BOOS CRUISE
I’ve been jeered here before but it cuts both ways and we needed to give fans a reason to cheer
The Jambos’ rollercoaster campaign was summed up in 90 fraught minutes yesterday.
Booed off after a desperate first half before being hailed around Hampden at the final whistle for deservedly reaching their first final since 2012.
Levein – still trophyless as a player and manager – admitted after the 3-0 triumph over Caley Thistle that he was proud of his players for the way they overcame their jitters to get the job done.
The 54-year-old said: “It’s a very proud moment for me and it will be even prouder when the Cup Final comes round.
“I’ve done a lot things in football but to come back and win a cup with Hearts would be THE best thing.
“We’ve had a rollercoaster season but I’m so proud of and pleased with the players, how they have dealt with the pressure.
“The pressure was against us. We had more ability than Inverness but we had more pressure.
“Being favourites does make you worry sometimes about losing but they handled that well and the result is us playing here in May.May.”
That outcome outcomelooked looked a longwaylongway from certain after a tortuous first half saw the 18,000-strong Jambos support make their feelings abundantly clear.
A week on from a home derby loss, they weren’t getting the reaction they had hoped for.
And Levein confessed: “That can get to the players. They can boo me. I’ve been booed once or twice before, especially here!
“Bobby Burns and Aidan Keena started and it’s a big occasion for them – I needed the supporters to be behind the players.
“It’s always reciprocal isn’t it? We need to do something to create atmosphere and once we scored the first goal, the nervousness of the supporters disappeared, the same as it did with some of the players.
“I’ve long ago stopped worrying about being criticised though. It comes with the job. If we don’t play well, we get criticised.
“We ran out worthy winners in the end. We were a little bit nervous in the first half and half-time came at a good time for us .
“We managed to settle the nerves and once we got the first goal we were in complete control.”
From talk of title challenges early in the season, through desperate long-term injuries to their five best players, the perceived success or failure of Hearts’ season depended a lot on yesterday’s outcome.
Levein said: “For the first time in 14 years, we’ve got to two semi-finals this year. Now we’ve got to a semi-final and a final and I don’t know how many years it has been since that happened here.
“We started last week losing the derby. We still gleaned some confidence from it by the way we played but the early part of the week was quite sore.
“By Thursday or Friday we were back to ourselves though – we felt pretty good going into the game.
“Jake Mulraney’s been showing in glimpses how devastating he can be when he gets on the ball and attacks but he hasn’t really put together a performance like this one.
“Until we took him off with a sore re shoulder, there was a consistencycy to his play that enabled us to find him m and get dangerous situations from m what he was doing. “I was really chuffed with him.” Levein and John Robertson shared a hug at full-time and the Hearts boss had sympathy for his s opposite number and old pal.
He said: “I have a lot of respect for him, he’s very brave in the way he sets out his teams, leaving three up at times.
“I really hope his team manages to get back up as I think they would be an asset with the way they play.”
Levein also played down stories linking John Souttar with a summer move to Rangers.
The Scotland stopper still has three years left on his deal and his s manager said: “There was a story y two weeks ago that I was going to o Spain – and I put those two storiess in the same place!”