BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
WAYNE McINTOSH already boasts one hat-trick against Hibernian at Tynecastle.
If the Bonnyrigg Rose striker can find the net in Gorgie again on Saturday he reckons it will be time to hang up his boots.
McIntosh, a boyhood Jambo, will be Rose’s prime attacking threat this weekend as the Juniors aim to pull off arguably the biggest shock in the history of the Scottish Cup when they face holders Hibs.
The tie will be played in front of a sold-out Tynecastle and – as well as many afternoons spent cheering on the capital club – the 31-year-old has fond memories from his previous outing on the hallowed turf.
He notched three goals for a Hearts XI during a Rivals4Charity fixture against their Hibs counter-parts in 2014 and fancies his chances of rippling the net again if he is presenting with a clear sight of the target.
“I’m a Hearts fan and it will be amazing to run out at Tynecastle as the home team,” he said. “I actually played at Tynecastle when Hearts and Hibs had a charity match last year – and I scored a hat-trick!
“Even just hearing your name read out: ‘Number ten, Wayne McIntosh!’ was incredible. That was only in front of a couple of hundred people, never mind 13,000!
“You can actually watch the highlights on YouTube – like I have loads of times.
“If I could score a goal against Hibs then the boots would get nailed up in the changing room. I wouldn’t even come back to football!
“To play in front of the big crowd at Tynecastle against Hibs, it doesn’t get any better. I was thinking this could possibly be my last season in football, I am busy with my work as a joiner and I’m 31 now. I have kids too and I need too start taking more of an involvement in their lives.
“So what a way to go out – and that’s what’s been going through my mind. I wouldn’t want to put pressure on myself. But if get half a chance I’d like to think I’ll take it.”
He can, however, expect to return home to a frosty reception if he does somehow find a way to shoot down Neil Lennon’s men.
The apple has fallen far from the tree when it comes to football allegiances in the McIntosh household, with his two sons being drawn to the green half of Edinburgh and lapping up their historic Scottish Cup triumph last May.
“I have a couple of kids and my oldest laddie McKenzie is a Hibee. He’s 13,” smiled McIntosh. “I have a wee boy of seven, Hayden, who now tells me he’s a Hibee as well!
“I don’t know how that happened, I think it might be my wife trying to wind me up.
“He walks about with the Hibs strip on but I think that’s juts to noise me up. And it’s working. They were jumping about when Hibs won the Scottish Cup as well.
“To be fair, I have a lot of friends who are die-hard Hibees and when they won it I was happy for them. I live down at Bonnington and it was constant celebrations for weeks down there. I think they’re still at it now.
“I’m being truthful when I say we were playing Livingston in a friendly on a Monday night and I drove my van through and I was saying to the boys: ‘I would love to get Hibs’. When they shouted out ‘number five’ and then ‘Hibs’ I couldn’t believe it.”
As if the prospect of masterminding a win over the Scottish Cup holders was not surreal enough, McIntosh and his Bonnyrigg teammates were yesterday decked out in James Bond masks to preview the encounter – with Sean Connery their most famous alumnus.
The 86-year-old even got in touch with the club to wish them well in the fixture.
“I didn’t know I was following in his footsteps when I signed, it just came out of the blue,” laughed McIntosh. “It’s like that when you’re winning – everybody comes out of the closet don’t they!
“If we were getting beaten I don’t think he would have phoned! No, all jokes aside, it’s brilliant someone like him has done that.”
Wayne McIntosh was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.
