Craig Gordon insists lifting the Scottish Cup as Hearts captain would be the proudest moment of his career.
The Scotland No.1 was part of the Jambos team that beat Gretna to lift the trophy in 2006 in his first spell at the club before twice being successful in Celtic colours.
He also collected five league titles and as many League Cup triumphs with the Bhoys.
But as Hearts prepare to host St Mirren in Saturday night's televised quarter-final clash, Gordon admits he is dreaming of being the first one up the Hampden steps for his boyhood club.
Gordon said: “Would it be extra special as captain? Of course it would.
“To win a cup, I have been very lucky, I have won a lot of cup finals in my career. But to actually do it as a captain for your boyhood club, I don’t think it would get much better than that.
“There are not many Hearts captains who have lifted the Scottish Cup, and I would absolutely love to be one and get my hands on it.
“We’ve still got three games to go to do that so from that point of view we are still a long way away, and we need to concentrate on trying to get through.
“It’s massive. We want to try and get to Hampden and take our chances from there. We’ve got a home game, we want to get into the last four and give ourselves an opportunity to do something really special this season.
“It’s already been a good season in terms of the league, although we have still got a lot to finish off there.
“But certainly, to get to a semi-final or final would really make it a pretty special season here. It’s one we want to win.”
Gordon was part of the Hearts side that lost the delayed 2020 cup final to Celtic on penalties.
And he was away on international duty when Robbie Neilson’s side suffered the humiliation of being knocked out by Highland League minnows Brora Rangers in the second round last season. That result triggered fierce protests from fans who called for Neilson and chief Ann Budge to quit.
Hearts were successfully battling their way out of the Championship at the time and now sit 13 points clear in third place in the Premiership.
Gordon insists the team are now a completely different animal from that period and added: “I watched it on Hearts TV. I couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
“I knew it would be a difficult game going up there, but it was just a culmination of so many things that led to us going out that night.
“It wasn’t nice to be a part of, even if I was away on international duty.
“We’ve come a long way since then as a group, as a team and as a club and things are looking a lot more positive now, so we can leave that one behind us, but we want to bounce back from that by getting to Hampden this year.”
Hearts have injury concerns over some 11 players for the tie after five were forced off during last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Dundee United.
And Gordon insists the team are not short of character after battling against adversity at Tannadice.
He added: “There was great spirit and togetherness. We had been talking about that, how we needed to get back to that, back to helping each other out in different circumstances.
“So for the boys to perform the way they did, it wasn’t a good performance but it was a fighting performance.”
