. My last final was the Irn-Bru Cup with Inverness, so this one is slightly bigger.’