SCOTT Arfield is, like every Rangers player, determined to help the Ibrox club beat their Tynecastle rivals Hearts in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden this afternoon and put the pain of the Europa League final loss in midweek firmly behind them.
However, Arfield would also like to win so that he can finally bury the memory of the defeat he was on the receiving end of 13 years ago when the Glasgow giants last prevailed in the national cup competition.
The former Canadian internationalist was a Falkirk player back in 2009 and was helpless to prevent a long-range Nacho Novo strike early in the second-half securing a narrow 1-0 win for Walter Smith’s team.
“It’s taken me a long time to forget that,” he said yesterday after a final training session at Hampden. “It was a long time ago, but it was a disappointing day because you want to win as many trophies and medals as you possibly can.
“It was probably hotter that day (than in Seville on Wednesday). Ask big Kris Boyd! Big Boydy remembers it. He came off because it was too hot. The climate was very similar.
“It was pure disappointment. Whenever you lose a game of any magnitude like a cup final it is obviously gutting. I said after the game that you need to remember those feelings because they are the ones that drive you on to have the better feeling.
“You have to bottle both the positive and the negative. Hopefully on Saturday it is a different feeling that we have got. Obviously Wednesday night you think about pure disappointment for what you went through. But you’ve got to quickly get over that because this is a cup final.
“As a team we feel as if we can win this cup final. After the game you think about it, you get up on Thursday morning and travel back and it’s forgotten about. Because we’ve got a massive game. It’s all about being positive now.
“We give Hearts the utmost respect they deserve, an absolutely tremendous season from them so we know it’s going to be a very difficult game for us. So if we’ve still got a hangover from Wednesday night then it’s certainly going to be a very difficult game for us.”
“It was a sad day on Wednesday. But we are here again, we’ve managed to get here again. It would mean a lot to win it because this trophy has been away from this football club for a number of years now. We have one opportunity however it comes, whether it’s 90 minutes, 120 or penalties to bring that back.”
Arfield added: “The season always hinges on results. When you get here and play for Rangers, you need to win. You are always under that expectation and that power that you need to win games, especially when you get to cup finals.
“The whole season always depends on when you get here. So we’ve got an opportunity to put that right, an opportunity to get silverware and we’re fully focused on doing so.”
Arfield helped Rangers to bounce back from a 3-0 mauling by Celtic at Parkhead in the cinch Premiership back in February and beat Hearts 5-0 at Tynecastle just a few days later. He does not expect the Eintracht Frankfurt loss in Seville to impact on their performance level.
“You motivate yourself, that’s all you can do,” he said. “Football is a collective team sport, of course, but it’s run by individuals. So if an individual is down in the dumps or not positive then it obviously takes a hold on the collective.
“Everyone needs to makes sure they are alright first of all. Then once you are, you turn the message on to the collective group to go again.
“We’ve got a massive opportunity to put Wednesday night out of sight. Of course, we wanted to win the Europa League. But we have another chance to win another one and get silverware to end the season.”
