Last year's Dutch cup misery still haunts Advocaat

RANGERS manager Dick Advocaat will bid to exorcise a rare painful episode in his career when he leads his side against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday.

Advocaat, aiming to complete a domestic treble in his first season in Scottish football, has bitter memories of last season's Dutch Cup final, his last match in charge of PSV Eindhoven.

Like last year's Rangers, PSV were weakened by the ending of an era and crashed to a thumping 5-0 defeat from Ajax. Advocaat said: "To understand that match, you have to go as far back as January of last year. We had six or seven players who had decided to leave the club. "It started with Philip Cocu agreeing to join Barcelona; I was next and then players such as Wim Jonk and Jaap Stam decided their futures were away from PSV. We went into the match with nothing. Our season was over." Advocaat should have Colin Hendry and Neil McCann back in his cup final squad and hasn't ruled out another tactical switch to outfox Jozef Venglos. He said: "Nobody expected McCann to play through the middle in the game at Parkhead, so we will see. Both he and Hendry are practising again and look fit. But you can never tell what happens over a week.'' Advocaat, however, dismissed rumours Barry Ferguson would be fit for the final. The Scotland midfielder has started light training, but will not feature until next season. Meanwhile, the bonus row at Parkhead appears to have reached a conclusion. Captain Tom Boyd revealed this week that the players already know what bonus they will receive should they beat Rangers in the Hampden showpiece final, although he refused to disclose the figure. It appears that the peacemaker in the long running saga is new chief executive Allan MacDonald. "He's come in and tried to help the players in many ways," explained the Celtic captain. "There are a lot of things that need improved behind the scenes and he's trying to do these things. He's easier to get on with than Fergus {McCann} was; I don't thing many people would disagree with that."

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