IAIN Ferguson confesses he is surprised that his former Hearts team mate Craig Levein went into management never mind made such a success of his career in the dugout.

“Craig was a lovely fella and I got on great with him,” said Ferguson. “Would I have expected him to become a manager? If I was being truthful, I would say naw. He wasn’t the brightest light in the dressing room!”

Yet, he believes Levein has done a very smart thing indeed since taking over at Tynecastle for the second time last season – following the Alex MacDonald blueprint for success.

The striker played under the Rangers great during the two seasons that he spent in Gorgie in the late 1980s and helped his side to reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

The man who scored in the 1-0 win over German giants Bayern Munich in the first leg of that last eight double header can see uncanny similarities between the MacDonald team he was a part of and the current Levein side.

He feels that is the reason the capital club are six points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership and preparing for a Betfred Cup semi-final against Celtic at Murrayfield on Sunday.

“Craig was always going to build a team the way he played,” said Ferguson. “I definitely think he’s followed the Alex MacDonald philosophy – by making Hearts a team that nobody wants to play against.

“Teams walk through the door at Tynecastle and say: ‘Uh-oh! We’re in for it today!’ This Hearts team is the same. You know they’ll be at you, they’ll be constantly at your feet.

“They get the ball back to front reasonably quickly. But they don’t hump the ball up the park.

He’s built a very physical side and he plays to his strengths. That was the way Scottish football was when we played together.

“It was a successful formula back then. And it’s certainly been successful for Craig so far, because they’re sitting at the top of the league and one game away from a cup final.”

Ferguson added: “Craig learned so much from Alex, whose philosophy was to give everybody a job to do.

“He always said you have a responsibility to do that job, often a defensive responsibility. But, when you got to the final third, you were allowed to express yourself and do what you could do.

“When we lost the ball, there was another six guys behind you trying to win it back, give it John Colquhoun, Gary Mackay, myself, John Robertson, whoever was playing. People might call it a wee bit basic. But you know what? Football is a basic game.

“I watched the England game last week. Spain had so much possession, then the goalkeeper punted it up to the centre-forward, who held off two defenders, laid it off for a team-mate to take a touch and score. 1-0.

“I think Craig has always had the same style. I mean, he obviously got criticism for playing nobody up front for Scotland and that was going a wee bit over the top. But the basis of Craig’s philosophy would be that, if you don’t lose a goal, you don’t lose a game, so you’re halfway there.

“They’re actually scoring a few goals and putting teams under real pressure. They kind of run over the top of you, physically and mentally even.

“They’re at the top of the league, picking up points, that’s a great place to be. You go into the next game knowing you are top of the league, that there’s a points gap, so the pressure is on everyone else.

“In our day, the philosophy was to make Tynecastle a really physically demanding place for visiting teams. I go back to playing with Dundee, Dundee United, even Rangers, and we always found it tough.

“Hearts went down a different road with Ian Cathro, a modern-day coach with iPads and all these different philosophies. But football is a basic game. Make yourself hard to beat, make your home ground a fortress. It’s working.”

Ferguson, who netted the winner for Rangers in the League Cup final against Dundee United in 1984, feels Steven Naismith is the perfect man to lead the line for this Levein side.

“Steven would epitomise everything Craig wanted when he was bringing him in,” he said. “It’s exactly the same as when Alex MacDonald was bringing players in. You have to fit into the way that team plays.

“They have a philosophy and you adapt to that because you’re not a superstar. There are no superstars in this Hearts team. They have a team unit. You have to get in there and put in a shift.

“So even Steven, who went down and played at the highest level in the Premier League, has bought into that. I’m sure he’s enjoying his time because he’s scoring goals and working hard.

“He’s the guy who, at the end of all that hard work, nine times out of ten gets the chance to score.’

Ferguson thinks Hearts have every chance of recording a win over the defending champions and booking a place at Hampden in December.

He continued: “With almost 70,000 fans there, it will be a fantastic spectacle on Sunday and a great game. Hearts are at the top of their form, on top of the table and they’ve already beaten Celtic this season.

“They have two different styles of play. And I think it will be a semi-final in the truest sense of the word. What I mean by that is, if you fancy it, if you’re up for the game, you have a chance.

“I’m sure Hearts will be up for it and have the words of the manager ringing in their ears: ‘Win the battle, win the game’.”

Iain Ferguson was speaking at a Street Soccer Scotland event. Street Soccer Scotland deliver a range of football related personal development and training programmes to socially disadvantaged adults and young people across Scotland including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.