Pass the Lucozade, Brooks, but hand the champagne to Vladimir. So this is how millionaires such as Messrs Mileson and Romanov get their kicks. Surely there is a saner, safer pursuit for two men in their late fifties. Bungee-jumping perhaps?

Gretna have had the sort of season you wouldn’t want to end, so decided to extend their engrossing fairytale yet again at Hampden yesterday — exhausting not only their chain-smoking, glucose-slugging owner but the rest of us too. With 15 minutes left, it seemed they had run their course. David Graham had already meandered through the soft centre of the Hearts defence, where Ibrahim Tall shrank from him, and rounded Craig Gordon only to be stopped by a magnificent Robbie Neilson tackle as he prepared to turn the ball home. That, we presumed, was Gretna’s last shot at glory but they surprised us once more by taking the match into extra-time.

John O’Neil received a routine throw-in and touched the ball forward inside Hearts’ box. As he did so, Deividas Cesnauskis caught the former Hibs player with the slightest of touches and sent him tumbling. Up stepped Ryan McGuffie, whose former clubs are as diverse as Annan Athletic and Newcastle United. His initial shot was saved but he slammed the rebound home to an eruption of black and white.

Hearts felt they should have had a penalty of their own with five minutes left of the ensuing extra-time. Rudi Skacel rounded Alan Main and would have scored had he not been impeded by the veteran goalkeeper. Takis Fyssas and Paul Hartley were booked for their complaints and Hartley was then sent off for a petulant kick at Derek Townsley down by the corner flag in the final minute of the match. Hearts would get their chance to take some penalties in the shootout and converted four flawlessly, through Steven Pressley, Robbie Neilson, Skacel and Michal Pospisil. Gretna scored through James Grady and Mark Birch, but then Craig Gordon saved from Townsley, as he had from McGuffie in normal time, and Gavin Skelton skelped the crossbar to end an enthralling afternoon.

So the Scottish Cup goes to Hearts, only their second trophy in 43 years. More may follow sooner rather than later but they were almost punished for presumption on the part of their owner. He left out Andy Webster, currently a non-person because he will not sign a new contract, and as Gretna swarmed forward in the closing half-hour, the Scotland centre-back’s steadiness was missed badly in Hearts’ defence.

With their scarves swirling, their Elvis wigs in honour of captain Steven Pressley, and their beach balls to taunt rivals Hibs, there was no mistaking the pre-match confidence from the maroon segment of Hampden that they would be taking the trophy back for a parade pre-arranged in Gorgie today. Romanov’s guests of honour came adorned in medals already won, veterans from the famous K-19 submarine.

The Premierleague side started in familiar fashion, hammering away at the the Second Division champions like a wrecking ball at a tottering building. Cesnauskis hit Alan Main’s right-hand post after eight minutes and the goalkeeper saved well from Skacel and Edgaras Jankauskas as Hearts peppered him with shots. Encouraged by such reprieves, Gretna grew into the game and, in Skelton, had the best player on the pitch at this stage. He tested Gordon with a clever drop shot, then tracked a burst from Hartley before halting it with a well-timed tackle on the edge of his box.

Hearts had control but still had to guard against complacency. Gordon crashed one kick into James Grady, perhaps failing to notice the diminutive striker, and was lucky the ball broke away from his goal. Yet just as Gretna started to see the sanctuary of the interval approaching, they fell behind. The goal was disappointingly prosaic from their perspective as Neilson hurled a long throw from the right which brushed Chris Innes as he jumped with Jankauskas and fell nicely for Skacel to score his first goal since January 28 with his trusty left foot. He may have been waiting that long to reveal a T-shirt which read ‘I will never forget, thanks Jambos’.

That suggested Skacel’s epitaph but Gretna were not quite ready to sign off from their adventure. Steve Tosh sprang onto Kenny Deuchar’s knockdown and sent his low shot inches wide of Gordon’s right-hand post at the start of the second half. It was a decent effort but McGuffie was inside him unmarked. Rowan Alexander, resplendent in a kilt, gambled by replacing David Nicholls, his holding midfielder, with Graham, a third striker.

The mobile, tricky substitute became a persistent thorn in Hearts’ paw and they were spooked enough to concede the penalty. Both sides could then have won it in a fraught final 10 minutes of normal time. Skacel, sliding in, almost connected with a cross that Jankauskas bounced across the six-yard box. At the other end, Innes got a clear volley at the back post following a corner on the right but his connection was faulty.

So to extra-time and Hearts continued to tempt fate by scorning opportunities. Jankauskas missed a simple near post header after Saulius Mikoliunas’s curled cross, then Skacel smacked the ball off the same post that Cesnauskis had hit after strong set-up play by Pospisil. Only in the penalty shootout would their profligacy stop.

STAR MAN: Gavin Skelton (Gretna)

Player ratings. Hearts: Gordon 6; Neilson 7, Pressley 7, Tall 5, Fyssas 5; Cesnauskis 5 (Mikoliunas 86min, 5), Aguiar 7 (Brellier 72min, 5), Hartley 6, Skacel 6; Bednar 5 (Pospisil 70min, 5), Jankauskas 6

Gretna: Main 7; Birch 7, Innes 7, Townsley 7; McGuffie 7, Tosh 8, Nicholls 6 (Graham 55min, 7), O’Neil 7, Skelton 8; Grady 7, Deuchar 5 (McQuilken 103min, 6)

Scorers: Hearts: Skacel 39

Gretna: McGuffie 76

Referee: D McDonald

Attendance: 51,232

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