Blair Spittal met the media at Oriam to discuss his childhood memories of the Scottish Cup, his previous experience of reaching finals, and why a winner’s medal would be the highlight of his career. Aaron Fraser reports:
Ahead of a massive quarter final against Dundee, Blair Spittal was in a nostalgic mood. During his formative days as a footballer, Spittal spent time at Queen’s Park, and was a programme seller at the National Stadium. When asked if he remembered where he was during the 2012 final, Spittal smiled. It turns out he was in the Hearts end watching the demolition unfold:
“I was actually in the Hearts end at Hampden for the 2012 final. At Queen’s Park one of the directors, Andy McGlennan, would have the young players working at the finals handing out programmes. I was in with the Hearts fans that day with the programmes.
I managed to get a couple extra and sold them in the street afterwards for a profit!”
“By the time I got home, I had none left. I made a hefty profit and added to my paper round at the time, it topped up the bank balance. Those are my memories of that day and it was mental to see the Hearts fans celebrate and what it meant to them. Being in the Hearts end was an experience for sure.”
“It’s every player’s dream to lift trophies and we have an opportunity to win a quarter-final and get to Hampden. We don’t want to let that slip. We want to get to the semi and then deal with it.”
During his career so far, Spittal has picked up several individual accolades. These medals mean a lot to him, but to have a winner’s medal from Hampden would be the undoubted highlight of his time as a player:
“My mum and dad have kept the medals I won as a young player. At Partick, I won a Player of the Year at the club and that was the first time. That was a good feeling to be recognised, as was winning Players’ Player for Motherwell last season. The ones that are voted for by your fellow pros mean a lot, but to get a Scottish Cup medal would be the best – 100 per cent.”
“That is why you come to clubs like Hearts, but we have a lot of work to do before that happens. The team got to two semi-finals last season and we want to go one better than that.
Spittal is friendly with several fellow professionals who have tasted success and lifted silverware at the National Stadium. Teammates Zander Clark and Jamie McCart were part of St Johnstone’s legendary double winning side, and Spittal knows how important having players with such experience can be to a successful cup run:
“We have two of the St Johnstone boys who won the Double in the squad now – Zander Clark and Jamie McCart. They have experience of winning trophies and it’s massive for us to draw on that. We want to create our own success here now.”
