Hearts v Livingston: Olly Lee's memories of Dalglish, Shearer, Robson & Keegan

The last time we saw Olly Lee on a football pitch, he had a smile as wide as a house after firing the laser that vaporised Hibernian in the Edinburgh derby in December.

"The best goal of my career," says the Hearts midfielder, a fair old claim given that he has on his CV a 65-yarder for Luton Town, a howitzer from his own half that sailed up and over the Cambridge United goalkeeper in a League Two game in England last season.

"The derby goal meant more, didn't it? It was massive. Surreal. I think that's why my celebration was so bad. I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. I was desperate to get to the Hearts fans, but I didn't have the energy."

It was different all right. One of the first texts he got when he switched on his phone after the game was from Alan Shearer, a close friend of his dad, Rob, an icon of Kevin Keegan's excellent Newcastle United team in the 1990s.

The following morning, he was in the airport awaiting a flight to England to see his family when a big lad approached and gave him a hug. "My missus was going, 'that's strange', but that's what it means to people. I found that out very quickly. Intensity is the word. In my time in England, I've never seen the kind of passion that exists in Scotland. It's crazy. You get people stopping you in the street and I like that. I want to be part of something big."

Lee's back story is not your normal footballer's back story. As a kid in Newcastle, and son of the Newcastle captain, his house was always a hive of activity, a focal point for the team.

The house itself used to belong to Kenny Dalglish, but Rob Lee bought it and, at times, it was like a second dressing-room.

"At the time, it was the most normal thing in the world for me and my brother, Elliot, who's still playing for Luton. I remember one time we were on holiday in Barbados and Kevin [Keegan] happened to be there as well. I was about seven or eight and we all went out for dinner and he showed how to make paper aeroplanes. I knew he was my dad's manager, but I didn't know anything else.

"We had good barbecues in our house and we'd have Shay Given, Alan [Shearer], Gary Speed, Warren Barton and loads more there, We'd play five-a-sides in the garden. Shay always wanted to play up front and the boys always made sure that Alan was last pick, which wound him up.

"Alan's always looked out for us. After the goal against Hibs, he texted me and told me I needed to sort my celebration out. I think he said I should copy his celebration the next time, but I couldn't nick it. I could never do it justice."

Lee was, and remains, a Newcastle nut. How could it be any other way when your dad played 359 times for the club over 10 years and scored 56 goals?

"When we were selling that house, Bobby Robson came to view it and I remember me and Elliot were playing football in the garden and he came up to us and said, 'Maybe one day you'll play for Newcastle, boys'," he recalls. "That was the dream, but it never happened."

After starting at West Ham and bouncing around on loan at the likes of Dagenham & Redbridge, Gillingham, Barnet, Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle, he ended up at Luton. Last season, the brothers got to play at St James' Park in the FA Cup.

"It was weird," Lee says. "We'd just beaten Gateshead and, because both of us scored, we were interviewed by the press. They asked if I'd like to get drawn against West Ham and we both said, 'no, Newcastle away' and an hour later we came out of the hat, 'Newcastle away'. That was one of the great days.

"The whole family was there. We gave it a good go but lost 3-1. I'll never forget the feeling of walking out at St James' Park. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. "

The Hearts supporters have a song for Lee that amuses him no end. Amuses and delights. He says that all he wants to do in his time in Edinburgh is to have people say about him that he made a difference.

Only six months in Scotland, he has already played in an amount of big games. The win against Celtic in August, the victory over Aberdeen in October, his first trip to Ibrox (beaten but the best atmosphere he's experienced outside of Tynecastle), a League Cup semi-final, that insane derby at home, that winning derby away.

He had a glimpse of what his new life was going to be like when Hearts invited him up to watch the final Edinburgh derby of last season - a 2-1 win for Craig Levein's team. He said he was blown away by the rivalry and the noise, the edge and the desperation for victory.

"I left Tynecastle that day thinking, 'I'm jealous of the boys playing in that atmosphere. I want some of that'," he says. "Then I got some of it and it was that weird 0-0 game in October. It didn't feel like a football game. It was just up in the air and people were more bothered by what was going on in the stands. A crazy experience. I came off frustrated because I'd hardly touched the ball - there'd been no football played. It was just a battle."

Sunday will be another adventure. His first Scottish Cup tie and against a team that humiliated Hearts 5-0 in mid-December.

Lee has not been here long, but when he talks about Hearts' longing for a trophy, he speaks like a diehard Jambo who's never strayed out of Gorgie in his life. "You just want to win something so that, in years to come, Hearts fans will say, 'yeah, I remember him, he was decent, he earned the right to play for us'."

If a trophy is the final destination then Sunday against Livingston marks the beginning of the journey.