Gary Mackay: You can't get revenge for a 5-1 cup final defeat to your local rivals

Hearts were pretty poor first half, then we come out for the second half all guns blazing, then we go down again and come back, and then when Craig Gordon saves that penalty I'm thinking, '3-2 up, two penalties to go for each team'. We were in pole position. It just wasn't to be.

It's actually so difficult to properly express the emotions Hearts supporters all went through on Sunday because we probably went through every emotion imaginable.

As well as the disappointment there was an immense feeling of pride as well. It's hard to come back from two goals down against any opponent, let alone one that's won the last 11 trophies in Scottish football.

These guys will be feeling the same as I did after 4-3 defeat to Rangers at Celtic Park in the League Cup final in '96, which is the closest we came to winning a trophy while I was at the club.

It will be especially hard for the guys who haven't won anything in the game. They'll be wondering how close they’ll be able to get again because we were only two penalties from winning a cup. That's about as close as most players will come in their careers. They couldn't have put any more into the game than that did.

I also really feel for Ann Budge. There's the upcoming handover of shares between herself and the Foundation of Hearts and her time in charge of the club will soon be coming to an end.

She was very honest the weekend before the cup final about the mistakes she's made on the footballing side. A lot of us would concur with that but it would have been nice going-away gift if we'd won a major trophy during her reign, and not just two Championship titles.

Then you get some things said, like the scorer of Celtic's third goal [Leigh Griffiths] talking about getting revenge after the match. You can't get revenge for a 5-1 defeat to your local rivals. Not like that.

It's completely different. Hearts weren't playing their local rivals on Sunday. They were playing a team who have a far bigger budget, a team who have won the last 11 trophies, so there wasn't an expectancy on Hearts.

In the 5-1 game, there was an expectancy from both sets of supporters, but one group had their expectations ruined very quickly.

There has been a lot of talk afterwards about the actions of both Steven Naismith and Scott Brown during the game. These kind of guys live by the sword and die by the sword, they know what the game is about.

The players that teams love to hate are normally the most influential players. A lot of opposition supporters don't like Steven Naismith because of his competitive, combative style, and that's the same with Scott Brown.

If all players played with the same personality and in the same manner then it would be a really poor spectacle.

Message from the editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.