Gary Naysmith recalled how Jim Jefferies told his players to “become legends” ahead of their historic 1998 Scottish Cup final win over Rangers.
The Jambos hadn’t won silverware for 36 years when they faced Walter Smith’s side at Celtic Park, in what was the Ibrox boss’ last match in charge of his first spell.
Jefferies took his players away from Edinburgh to prepare for the game, and Naysmith explained that it was during their training camp in Warwickshire that the motivating was done.
“We went away for the cup final at the start of the week and Jim named the team then,” he explained on BBC Sportsound . "So a lot of the talking had actually been done when we were near Birmingham preparing.
“His actual cup final team talk was similar. ‘It’s been a long, long time since we’ve won a trophy. You can become legends with the Hearts fans. Don’t pass up this opportunity.’
“His actual team talk on the day of the game was quite short because in depth in the build up during the week.
“We had worked on things about how we thought thought we could stop Rangers because we had played them four or fives times that season and hadn’t managed to beat them.
“So most of his talk was done on the training pitch and on match day it was very simple really. Go and try and become a legend.”
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