Dougie Imrie wants Morton to make Scottish Cup clash ‘horrible’ for Hearts

Morton manager Dougie Imrie has urged his players and supporters to make it “horrible” for Hearts when they visit the Cappielow “cauldron” on Monday.

Imrie has told Hearts players they are in for a culture shock when they leave their Tynecastle “luxury” to travel to Greenock for the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Championship outfit Morton saw off Motherwell in the previous round in more convincing fashion than the 2-1 scoreline suggested after the top-flight side struggled to deal with a series of set-pieces and balls into the box in the first half.

And Imrie wants to ensure that Hearts do not have the chance to play the sort of football that has taken them 13 points clear of the chasing pack in the race for third in the cinch Premiership.

The former Hamilton player said: “We have to make it as difficult as possible. Hearts have got top players and if we try and go toe to toe with them, no disrespect to us, we’ll get cut open.

“So we have to make it as difficult and as horrible as we can. Hearts will know that themselves.

“Hearts are used to luxury. They have a nice stadium, they go to other nice stadiums.

“They are coming to Cappielow, the dressing rooms are tiny, they’re not the best. The pitch is good but the fans will make it like a cauldron for them.

“They won’t enjoy it, the infrastructure inside is certainly not what they are used to, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage.

“I have been a player going against these big clubs, you have to take everything you can. If we can do that and the fans get behind us, then you never know what can happen.”

Morton have suffered defeats in their past two matches but won eight of their previous nine home games.

“I don’t think anyone would enjoy coming here,” Imrie said. “I don’t know what it is, we seem to make it a fortress. Last year we had the best home record in the league. We are a wee bit off it this season but we have still been very good.”

About 7,000 tickets have already been sold for Monday night’s game and Morton expect to enjoy their highest home attendance since 8,497 saw them clinch the 2003 Third Division title against Peterhead in 2003.

With the Hearts section already sold out, Imrie believes the home supporters have a “massive” part to play.

“You saw that against Motherwell, from start to finish they were singing and dancing and getting right behind the team,” the former Morton player said.

“I think Motherwell got a bit jaded by that. And that was part of the game plan against Motherwell. Motherwell are used to playing on a nice big pitch, great surface, and we never made it easy for them. It has to be similar on Monday night.”