Michael Dawson's Tottenham Hotspur strip hangs on a wall in my games room at home.
It’s a permanent reminder that swapping jerseys at the end of what was the biggest game of my life at that point was as close as I got to the guy all night back on August 18, 2011. It wasn’t just me. Dawson and his superstar Spurs team mates left every one of my Hearts team mates nailed to the wall in a Euro lesson not to be forgotten.
The memory of chasing Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe around Gorgie for 90 minutes still brings me out in a cold sweat. A Europa League play-off Battle of Britain under the lights at a ferocious Tynecastle was meant to be the stuff of dreams. Unfortunately the 5-0 trouncing turned out to be a complete and utter nightmare. When Hearts take on Zurich tomorrow night it will be 11 years to the day since that scudding live on TV. Thankfully this Jambos side are in a far better position to make a real go of their first Euro play-off appearance in a decade. People still say to me ‘remember that night you got pumped off Spurs?’ It makes me sick as it was undoubtedly a missed opportunity and there’s so many regrets.
I’ll never forget standing in the tunnel glancing across at a side that contained Bale, Defoe, Lennon, Rafael van der Vaart, Kyle Walker and Niko Kranjcar. It was proper Premier League razzmatazz and if that doesn’t get you pumped up then nothing will.
Our changing room was buzzing and we had it drummed into us not to concede anything in the first 20-25 minutes. Clearly we needed a bigger drum though as were 3-0 down after 28. I was up front with John Sutton against Dawson and Younes Kabul and all I was thinking about was laying one on somebody early doors as a marker, unsettling them and doing some damage.
I wanted them to go back to London remembering my name. Dawson might - but only because we swapped those shirts at the end of the game! In truth it took until the final few minutes to get near either of their central defenders when I smashed into Kabul through sheer frustration.
He got up as if nothing had happened. No big time from him. The class just oozed out of them all.
We did ok in the second leg down there and got a goalless draw. A certain Harry Kane made his debut that night and missed a penalty.
A year later and it was Liverpool at the same stage of the competition - a game I just missed by 24 hours as I re-signed from Ipswich the following day. I was travelling up to Edinburgh as they headed down to Liverpool.
This time it was a proper contest with Luis Suarez’s 88th minute winner at Anfield the agonising difference.
It was a third defeat at that stage in three years.
Honestly, there was a time when I thought the Europa League PO stood for ‘papped out’ rather than play-off.
But tomorrow the Jambos won’t be facing a Spurs. Or a Liverpool. Or a Dinamo Zagreb.
It’s a Zurich side that - albeit are reigning Swiss champions - but they sit bottom of their table with two points from five league games and just one goal scored.
Throw in the fact they have lost their top scorer from last season and are having to play this tie at neutral St Gallen and you’re left thinking this draw could have been a whole lot worse for Hearts.
It’s a great opportunity and that’s all you can ask.
Erring on the side of caution then you only have to look back at Dundee United ’s result against Alkmaar last week to know you can’t take your eye off the ball for a second.
Where you get punished in the Scottish Premiership, you’ll get absolutely throttled in Europe.
They will be a good side, no doubt.
But I’m champing at the bit to see Hearts go and get to the next level. And I think they can do it.
There’s real quality in this team with Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett, Barrie McKay, Lawrence Shankland at the forefront.
The players have to grab the chance to make themselves even bigger heroes in the Hearts fans’ eyes.
People still talk about that David Templeton goal at Anfield a decade ago and it was the worst strike I’ve ever seen trundle into a net!
Imagine if you score the winner to secure Europa League group stage football.
Hopefully there’s no regrets this time. It’s an opportunity for legends to be born.
