Harry cochrane

[Newton51]

Article from the athletic 

 

It is easy to forget that Harry Cochrane was still a teenager 42 days ago.

“Me too,” he says.

It is slightly befuddling, given how long ago it seems that he burst onto the scene and the number of evolutions that have taken place at parent club Hearts since.

His impact under Craig Levein in 2017 was sudden and striking. Records were being set regularly as he became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer at age 16 and scored the opening goal of the win that ended Brendan Rodgers’ 69-game domestic unbeaten run with Celtic.

Cochrane was also the first Scottish FA performance school graduate to start a Premiership match and looked set to be the face of a new generation of talent.

Almost four years on, he has played one game for Hearts in the last two seasons and is stuck on 33 appearances for them having been on loan at Dunfermline in the Championship and, most recently, League One side Montrose.

Last month, it was confirmed he would be rejecting the offer of a new contract at Tynecastle and moving on this summer. Robbie Neilson has just led the Edinburgh club to promotion back into the Premiership as champions, but for Cochrane, it was a decision he made “quite a while ago” before having a discussion with sporting director Joe Savage.

“In my head, I wanted to try something different. I was honest when I spoke to him. He said there was going to be a plan but it got to the stage where I couldn’t see myself playing,” says Cochrane. “I just want to go somewhere that I’ll get a chance of playing. Going out on loan gets you games, but you want to be at a club where you feel you belong.”

Cochrane made 24 first-team appearances, with 16 starts, in that 2017-18 debut season but, with a boyish build, some have claimed that he has perhaps suffered from doing too much too soon.

“It does annoy me, as I did well. If you go in and do well, you’re going to play again. I’ve got quite a lot of energy so it didn’t bother me. I enjoyed playing at that age, as it was something I never thought I’d do,” he says.

“Some people say I shouldn’t have played that much and sometimes I think that’s why people think like they do now. If I hadn’t played games there wouldn’t be such high expectations, but it doesn’t work like that.

Cochrane playing for League One side Montrose this past season (Photo: Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)

“I’m still 20. There aren’t hundreds (of that age) who are consistently playing first-team at the top level. There are boys older than me down south playing under-23s. I’ve played a lot of first-team games, so it’s not like I’m going downhill.”

That goal to launch a 4-0 win over Celtic just before Christmas 2017 is still the headline moment of his career but Cochrane is keen to move away from past glories and mark a new chapter as he looks to prove his star has not faded.

“I try not to look back at that stuff. I know I can still do it, because when we played Kilmarnock (in a Scottish Cup fourth-round tie in April, Montrose lost 3-1) I felt it. I don’t think I’ve let myself down but I’m just one of those people who doesn’t like looking at the bad things.”

Earning such acclaim at that age and not managing to sustain it could be viewed as a negative but it can also be seen as a positive, surely, that he did years earlier what few have done even by this point?

“Naisy (Steven Naismith) said that to me. He sat me down and said, ‘If you’re ever feeling like you had a bad game, just go on YouTube and type in your name’ — although he’s scored hat-tricks against Chelsea to be fair to him.”

Any guesses as to the clip he looks to? Cochrane is already laughing as he says that Celtic goal — a magical moment that his mum only found out about when she received a text from his dad while out shopping.

“The Hibs game too. I say this to a lot of people and they don’t believe me but I played better against Hibs in the 2-1 game (May 2018) where I set up Naisy for his goal.

“Have you seen the video of me tackling McGinn (in an October 2017 Edinburgh derby)? It should have been a red, 100 per cent. He gets past me and takes the biggest touch I’ve ever seen down the line. I was thinking, ‘I’m not catching him and if I try to shoulder barge him, he’s not going down, I’m going down’. So I just flung my whole body at him. All the fans were going mad but the ref only gave me a yellow, so I like Andrew Dallas.

“Especially when I’m this size. When I was going up against him (McGinn), he does that thing with his arse where you can’t get round him.”

He has the champagne-substitute Irn-Bru man of the match award in his room, still unopened, but team-mate Christophe Berra never did hand over the one from the Celtic game. Perhaps it is for the best now that Cochrane has invested in some shiny new teeth.

“They look quite real, don’t they?” he says, laughing.

“I just didn’t like them (his own teeth). I’ve had more slaggings for these than my real ones, though! Levein would come in and say ‘They’re brighter than the sun those things, I’ll need my sunglasses’.”

There is nothing fake when Cochrane speaks about those memories of being thrust into the limelight. It is just as how he appeared in the moment: fresh, fearless, comfortable up against the big names: “I enjoyed it. At that age, I didn’t feel any pressure. I thought, ‘If I have a bad game, the fans aren’t going to have a go at me are they?’”

Cochrane was the star but academy products Euan Henderson, Anthony McDonald, Lewis Moore, Jamie Brandon, Andy Irving and Jordan McGhee were all featuring too.

“It was really exciting. You had played with them before, so you know them,” says Cochrane. “When you signed, that’s what the message was. I don’t know whether it’s because they got relegated that it’s different, but it was genuinely all about youth.

“Levein had a lot of trust in me. He would put me in big games and wasn’t bothered about throwing young boys in.”

Cochrane playing for Hearts at Ibrox (Photo: Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)

There didn’t appear to be any nerves, especially in the bigger games where he played with a nothing-to-lose attitude and was prepared to rough up the biggest of personalities, such as Scott Brown.

“Levein used to say to me, ‘He’ll try to get in your head. Don’t let him’. People do that, and I’ve tried it before, but it doesn’t work for me with my smiley face and these teeth.”

Cochrane suffered a serious injury when Brown collided with him challenging for the ball.

“My collar bone is still out of place from that – it sticks out more,” he says, pulling the neck of his t-shirt down to show a point on the right of his throat.

“I was on the ground when they scored and I was thinking I had broken my neck as it went into a spasm. It was the scariest moment of my life.

“I got put on the bed and the nurses put two big weights either side of my head and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t move your head’. It was about four or five hours from it happening until I got out of the hospital at 2am. I had my phone in my hand at that point and I dropped it straight onto my face. I was nearly crying. It felt like I couldn’t do anything right.”

He realised the collar bone was still an issue when feeling discomfort in the gym and does the odd time even now, but nerves? Only once, really.

“The first time I played against Rangers at Murrayfield, I had the shits,” he says.

“When I came back in from the warm-up I was genuinely thinking, ‘I might not be able to play here’. They beat us and Kenny Miller ran off me, so it was one of those ones you’re looking around for someone.

“Playing in games like that, or the Edinburgh derby, is mental. When you’re in the game and doing well you feel like there is no pressure but if you’re having a bad game you feel like you’re hearing everything everyone can say. There’s nothing worse than that.”

Cochrane is at a crossroads in his career, similar to the position he was in when he left Rangers at under-13s level, having played in a team that contained two of Scotland’s Euro 2020 squad this summer in Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson.

“It was probably one of the best decisions I made, as I kicked on. I wasn’t getting the game time I wanted,” says Cochrane. “It was a massive decision as I was a Rangers fan as a boy and I had been there since I was six, but at Hearts it was so relaxed.

“I came on for 30 minutes at left wing, scored and left after the game. I wasn’t as good as some of the players at that time — maybe technically I was — and wasn’t enjoying it.

“It was similar to now. You feel like you’re training for nothing as you know you’re not going to play, you’re just making the numbers up.

“I was on loan but when I was still there I said to the gaffer (Neilson), ‘I don’t want to go on loan, I want to stay and try to get in the team’. It got to the point it was so obvious I just wasn’t going to be involved in any way.”

If you look at the age where Cochrane’s career will be expected to peak, he is somewhere around halfway between that boy who stopped enjoying his football at Rangers and the man now looking to find the right home for his talent.

Life in Scotland’s third tier has exposed him to a more direct style of play but he was pleasantly surprised by how much football Montrose tried to play and how veteran defender Sean Dillon would remind his players not to moan at each other.

He struck up a good relationship with fellow loanees Cammy Ballantyne (St Johnstone) and Chris Mochrie (Dundee United), whose ability he describes as “frightening”, but he feels he could have made a bigger impact.

“I was playing higher up against Killie (in the Scottish Cup defeat) and that was one of my best games. I wasn’t at my best this season,” he says. “My dad says that it’s goals that get you noticed but I don’t think I did enough going forward, so that plays on your mind.

“If you’re not making a big impact you’re thinking in your head, ‘What has happened? I’m still the same person’. Then when you have a good game you remind yourself you can do it.”

Cochrane enjoyed getting regular game time again but playing for a part-time club during a stop-start COVID-19 affected season has been difficult, especially when he picked up a hamstring injury which kept him out for over a month and meant he missed their play-offs loss to Morton — 4-3 on aggregate, with an extra-time winner.

“It makes you realise that you don’t want to be part-time,” he says. “When Hearts finished and we still had the play-off games, we maybe trained once due to there being so many games but it meant I wasn’t in at Hearts and I wasn’t in at Montrose either.

“They were thinking about putting me in for the play-off games but they didn’t want to risk me getting injured without a club. I trained before the game for my hammy. I said to them, ‘My hammy feels fine but I feel so unfit’.”

If it feels like Cochrane’s career has been allowed to drift the last two years, then he credits Hearts’ reserves manager John Rankin with reigniting the fire in him.

“I was playing a reserve match but I wasn’t doing well and there were people running off me,” he says. “He had a go at me at half-time, saying, ‘I remember when you first broke through you would be kicking and scratching people, you wouldn’t let anyone by you; you’d do anything, you’d even bite them’.

“That stuck in my head — that I’d even bite people. He said it to get a reaction, and it worked.”

Cochrane has been doing regular one-on-one coaching sessions to maintain his fitness and sharpness but is also aiming to improve his athleticism during his time off before next season.

It is a part of his game that has been criticised in the past due to his skinny frame, with some people linking it to the injury-hit season he endured in 2018-19, where he was limited to just eight appearances for Hearts.

Cochrane scores for Hearts against Celtic (Photo: Ian Rutherford/PA Images via Getty Images)

“Injuries played a part but for the last two seasons I’ve barely been injured. I just haven’t been given a chance,” he says.

“When you’re on Twitter it comes up on your feed people saying you’re not working hard in the gym. I have actually replied to a couple, which I shouldn’t have, saying, ‘You’re clueless’.

“It annoys you because it wasn’t injuries I could do anything about.

“They all expect you to be massive but some players just aren’t built like that. That’s why I’m open to going abroad, as it would suit me. They’re all athletes, but they’re not all big units. They want to pass the ball about.

“I need to get quicker and getting bigger would help but I never feel like I’m being bullied in a game.

“I’m definitely trying to get bigger and it is actually working by going to the gym and eating fish at night.

“Billy (Gilmour) has gone down to Chelsea and, while he’s still not tall, he’s big now. He’s got a lot of muscle on him.”

Cochrane has seen the transformation in another Scotland international after spending the 2019-20 season on loan at Dunfermline with Kevin Nisbet, who got his first goal for their country against Holland on Wednesday.

There are memories of stick man golf competitions after training and having to do forward rolls in an ice bath as a forfeit, but what stands out is Nisbet’s dedication.

“He scored so many goals. His finishing was just quality,” says Cochrane. “He demanded high standards, even in training. Him and Muz (Ewan Murray) used to slag each other about their time at Raith (Rovers).

“Nizzy used to have two sausage rolls and a can of Coke before training but he switched to vegan and his brother is a PT instructor, so he’s in great shape now.”

Cochrane still keeps in touch with Gilmour and found it surreal watching him lift the Champions League trophy after Chelsea’s win over Manchester City in the final last weekend.

“It’s mental. He texted me a couple of days before as I had put a picture up of me and my new missus, so he replied,” says Cochrane.

“I was texting him while I was sat with her, saying, ‘He’s about to play in the Champions League final… I’m best pals with him by the way’.”

It may be a claim to fame but only a few years ago Cochrane was the name on everyone’s lips in Scottish football, performing against Celtic and Rangers while Gilmour was playing under-18s football at Chelsea.

When up to three of his former team-mates could feature at this summer’s Euros is there not a sense that it should have been him in navy blue, too?

“Could have been me, aye. Not should be me. Sometimes I do think if I’d been able to keep doing what I was doing at Hearts then it could have been me, but it is one of those things and, as I’ve said, I’m still only 20.”

[Mister T]

"When mcginn does that thing with his arse" 😂

Best of luck to the boy. That goal against Celtic, that tackle on McGinn 👏👏

[Mikey1874]

Main thing is Scott Brown is a prick. 

[BigAlim]

“Cochrane suffered a serious injury when Brown collided with him challenging for the ball.

“My collar bone is still out of place from that – it sticks out more,” he says, pulling the neck of his t-shirt down to show a point on the right of his throat.“

 

Thats the only part that sticks out for me, what a deplorable thug Brown is

[Mikey1874]

2 minutes ago, BigAlim said:

 

“Cochrane suffered a serious injury when Brown collided with him challenging for the ball.

“My collar bone is still out of place from that – it sticks out more,” he says, pulling the neck of his t-shirt down to show a point on the right of his throat.“

 

Thats the only part that sticks out for me, what a deplorable thug Brown is

 

And that was revenge for the 4-0 game. 

 

Which makes it worse. 

[bigsuperslim1874]

14 minutes ago, BigAlim said:

 

“Cochrane suffered a serious injury when Brown collided with him challenging for the ball.

“My collar bone is still out of place from that – it sticks out more,” he says, pulling the neck of his t-shirt down to show a point on the right of his throat.“

 

Thats the only part that sticks out for me, what a deplorable thug Brown is

Collided?

 

[Savage Vince]

Scott Brown's thuggery at Celtic Park was absolutely disgusting. 

[Morgan]

Scott ‘the thug’ Brown, targeting what was basically a wee boy, shows what an utter coward he is.

[Mikey1874]

Just now, Morgan said:

Scott ‘the thug’ Brown, targeting what was basically a wee boy, shows what an utter coward he is.

 

Scotland captain too at one point. 

 

Injuring a Scotland youth player. 

[Morgan]

Just now, Mikey1874 said:

 

Scotland captain too at one point. 

 

Injuring a Scotland youth player. 

Scott Brown.

 

Hibs and Celtic.

 

I rest my case.

[Morgan]

Just now, jonesy said:

Good luck to him. Good player, maybe used wrongly by the club. Hope he gets the chance to smash Brown, although Naismith made a decent effort a couple of years back.

Somebody needs to ‘smash’ Brown, that’s for sure.  👍

 

There’s a couple of posters on here who regularly tell us that, off the park, he’s a ‘really nice guy’.

 

I know a lot of ‘really nice guys’ and, guess what?  

 

They don’t deliberately harm schoolboys.

 

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, jonesy said:

Won't get the same protection at Aberdeen, that's for sure. Stick on red card at Ibrox with his team 3 or 4 down, especially if fans are back.

Here’s hoping you’re right, J.  👍

[John Findlay]

4 minutes ago, Morgan said:

Scott ‘the thug’ Brown, targeting what was basically a wee boy, shows what an utter coward he is.

Morgan, a wee boy to most people, but he was on the Celtic Park pitch as a man, playing a man's game.

Brown was re- asserting his authority and letting Harry know who was the boss. It happens in professional football all the time.

Steven Naysmith got Brown back for it with his well placed foot to the gonads at Tynecastle.

Afterall Harry could have done McGinn serious damage at ER with that tackle, if he had we would all have applauded. The hypocrisy in the football supporter coming to the fore.

 

[kingantti1874]

What a waste. An undoubted talent

[Jim Panzee]

2 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

Morgan, a wee boy to most people, but he was on the Celtic Park pitch as a man, playing a man's game.

Brown was re- asserting his authority and letting Harry know who was the boss. It happens in professional football all the time.

Steven Naysmith got Brown back for it with his well placed foot to the gonads at Tynecastle.

Afterall Harry could have done McGinn serious damage at ER with that tackle, if he had we would all have applauded. The hypocrisy in the football supporter coming to the fore.

 

Have to agree.

 

have seen Scott brown operate off the pitch and he’s faultless. Extremely professional and great with young kids

 

on the pitch - he’s a hard nut. Another souness type.

 

it is what it is.

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, John Findlay said:

Morgan, a wee boy to most people, but he was on the Celtic Park pitch as a man, playing a man's game.

Brown was re- asserting his authority and letting Harry know who was the boss. It happens in professional football all the time.

Steven Naysmith got Brown back for it with his well placed foot to the gonads at Tynecastle.

Afterall Harry could have done McGinn serious damage at ER with that tackle, if he had we would all have applauded. The hypocrisy in the football supporter coming to the fore.

 

Hi John, 

 

why would Plug be ‘the boss’ over wee Harry?

 

That doesn’t make sense to me.  Two players from two different teams and, you think that one of them has the right to show the other who is ‘the boss’.

 

No hypocrisy from me, John.  Your Harry/McGinn comparison is a good one, I’ll grant you that, but it does not cloak the basic thuggery, and downright bullying that Brown displayed to a young man. 

 

 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

"when Brown collided with him challenging for the ball."

 

Who wrote this? A Celtic fan maybe? It's so far from the truth it's unreal. Didn't Brown even pretty much flag in advance he was going to get him back in the press, who tried to set up this young pretender vs the king battle. Pretty disgraceful all round.

 

Imagine if it had been a Hearts player deliberately putting Keiren Tierney out the game just after he started at 16/17? He'd have been hounded out the game by the media.

Edited June 4, 2021 by ToqueJambo

[sadj]

9 minutes ago, jonesy said:

Football is the one aspect of all our lives where we're allowed to be absolutely astounding hypocrites. As a Celtic fan, I loved seeing Brown dish it out to Cochrane after being humiliated by him and his team at Tynie. As it is, thankfully I'm not, and so wish nothing but ill on him while he plays.

 

Wonder where Cochrane will be playing next season - Championship?

 

 

😮😮😮😮 Jonesy 

[Morgan]

3 minutes ago, sadj said:

😮😮😮😮 Jonesy 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Morgan

[Tazio]

21 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

Have to agree.

 

have seen Scott brown operate off the pitch and he’s faultless. Extremely professional and great with young kids

 

on the pitch - he’s a hard nut. Another souness type.

 

it is what it is.

A Souness type? Souness was a hard ******* that took it as well as gave it out, though an absolute thug at times. Brown is a clown that acts the hard man and plays to the gallery of his adoring Celtic fans. I always think of the European game where Souness was targeted by the opponents due to a tackle in the first leg and Paisley wanted to leave him out as they were out to get him back. Souness said if they were doing that it would distract them from his teammates. And sure enough he got kicked senseless for the whole game. 

[Howdy Doody Jambo]

Why haven't we developed young players for years now? 

Harry never got a fair chance to develop at Hearts, all the best to the lad 

No but we go and sign the Martins and Damours on big wages and 4 year contracts, the club needs to be asking questions why we do this and our youth academy has failed big time 

[Jambo92]

Was our best midfielder for 6 months.

 

He seems to be getting a lot of PR for someone who's done very little in the game, to me that says there's not many offers on the table for him which is sad. 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

4 minutes ago, The Maroon Pound said:

Why haven't we developed young players for years now? 

Harry never got a fair chance to develop at Hearts, all the best to the lad 

No but we go and sign the Martins and Damours on big wages and 4 year contracts, the club needs to be asking questions why we do this and our youth academy has failed big time 

 

What are Aaron Hickey and Andy Irving, scotch mist? 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

7 minutes ago, Tazio said:

A Souness type? Souness was a hard ******* that took it as well as gave it out, though an absolute thug at times. Brown is a clown that acts the hard man and plays to the gallery of his adoring Celtic fans. I always think of the European game where Souness was targeted by the opponents due to a tackle in the first leg and Paisley wanted to leave him out as they were out to get him back. Souness said if they were doing that it would distract them from his teammates. And sure enough he got kicked senseless for the whole game. 

 

Yeah Souness was class. Hard but also a world class footballer. Unlike Brown, Souness proved his ability at the very top in 3 countries and internationally.

[sadj]

10 minutes ago, jonesy said:

Took me a moment to see you'd doctored my original post, you cheeky scamp.

 

Grrr  

😇

 

Hope all is well with you and yours

[Mikey1874]

49 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

Morgan, a wee boy to most people, but he was on the Celtic Park pitch as a man, playing a man's game.

Brown was re- asserting his authority and letting Harry know who was the boss. It happens in professional football all the time.

Steven Naysmith got Brown back for it with his well placed foot to the gonads at Tynecastle.

Afterall Harry could have done McGinn serious damage at ER with that tackle, if he had we would all have applauded. The hypocrisy in the football supporter coming to the fore.

 

 

Its a point of view. 

 

As someone who knows how to hurt people from being trained, and you being a man of experience, we both know there is a difference between playing hard and deliberately aiming to hurt someone. 

 

Brown is a coward. 

[Bongo 1874]

All the best young Harry, you were good enough to play for us, don't listen to SRB and the rest they don't know s**t. 

 

I will never forget the day you done what all supporters dream of scoring on you're debut, and against that manky lot too. 

 

Which ultimately ended the record 😁. 

 

All the best 👍. 

[Bongo 1874]

Cochrane is a player we failed, whether we like it or not, and has far more ability than brown could ever dream of, the Scott brown that was young and dynamic died when he left Hibs, and was turned into a right midfielder before going back to centre midfield, and even in his young years, Hartley and Le Juge owned his ass. 

 

Breiller a proper hard man that could play football, smashing that lego headed ****. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Bongo 1874

[Bob Loblaw]

Good luck Harry. Badly handled from us imo, but even if not I wish you the best.

[Diadora Van Basten]

The Man United documentary talks about how Alex Ferguson moved players on to create room for players coming through.

 

We have done the opposite packed the team with mediocre players and left no room for young players to break through.

 

I actually get more excited when we release players than when we sign players just now.

[Chaps]

8 hours ago, jonesy said:

 

and of course...

 

 

The stamp on from Naismith is f****** tremendous.

[Nookie Bear]

Nobody comes out of this story looking good tbh

 

We can ill afford not to bring on guys like Harry - they don’t all have to be superstars but certainly good enough to stop us spending money on squad fillers - and we also need to look at the motivation and habits of our kids to make sure they know what is required of them. It’s a two-way thing.

[King prawn]

10 hours ago, Morgan said:

Scott ‘the thug’ Brown, targeting what was basically a wee boy, shows what an utter coward he is.

It’s why I will always fondly remember Brellier for crocking the horrible git. 

[milky_26]

1 hour ago, Chaps said:

The stamp on from Naismith is f****** tremendous.

you mean the moment where naismith is just helping him find his baws

[King prawn]

10 hours ago, John Findlay said:

Morgan, a wee boy to most people, but he was on the Celtic Park pitch as a man, playing a man's game.

Brown was re- asserting his authority and letting Harry know who was the boss. It happens in professional football all the time.

Steven Naysmith got Brown back for it with his well placed foot to the gonads at Tynecastle.

Afterall Harry could have done McGinn serious damage at ER with that tackle, if he had we would all have applauded. The hypocrisy in the football supporter coming to the fore.

 

The thing which differs this situation from others is that Brown was a bully plain and simple. He never went in hard on someone he knew would be up for the battle which is why he deserved a lot worse for what he used to get away with, especially at Celtic Park.

[Howdy Doody Jambo]

9 hours ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

What are Aaron Hickey and Andy Irving, scotch mist? 

Get real, what has Irving done? 

Hickey we got from Celtic that's why we had to weigh them in with a hefty percentage of the transfer fee 

Youngsters barely ever come through Riccarton these day's and go on to have a first team career at Hearts or go on to a bigger club, very few improve when they get into the first team or hold down a regular place, We have just brought in etihs since Levein and Budge came on the scene, McGlynn and Locke were the last coaches to develop youth players at Tynecastle, effin Irving he's played half a dozen championship games and about 2 decent games at that 😂 

[Howdy Doody Jambo]

9 hours ago, Diadora Van Basten said:

The Man United documentary talks about how Alex Ferguson moved players on to create room for players coming through.

 

We have done the opposite packed the team with mediocre players and left no room for young players to break through.

 

I actually get more excited when we release players than when we sign players just now.

Exactly this there has been no pathway for the academy players to develop into the first team but a motorway for all the etihs of the day of Leveins doing 

[DH1986]

9 hours ago, Bongo 1874 said:

Cochrane is a player we failed, whether we like it or not, and has far more ability than brown could ever dream of, the Scott brown that was young and dynamic died when he left Hibs, and was turned into a right midfielder before going back to centre midfield, and even in his young years, Hartley and Le Juge owned his ass. 

 

Breiller a proper hard man that could play football, smashing that lego headed ****. 

Scott Brown was a better player than Brellier.....by a mile.

 

Its funny how Brellier is getting a pat on the back for sorting out a young Scott Brown but the same Scott Brown is getting grief for sorting out Cochrane.

Brellier was a journeyman who’s career was nothing much before us and even less after us.

 

 

 

 

[Savage Vince]

16 minutes ago, DH1986 said:

Scott Brown was a better player than Brellier.....by a mile.

 

Its funny how Brellier is getting a pat on the back for sorting out a young Scott Brown but the same Scott Brown is getting grief for sorting out Cochrane.

Brellier was a journeyman who’s career was nothing much before us and even less after us.

 

 

 

 

 

Good post. Never quite got the Brellier thing. 

 

Regards to Cochrane, good luck to the laddie. I do think his early success got to him a bit. 

[John Findlay]

10 hours ago, Morgan said:

Hi John, 

 

why would Plug be ‘the boss’ over wee Harry?

 

That doesn’t make sense to me.  Two players from two different teams and, you think that one of them has the right to show the other who is ‘the boss’.

 

No hypocrisy from me, John.  Your Harry/McGinn comparison is a good one, I’ll grant you that, but it does not cloak the basic thuggery, and downright bullying that Brown displayed to a young man. 

 

 

Morgan,

               I've always called Scott Brown a poor man's Graeme Souness. 

In Football when you are on the pitch, age doesnt matter, your manager/coach instructs you to boss your direct opponent, let him know he is in a game. Harry got the better of Brown in the first game at Tynecastle, Brown wasnt letting it happen a second time on his home patch. 

Further up the thread there is a video of Brellier, letting Brown know who is boss at Tynecastle. We lapped it up. Its football, especially professional football.

[DH1986]

1 minute ago, Savage Vince said:

 

Good post. Never quite got the Brellier thing. 

 

Regards to Cochrane, good luck to the laddie. I do think his early success got to him a bit. 

Brellier was the perfect spoiler for the players around him in 05/06.....once the ball players moved on he was less influential and his lack of actual ability was evident.

 

Cochrane should have been a star......I hope he can resurrect his career and get back on track.

[upgotheheads]

2 hours ago, John Findlay said:

Morgan,

               I've always called Scott Brown a poor man's Graeme Souness. 

In Football when you are on the pitch, age doesnt matter, your manager/coach instructs you to boss your direct opponent, let him know he is in a game. Harry got the better of Brown in the first game at Tynecastle, Brown wasnt letting it happen a second time on his home patch. 

Further up the thread there is a video of Brellier, letting Brown know who is boss at Tynecastle. We lapped it up. Its football, especially professional football.

 

Your dead right, however the tackle on Cochrane by Brown would have been a foul at any other game or against any other non arse-cheek player in Scotland. As play went up the park as I watched I was just waiting for the whistle which never came. Celtic scored directly from that I think, and Cochrane went off with a broken collar bone and his career never got back on track.

Whether that was solely down to the Brown tackle is impossible to say, it could be that the best players need to have the ability to come back from things like that. 

[davemclaren]

Just now, upgotheheads said:

 

Your dead right, however the tackle on Cochrane by Brown would have been a foul at any other game or against any other non arse-cheek player in Scotland. As play went up the park as I watched I was just waiting for the whistle which never came. Celtic scored directly from that I think, and Cochrane went off with a broken collar bone and his career never got back on track.

Whether that was solely down to the Brown tackle is impossible to say, it could be that the best players need to have the ability to come back from things like that. 

Will be interesting to see if Brown gets the same protection as a sheep player.  Meh. 

[Last Laff]

All the best to him. Nearly ruined his career.

[Cruyff]

Good luck to Harry, really hope he can fulfil his talent elsewhere. 

[rudi must stay]

3 hours ago, King prawn said:

It’s why I will always fondly remember Brellier for crocking the horrible git. 

 

Football in general : remembers players for beautiful passes and goals 

 

Scottish football : remembers a player more for cropping a guy and being hard 

 

And that's why our game is where it is. Teams fill their teams with thugs who the fans will take to 

[King prawn]

16 minutes ago, rudi must stay said:

 

Football in general : remembers players for beautiful passes and goals 

 

Scottish football : remembers a player more for cropping a guy and being hard 

 

And that's why our game is where it is. Teams fill their teams with thugs who the fans will take to 

In my defence I don’t remember Brellier doing anything else - I was just giving a reason as to why I liked him. 
 

My “best Hearts XI” wouldn’t include a single “thug.” 

[King prawn]

26 minutes ago, Cruyff said:

Good luck to Harry, really hope he can fulfil his talent elsewhere. 

I think he’d be better suited to playing in the Netherlands or Spain but I’m not sure he’d leave Scotland. 

[Cruyff]

1 minute ago, King prawn said:

I think he’d be better suited to playing in the Netherlands or Spain but I’m not sure he’d leave Scotland. 

Probably, as long as he's getting games, that's all that should matter. 

[Siphiwe Tshabalala]

Sadly there will be more Harry Cochrane type stories while our current manager and sporting director are in place.