It’s Scottish cup final weekend.<\/p>\n
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Sunday at 3 sees Celtic face Hearts in last years cup final, a game that one way or another will bring the curtain down on an unprecedented and probably unique period of domestic dominance in not only Scottish but world football.<\/p>\n
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The run of consecutive trophies will either have another one added to it, or it won’t.<\/p>\n
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But it will end, and only Craig Gordon probably doesn’t care how it ends, as he’ll apparently get both a winners and a runners up medal, due to his participation in the tournament with Celtic.<\/p>\n
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As he is no doubt all fired up for the game, and more than capable of reminding us what we are missing, lets hope he has a stinker.<\/p>\n
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One wonders if his heart will be in it, and given Hearts could be said to have worked themselves up for this game, for a couple of reasons, he probably will be.<\/p>\n
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One also wonders if he has a bad game, sections of the media and supporters of other clubs will doubt his allegiance to his new club.<\/p>\n
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In fact, should he be allowed to play-he is cup tied in the usual sense ?<\/p>\n
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Had Hearts been facing “rangers ” and a former Ibrox man been in their line up, would we have seen a rule change then ?<\/p>\n
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Then again, referees are allowed to play for their favourites, so rules in Scottish football are perhaps a little different from anywhere else.<\/p>\n
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The Hearts players will all wear 26 on their shorts, a tribute to their former captain Marius Zaliukas, who died of motor neurone disease recently..<\/p>\n
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Hearts players will don the number 26 on their shorts in tribute to former captain\u00a0Marius Zaliukas.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The Lithuanian defender tragically passed away in October on the day\u00a0Hearts<\/a>\u00a0beat Hibs to reach the cup final with fans heartbroken at the news.<\/em><\/p>\n Zaliukas was skipper when Hearts last won the trophy with a 5-1 thumping of Hibs at Hampden in 2012, and now the club will show their love for him on Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n Every player will wear shorts with 26 on them during the game at Hampden as they look to overcome the odds and beat Celtic to win their third\u00a0Scottish Cup<\/a>\u00a0in 14 years.<\/em><\/p>\n The club confirmed on Twitter: “This Sunday at Hampden, every player will wear no. 26 on the front of their shorts in memory of Marius.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not only that, the Edinburgh club felt a little aggrieved that they were relegated as a result of a show of hands last season, despite it being fairly obvious they would have been anyway, having had a dreadful season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though one could argue that at the business end of the season, making a cup final would have boosted the players and they may well have escaped their sentence, which means they might well try to make amends for that on Sunday against a Celtic side that could at best be described as inconsistent this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Factor in Neil Lennon talking about giving the players who got to the final-apart from Gordon, obviously, though you never know when Lenny speaks these days, and suddenly we have a game on our hands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And so it should be that way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s a cup final, the showpiece end of season game where everyone started equally with the same dreams and hopes of making it to the big day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alright, maybe the last weekend of christmas shopping isn’t the normal time for the game, and lifting the cup in the dark without any fans present will be sort of surreal, its still the Cup, and its still another trophy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And I’ll bet you’ve forgotten how we got there, haven’t you ?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s a short refresher….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fourth Round: Partick Thistle 1-2 Celtic<\/p>\n Fifth Round: Clyde 0-3 Celtic<\/p>\n Sixth Round: St Johnstone 0-1<\/p>\n Semi-Final: Celtic 2-0 Aberdeen<\/p>\n Ahead of Sunday's match, refresh your memory of @CelticFC<\/a>'s Road to the #ScottishCupFinal<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wKPg9zLRI0<\/a><\/p>\n — Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) December 17, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n