Heart of Midlothian’s wait for a first major trophy since 2012 goes on. But Nathaniel Atkinson remains convinced that supporters won’t have too long to wait to see silverware paraded around Gorgie.

Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Rangers felt like a missed opportunity for Steven Naismith’s side. After racking up a commanding lead in third in the league and beating Celtic home and away this term, there is a sense that the men in maroon have taken great strides forward this season: something that makes the loss at Hampden even harder for supporters to swallow.

Not since that Scottish Cup final a dozen years ago have Hearts claimed the Scottish Cup – and you have to go all the way back to 1963 for the last time the League Cup was brought back to Tynecastle Park – and fans will have been counting every second.

READ MORE: How Hearts let Rangers off the hook in semi-final loss: The SIX key opportunities

The loss at the national stadium understandably stings for supporters and players alike, but Atkinson firmly believes that you have to go through such adversity to take the next step and end Hearts’ wait for a major honour. And the Australian knows what he’s talking about, too.

“The boys are disappointed,” Atkinson said. “I think it was a much better performance than the last semi-final [the 3-1 loss to Rangers in the League Cup in November]. Obviously I was disappointed I had to watch that one at home [Atkinson was injured], but this one, it was good that the team bounced back and got to another semi-final.

“You have to take the positives out of that. But, yeah, we say we always want to close the gap to the Old Firm and these opportunities are the ones we have to take. At the moment, we just have to continue to grow as a team. I feel we have done that from last season and we’ll kick on from here.

“You have to go through the hardships. For me, personally, I came from Melbourne City. We were a new team in Australia and were knocked out from a lot of finals and then we went on to win three leagues in a row. So it is about growth. We obviously have to believe in ourselves and want to grow, look at the mistakes we make and learn from them.

“A big thing was, when I lost my first final in Australia, one of the senior boys said, ‘this is a good thing to be in this situation because we can use it as fire, but you have got to learn from it’. We’ve all got to learn from this to set things right in the future.

“You never know when your next semi-final is going to be, but if we can continue the growth we have shown, we’ve shared some good things this season, we’re third in the table at the moment and a couple of more wins will get our confidence moving into Europe next season as well.”

Hearts have certainly come a long way since the start of the season. A slow start to the campaign led to intense speculation around Naismith’s future, and a banner criticising his appointment was unfurled at Rugby Park back in September as unhappy supporters demanded change.

The last-gasp 2-1 win was a significant turning point in the head coach’s tenure. It hasn’t been perfect, of course, but the team look like an altogether different beast now from what they were when the campaign kicked off. Securing third is now a matter of when, not if, and Atkinson believes Naismith is more than capable of continuing that progression.

“Definitely,” he explained. “The good thing about him is that he is a cool and collected type of guy. When he first came in and results were not going our way early on, everyone [outside the club] goes for the gaffer’s head. But we stuck to what we thought was the right thing to do, we built on the way we wanted to play and the results started to come.

READ MORE: Why Hearts will be feeling regret after defeat to there-for-the-taking Rangers

“We have solidified ourselves in third and now we have to build on that. Obviously, it is his first full season and he puts the best team out on the day to do that. He has been known to make changes when things are not going our way and you can see for him, he says it is all about learning and growing for himself as well.”

And Atkinson has no doubt that Naismith is the man to end the club’s wait for a major trophy. He and his team-mates, he insists, are not short of belief.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “Hearts is a big club and we haven’t won silverware in a while, but we all want to be a part of that team that brings that first bit of silverware back.”