NO-one ever owes you anything in football. It is a lesson Gary Locke learned the hard way.

Here he was in the spring of 2014, a young Hearts manager tasked with trying to keep his administration-ravaged boyhood heroes in the Scottish top flight. Hamstrung by a transfer embargo and handicapped by a points penalty, he was having to make do and mend with young players who he sensed had a huge future in the game but were not yet up to the task.

Not only did he commit his thankless toil to the endeavour, he was chipping in some of his hard-earned cash to the Save The Hearts fund as the club's administrators searched for the £1.5m the club needed to ward off liquidation. When salvation finally arrived, an emotional Locke put it up there with the birth of his three children in the list of the great moments in his life.

If anyone had earned some loyalty, surely it was him. Not a bit of it. Before long, he was sitting down with new owner Ann Budge and being told that his services were no longer required. His former Hearts team-mate Craig Levein, now director of football, had recommended Robbie Neilson, his youth coach, for the job.

Locke, now 41, has had three years to get his head round it all. The first step was cancelling his direct debit to the Tynecastle club and trying to get as clean a break as possible.

"I used to put money in but obviously once I left that was difficult," said Locke, who has also faced his old team as manager of Kilmarnock. "So when I left Hearts I felt that it was probably better that I cut all the ties. At the end of the day I have to look after myself and look after my career. I don't think it would be right to be managing another club and contributing towards Hearts. You definitely don't want anyone saying you have a conflict of interest. My only focus now is Raith Rovers football club.

"At the end of the day what happened was disappointing," he added. "But that is football. I have learned that you are a number in football, no-one owes you anything.

"Hearts will still be going strong when I am not here. But I am not going to lie to you - it was difficult to take at the time. I didn't see it coming."

If the memory of those discussions with Budge is still raw, he cannot hide his admiration for the way she and Levein have run the club since then. "I spoke to Ann on the day that I left and it was a disappointing day," said Locke, who will be without the cup-tied Ryan Stevenson. "But Ann has got a job to do there. She saw fit to bring in another manager and they have done great since I moved away.

"I remember sitting there and being told that basically we have a couple of weeks to raise £1.5m or the door was getting shut," he added. "It wasn't a good night for me, or for anybody that was involved, my family and friends. But credit to Bryan Jackson and Trevor Birch who were involved at the time.

"And I think you can see from the support that Hearts are bringing at the weekend how much they have rallied round the club. There are still 7,500 who contribute every month to the cause and they are getting full houses every home game. They are certainly a club on the up and I expect them to be up near the top of the league this season."

While Raith are his only focus - the cup match comes at a good time after three straight defeats in the Championship - Locke, partially responsible for Hearts' greatest ever cup day, the 5-1 victory against Hibs in 2012, takes pride in the development of many members of the Tynecastle first team.

"You will never get anyone happier than myself seeing the progress that Callum [Paterson], Jamie Walker and Sam Nicholson have made. Even the lads who have left, guys like Billy King, who are away playing football at other clubs. It was a really difficult period for us all, and the supporters of the club as well, but we got through it and I'm delighted to see the lads do so well. Callum is a full international and I don't think Jamie Walker is far away either. I think if you ask the lads themselves they would probably say that was the making of them."