Steven: End the heroics

Steven Naismith knows what legendary status looks like in Ayrshire villages driven by their passion for junior football.

And the Ayrshire native is determined not to let Auchinleck Talbot’s players earn any more of it at Tynecastle today.

Tommy Sloan’s side’s heroic win over Ayr to reach the last 16 put them in the club’s history books and earned them a crack at an even bigger scalp today.

But Stewarton-born Scotland striker Naisy warned: “At a club like Hearts, you have a level of responsibility and expectation.

“We need to go out and do a professional job and win it, not be on the other end of Auchinleck being the heroes and moving on. “You don’t want them to be any bigger legends than they were against Ayr and if ever we needed any warning it’s the previous time they were here and Hearts only won 1- 0.

“All round it’s a great day for them but my advice to my team-mates is to never take your eye off the ball.”

It ’s a decade since Naismith won the trophy with Rangers, and while he’s played his fair share of cup ties in a 15-year career on both sides of the border, this is the biggest David v Gol iath clash he has ever experienced.

He admitted: “I actually wanted this draw - not that it was Auchinleck, more that I can’t remember being involved in such a gap in terms of teams.

“Their sub goalie Brian Hewitt stays in the same village as me, so it will be interesting to come up against him.”