I must to salute Aaron McEneff for his supersub performance to guide Hearts into the Scottish Cup semis on Saturday night.
Scoring within 27 seconds of coming on and then setting up the clincher? It was the absolute definition of impact sub.
Not only did he swing a breathless, topsy-turvy encounter with St Mirren back in the Jambos’ favour but McEneff gave a lesson to probably thousands of footballers - and nobody more than myself - about the importance of having the right attitude when stuck on the bench.
I purposely started by using the word salute. Because my own shocking mood on the occasions I was benched was never more embarrassingly on display than when I sent a gesture to my Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald a few years back.
Talk about picking the wrong fight .. Archie was and still is a hard b******!
He had named me as sub for a game against Inverness back in 2015. I was sulking, no other word for it.
When I was thrown on late on I was still raging. I scored the winner in the 90th minute which should have been enough to say ‘point proven’.
But I wasn’t content with that and celebrated by running towards the bench and giving Archie the fingers. It was disgraceful.
Archie never missed me after that. I never kicked a ball for Thistle again and, although I apologised, was out the door two weeks later.
All I cared about was playing on a Saturday and the fact I was willing to my life at risk by flicking Archie the vickys shows how desperate I was to play football!
But it was totally the wrong way to go about it.
Looking back it’s one of the things I hated most about myself as a player. I couldn’t accept being on the bench.
I’d be raging I wasn’t starting even on the occasions I never deserved to start.
The worst times were when the team was named on a Thursday. I’d be moping around and then just go home and sit on my a***. It’s ridiculous looking back. And it’s disrespectful to your team mates.
You need to harness the frustration the right way but I know now that I never did that.
That’s why I have so much admiration for the likes of Aaron and other players like him who are willing to sacrifice themselves to a point and be ready to come off the bench to make an important contribution.
In the modern game having one or two players that can do that is as important as anyone who is in the starting XI as McEneff proved against the Buddies.
The Irishman’s been unlucky. I really like him as a player. But testament to him whenever I’ve seen him on the bench he’s never looked like he’s had the hump.
He is combative, not scared to go into tackles, good on the ball, sharp and likes to have a pop when he can.
There’s absolutely no doubt he has a big part to play the rest of this season and going forward. With his contract up in just over a year I reckon Robbie Neilson will be looking to tie him down because he’s proved his worth.
But getting back to the game on Saturday and what an advert for the Scottish game. It was a 90-minute Scottish Cup thriller and credit must also go to St Mirren for the part they played in fighting back and scoring the goal of the game. Scratch that, the goal of the season!
But as jaw-dropping as Connor Ronan’s strike was, it was the tap-in from Beni Baningime to open the scoring which pleased me most.
I couldn’t believe that was Beni’s first ever goal. Incredible! He’s a legend in Gorgie already.
Everything he epitomises, leaving Everton, dropping wages to come to Hearts, coming back from injury and producing the performances he has.
Once again on Saturday he was superb. He just gets better and better and I’m sure he will eventually win a big move.
But right now from a Hearts point of view it’s about enjoying him while he’s at Tynecastle.
The joy on his face when he smashed home from two yards was a delight to see. I just really enjoy watching him play.
If Beni keeps up that form and the likes of Aaron McEneff keep chipping in with game changing moments then, whisper it, but Hearts fans would have every right to dream of not just finishing third .. but adding the Scottish Cup to an incredible season.
