I was ten minutes from glory in 2016 but this is my chance but to finally be a winner
TOO often i n football, your failures can define your career far more than your achievements. The moments that slip away, the mistakes made, the chances passed up. The regrets. Andy Halliday is determined not to be that guy.
The player who thought his legacy was sealed with one majestic sweep of his left foot in the 2016 Scottish Cup final.
Just 25 minutes left, 22 yards out, wearing the No16 shirt of boyhood heroes Rangers, he was never more convinced that he was finally a winner.
Not the Third Division with Livingston, not the Championship or the Petrofac Training Cup. A ‘proper’ medal, he calls it.
In his grasp. Then ripped out in 10 heart-rending minutes by Hibernian.
Now, four-and-a-half years down the line, through frustrating seasons of bit-part play at Rangers, through the darkest days of a miserable loan spell in the back end of Azerbaijan, he finds himself back centre stage with Hearts, facing quadruple Treble-chasing Celtic, with a chance of redemption. A chance of definition.
‘Will this one mean more to me after the setbacks?’ ponders the 29-year-old. ‘I’m not too sure. Any chance I’m going to get, no matter who I’m playing for or who I’m playing against, it’s going to mean a lot to me — because I’ve never won one before.
‘But I know first hand what it feels like to lose
It was one of the lower points of my career. I don’t want it to get away again
one. The sad fact is, when you look back on your career, a lot of the time you look back at the moments that got away from you more than the moments you can be proud of.
‘So, although we have a tough task at hand, I certainly don’t want to let one of these opportunities get away from us again.
‘It’s important to go off the pitch with no regrets at the end of the game and realise no matter what the outcome is, you’ve done everything you could to win it.’
Regret is the over-riding emotion that comes pouring out at the mention of his last experience of a Hampden final, however. Having gone behind early to an Anthony Stokes goal, the favourites’ recovery looked complete when Halliday added to Kenny Miller’s equaliser with the most exquisite of strikes, a goal fit to win any cup final.
Except it didn’t, as Stokes and David Gray wrote their own chapter into folklore.
‘It was the goal that might have been,’ sighed the midfielder, ‘one of the lower points of my career.
‘When you’re 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, you’re thinking: “I could have scored the winner in a Scottish Cup final and won my first proper medal”.
‘When that turns into a 3-2 defeat with the last kick of that game, it’s always going to be a real blow. Add in the events after it, it was just a surreal, shock moment. It’s one I’ll look back on and be extremely disappointed in.
‘As I said, the unfortunate thing in football is looking back and the ones that got away sticking out a little bit more. So, if I score a goal with 10 minutes to go this time, I certainly hope we can hold on!
‘A real medal is something that has escaped me and I’d be disappointed if I looked back on my career and hadn’t won one. I have a chance to rectify that here.’
Hearts are rank outsiders to pull off an upset against a Celtic team whose defeat last month to Ross County in the Betfred Cup was their first in knockout competition in an incredible 35 games.
Halliday, though, knows a thing or two about underdogs pulling through.
He played and scored in one of the greatest FA Cup upsets of all time, lowly League One Bradford City taking on the might of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a team so laden with talent they would win the Premier League at a canter that season.
Two down after 20 minutes, Halliday sealed their fightback with City’s third of four in the unlikeliest of triumphs.
‘I certainly don’t want the first 20 minutes on Sunday to go the way that game did!’ he laughs. ‘Let’s be honest, when you go 2-0 down away to Chelsea early, you’re thinking it could be a cricket score.
‘Thankfully, we got the first goal back at a good time, just before half-time, and it galvanised us. We ended up deserving a win we knew we had next to no chance of achieving beforehand. And to score the “winning” goal was one of the best moments of my career.
‘It was similar in a sense to what we’ll face at Hampden because we knew going into that game that we had to play very, very, very well to even be in with a chance. We caught Chelsea off their game that day.
‘Listen, I don’t think it will be as big an upset if we beat Celtic, albeit we know they’re heavy favourites. They’ve dominated Scottish football for years now but you always have a chance in a final. It’s one game, winner takes all.’
Halliday has been a pleasant surprise to a Hearts support sceptical of his signing at the end of the window. Likewise, the player himself has been uplifted by the opportunity to win something significant after just 100 appearances for his new club.
‘The secret is to join a team who are already in the semis!’ he grins.
But despite their extra-time win over rivals Hibs at that stage, the player understands the magnitude of the task in front of them today.
‘Celtic have won the last 11 domestic trophies, albeit they have had their struggles recently.’ he says. ‘ When finals have come around, though, they’ve always put in their best performances.
‘But we think we are a good team, with a squad more than capable of competing in the Premiership. We beat a Hibs team who have done ever so well in the league this season.
‘The boys also put out Rangers in the quarter-final back in February. We are deservedly going to take our place in the final, and hopefully we can win it.’
Halliday, who took an injection last week for a niggling Achilles problem but has declared himself 100-per-cent fit for today, has at least experienced beating a Celtic side who at times appeared invincible to the Rangers he was a part of.
However, he insists they must guard against inflated expectations against an opponent struggling for their previous levels of intimidation.
‘I’m not going to lie,’ he adds. ‘If you told me Celtic would only have won three games in 13, I’d have been amazed, but their last two performances, they look back to their best.
‘To win, the first 20 or 30 minutes is key. You don’t want them to get too much confidence and into a rhythm early on in the game. If they get the first goal, being underdogs, you’ve got a bit of a mountain to climb after that.
‘So it’s important we start well, with a good intensity, and be brave.’