BRAVEHEART SURGERY

Gibraltar and Luxembourg we could almost forgive. Almost. And only because it didn’t result in elimination.

But actually being knocked out by a team from Malta? That was a new Europa League low on Thursday night.

Not just for Hearts – for the whole of Scottish football.

Celtic’s loss to the Red Imps and Aberdeen’s defeat to Fola Esch were worse in terms of the standard of opposition.

Birk irkara FC are Euro giants compared to those two.

But at least those embarrassing scorelines weren’t costly for Brendan Rodgers or Derek McInnes.

The same can’t be said of Jambos gaffer Robbie Neilson, though.

The sight of an irate Hearts fan leaping from his seat and trying to get at his gaffer in the dugout when the Maltese scored a second at Tynecastle is proof of that. Jambos supporters felt humiliated in midweek.

Around 15,000 of them turned up – having already made their plans for a trip to Krasnador in the next round – expecting a comfortable win.

Instead, they watched Scotland’s third-best team being picked off on the break by a side who finished FOURTH in the Maltese Premier League, behind Valletta, Hibernians and Balzan.

The sight of their 56 fans celebrating in the Roseburn Stand like they’d won the Champions League merely rubbed salt in the wound.

Birkirkara’s coach Josef Mansueto put the tin lid on it afterwards by claiming Hearts were a “simple team to work out”.

It got me reminiscing about one of the earliest games I watched 26 years ago.

Rangers were drawn against Valletta in the first round of the old European Cup. They were Maltese champions then, as they still are now.

Not only was a rout predicted, Walter Smith’s side delivered it with consummate ease.

After a 4- 0 first-leg away victory, Gers racked up six more goals at Ibrox.

It was men against boys. A 10- 0