There’s no need to inform Stephen Kingsley that the Hearts are behind the Rangers.
This season, Philippe Clement’s league leaders have dealt the Jambos four heartbreaking losses, and the Tynecastle defender takes it personally. They were humiliated 3-1 in the League Cup semi-final following a lackluster performance by Hampden, defeated 2-1 at Ibrox despite leading 1-0 into injury time, thrashed 5-0 in Govan just three weeks before to ending their 12-game unbeaten streak, and defeated 1-0 at home in December.

Thus far, Kingsley acknowledges that the story is depressing and that it speaks poorly on Steven Naismith’s players. But with Monday’s 1-0 victory at Morton securing another Scottish Cup semi-final matchup with the Ibrox team, Kingsley feels there’s no better moment to put an end to that hell. Furthermore, the former star player for Falkirk, Swansea, and Hull is preparing for his seventh career visit to Hampden, but he has yet to win a winners’ medal. All of it will motivate him when he plays the Rangers at the National Stadium the following month.

“These are the games you want,” remarked Kingsley. Everyone finds it to be a fantastic challenge, and we are thrilled to be there. We sincerely want to outperform our performance against the Rangers. It speaks to us as participants.

Since we didn’t play our best when we played Rangers at Hampden last time, we are motivated to make it to the final, which is our objective. God knows how many times I’ve gone to Hampden, so hopefully this time we can give it our all.

“It was undoubtedly frustrating the last time. We weren’t at it, in my opinion. We’ve faced some difficult outcomes when playing the Rangers. We’ll make sure we’re prepared because this will be a significant event for us.

“I’ve been with Hearts for four years, and my prior Hampden experiences can be useful. It also only increases your desire to push yourself harder.

Kingsley is fully aware that everyone in maroon must be performing at the highest level in order for it to occur. Hearts have demonstrated their ability by defeating Celtic both at home and away in the league. But they haven’t touched Rangers, for whatever reason.

“We simply have to have faith that we can deliver the kind of show we can against them,” stated Kingsley. We haven’t given a very good impression of ourselves the past few times, in my opinion.

The manager has mentioned narrow margins, and we have experienced them negatively. We haven’t performed to the best of our abilities. You will be punished when playing against teams like them. It basically comes down to using the confidence we have gained during the second half of the season to deliver a performance we are proud of.

“We must allow ourselves the opportunity to enter the game and proceed to achieve success. For the team and supporters, it’s a wonderful event. We need to provide them pride.

Apart from Rangers, Hearts have had an incredible three-month run of success that has not only brought them back to Hampden but also propelled them into third place in the Premiership, 13 points ahead of the rest. Kingsley is too smart to fall into the trap of believing that the finest rest spot is guaranteed. He is aware that fans may believe so.

“We’re in a great position in the league,” he declared. I’m not a moron—people will believe we are on our own since we are 13 points ahead of fourth place. However, that’s not how we can think as gamers. You are putting yourself in a precarious situation if you start thinking that way.

“On Saturday, we play Ross County away, which should be a difficult match. Up there, we always have challenging games. To go on to the next one, we must win that one. And what a carrot we now have to anticipate at Hampden in a few weeks.

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