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Donald Ford


Howdy Doody Jambo

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Howdy Doody Jambo

Naw we've no just signed him although maybe he would still bang  them in the back of the net. I never seen him play and I am curious of the type of player he was as clearly being a great club servant during the 60s & early 70s 

How would you rate him alongside Robertson, Bauld etc

Edited by The Maroon Pound
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Horatio Caine

DF was a superb striker (or centre forward as it was called).  Like Robbo, you always expected him to score.  Always wore the number 9 shirt.  A very honest footballer and (I think this is correct) was never booked!

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He was booked v Partick, threw the ball to the referee but it was windy so ref booked him, I was there.

71 or 72 I think.

Edited by Turkishcap
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Donald was a great player, always on the move. Just a pity about his colleagues. Another Jambo who never got a fair crack at the international team

 

 

 

 

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scored 32 goals one season playing with a bunch of pish, 73 i think got him to world cup in 74.

 

seem to remember him out jumping mike england, might have been centenary game against spurs

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I remember his hat trick of penalties against Morton.  Donald and Cruickie were my heroes when I first started going to games.

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AllyjamboDerbyshire

In a team that never came close to winning anything other than the Texaco Cup (he played in the final against Wolves), Donald Ford consistently scored goals and his tally would have been much higher if he'd played in the team Robbo played in, though I doubt he'd have been a regular in Willie Bauld's Hearts team. As Horatio correctly said above, he was never booked, having the one ridiculous booking, against St Johnstone, quashed on review. He was fast and, from memory, played a few games on the right wing. Stopped from coming on against Zair in '74 World Cup Finals thanks to Billy Bremner over-ruling manager Willie Ormond (source, DF himself) at half-time. One of my all-time favourite Hearts players.

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1 minute ago, AllyjamboDerbyshire said:

In a team that never came close to winning anything other than the Texaco Cup (he played in the final against Wolves), Donald Ford consistently scored goals and his tally would have been much higher if he'd played in the team Robbo played in, though I doubt he'd have been a regular in Willie Bauld's Hearts team. As Horatio correctly said above, he was never booked, having the one ridiculous booking, against St Johnstone, quashed on review. He was fast and, from memory, played a few games on the right wing. Stopped from coming on against Zair in '74 World Cup Finals thanks to Billy Bremner over-ruling manager Willie Ormond (source, DF himself) at half-time. One of my all-time favourite Hearts players.

he was competing against denis law and joe jordan for a place in the scotland team so he wasn't far of that class of player

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20 minutes ago, The Maroon Pound said:

Naw we've no just signed him although maybe he would still bang  them in the back of the net. I never seen him play and I am curious of the type of player he was as clearly being a great club servant during the 60s & early 70s 

How would you rate him alongside Robertson, Bauld etc

 

He made the Scotland 1974 World Cup squad - that's how good he was.

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Howdy Doody Jambo
3 minutes ago, AllyjamboDerbyshire said:

In a team that never came close to winning anything other than the Texaco Cup (he played in the final against Wolves), Donald Ford consistently scored goals and his tally would have been much higher if he'd played in the team Robbo played in, though I doubt he'd have been a regular in Willie Bauld's Hearts team. As Horatio correctly said above, he was never booked, having the one ridiculous booking, against St Johnstone, quashed on review. He was fast and, from memory, played a few games on the right wing. Stopped from coming on against Zair in '74 World Cup Finals thanks to Billy Bremner over-ruling manager Willie Ormond (source, DF himself) at half-time. One of my all-time favourite Hearts players.

That's interesting that Bremner may well have cost Scotland qualifying out of the group 

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Donald and Jim Cruickshank were my first Hearts heroes. Ford was always a 100% committed player, decent in the air and reasonably fast. He was top goal scorer for us almost every year he played, usually with less than ten goals as we were not great in these days. His best year was 73/74 when he hit 30 goals in all competitions and made the 1974 Scotland World Cup squad although he didn’t play in any of the 3 games. He didn’t play much for us after that, I’m sure he signed for Falkirk and had to quit not long after because of a knee injury.

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AllyjamboDerbyshire
Just now, reaths17 said:

he was competing against denis law and joe jordan for a place in the scotland team so he wasn't far of that class of player

He was stripped to go on at half-time to replace Dennis Law but Bremner told Ormond to forget it and leave a struggling Law on the field, saying to hold what we have (a 2-0 lead) rather than go for more goals. Ford was fast, Law was slow and had nothing left in the tank, and the Zair defence were struggling, so putting on Ford was an obvious change, but, as history shows, we scored no more and eventually went out by one goal on goal-difference.

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jambo-in-furness

🎵Donald Ford,  Donald Ford,  give us a goal,  give us a goal🎶
 

Donald Ford give us a goal, a goal, a goal🎵

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5 minutes ago, The Maroon Pound said:

That's interesting that Bremner may well have cost Scotland qualifying out of the group 

 

His sitter against Brazil certainly did.

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AllyjamboDerbyshire
4 minutes ago, The Maroon Pound said:

That's interesting that Bremner may well have cost Scotland qualifying out of the group 

Was never reported in the media, and I only heard about it from Ford, himself, at a smoker where he gave a talk not all that long after. He was a very good speaker, too.

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law was almost finished in 74, he should never have played before Ford, it was a travesty that he was picked over Ford, no matter how good Law used to be.

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Great player.

 

Quite wee but floated like a butterfly in the air and was a superb header of the ball.

 

His hair was always immaculate and he was a Chartered accountant in Linlithgow I think.

 

There was a song that ended with 'Donald is the King: which would be frowned upon nowadays.

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, sandylejambo said:

law was almost finished in 74, he should never have played before Ford, it was a travesty that he was picked over Ford, no matter how good Law used to be.

Yes, Law was selected purely our of sentimentality

 

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StevenNaismith

Donald Ford is one of my favourite Hearts players of all time and played a key role in the early days of the Foundation of Hearts. 

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SectionDJambo
23 minutes ago, Turkishcap said:

He was booked v Partick, threw the ball to the referee but it was windy so ref booked him, I was there.

71 or 72 I think.

I think his only brush with a referee in his career. The referee got dog’s abuse from us for it.

He played cricket and football for Scotland.

A great player for us at a bad time for Hearts. He had a great understanding with Jim Townsend and then Tommy Murray. A fair turn of speed and scored quite a few important goals. 
His movement off the ball would cause defenders of today problems.

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13 minutes ago, baron of ness said:

Also played cricket for Scotland. 

'Wielded a nifty bat for West Lothian' l remember one report saying

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5 minutes ago, Morgan said:

Great player.

 

Quite wee but floated like a butterfly in the air and was a superb header of the ball.

 

His hair was always immaculate and he was a Chartered accountant in Linlithgow I think.

 

There was a song that ended with 'Donald is the King: which would be frowned upon nowadays.

 

 

 

Correct Morgan he was a CA.

Now has his own photography business, think he specialises in Scottish and golf scenery.

Top player, and honest as the day is long, no diving for Donald

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A great servant to Hearts. That goal against Rangers in the QF replay at Tynecastle - superb. He should really have played in the 74 World Cup. Scandalous that he was never selected.

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Donald Ford was a great wee player and a good servant to Hearts. Bad car accident more or less ended his career at Hearts. Always felt that Willie Gibson got a hard time trying to follow on from Ford. Gibson could score, but he was no where near the class of Ford.....FWIW....He should have played ahead of a well past it Law at WC in 1974  

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Donald Ford, Alan Anderson and Jim Cruickshank were the quality spine in an otherwise very poor time for Hearts, the team then were really quite dismal, so bad that a crowd of over 10,000 was a very rare occurrence. He was a real Hearts man, always gave everything and could certainly score goals without a lot of help from anyone else (which was just as well). Good in the air as well as on the ground, remember him seeing off Celtic at Parkhead on one of the few occasions the team around him sparked into life, especially remember his headed goal in that game, majestic. One of my first hero's. If he had a weakness for the modern game it is probably his slim build though his speed did seem to compensate back then. Only ever got one booking in his career I believe, a controversial throwing the ball to a referee who wasn't looking at the time.

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SectionDJambo
1 minute ago, Hashimoto said:

Donald Ford was a great wee player and a good servant to Hearts. Bad car accident more or less ended his career at Hearts. Always felt that Willie Gibson got a hard time trying to follow on from Ford. Gibson could score, but he was no where near the class of Ford.....FWIW....He should have played ahead of a well past it Law at WC in 1974  

Willie Gibson has a pretty impressive goal scoring record with Hearts. You’re right though. He was never really appreciated by the fans. Strange.

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One of our greatest ever players. I had to endure the 70s but Donald and Jim Cruickshank were shining lights. 

 

My brother and I used take turn about and be either one of them when playing football at our "scheme" 😅

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One of my first heroes too. Abiding memory of him is the only goal in the Scottish Cup 1/4 final versus Rangers (sadly now defunct) in 1968. 

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17 minutes ago, sandylejambo said:

law was almost finished in 74, he should never have played before Ford, it was a travesty that he was picked over Ford, no matter how good Law used to be.

Absolutely. I was gutted when Donald didn't play as was my favourite Hearts player at the time. 

 

Felt a little sorry for Willie Gibson who replaced Donald at HMFC. Couldn't quite take to him the same although I did meet him and let him know that he didn't miss penalty(I was fairly sure!)for us. Nice guy too, worked for a wallpaper company whom I dealt with.

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22 minutes ago, Morgan said:

Great player.

 

Quite wee but floated like a butterfly in the air and was a superb header of the ball.

 

His hair was always immaculate and he was a Chartered accountant in Linlithgow I think.

 

There was a song that ended with 'Donald is the King: which would be frowned upon nowadays.

 

 

 

One of my first heroes. Great player. You're so right about that song. Would make headline type news if sung today. Not just 20/30 youngsters singing either, literally hundreds of fans, usually at away games.

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9 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

I think his only brush with a referee in his career. The referee got dog’s abuse from us for it.

He played cricket and football for Scotland.

A great player for us at a bad time for Hearts. He had a great understanding with Jim Townsend and then Tommy Murray. A fair turn of speed and scored quite a few important goals. 
His movement off the ball would cause defenders of today problems.

A very good football player - quick and intelligent with an eye for goal. Quite a late developer and I'm not sure that he would have made it to the top level as the game works now.

 

My recollection is that the booking was subsequently rescinded with Donald's good reputation carrying the day. I was at the game and cricketer Ford "bowled" the ball towards the referee in a manner that did seem to have an element of dissent about it.

 

I'm not convinced that he won a cricket cap despite getting very close to that distinction. I have the feeling that his father and\or a brother did do so.   

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14 minutes ago, Musemic said:

One of my first heroes too. Abiding memory of him is the only goal in the Scottish Cup 1/4 final versus Rangers (sadly now defunct) in 1968. 

I was there. Place was packed. Remember hugging my mate and shouting "we've won the cup" because couldn't see any of the teams left beating us. Final  Hearts 1 Dunfermline 3.   Gas on low peep.

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As most have mentioned above, Donald was quite lightweight but had the heart of a lion as well as good skill.  He played cricket too - his brother Malcolm was the better cricketer, and Donald was at Hearts for a couple of years as an amateur before he  signed professionally.   I think he wanted to finish his accountancy  degree first (a bit like Alan Gordon who was also a CA).

 

It was just a shame that Hearts were poor for most of his time with us, but the arrival of Drew Busby in 73 helped Donald a lot.

 

After we signed Tommy Murray, the 2 of them car-shared each day to training from the Linlithgow area.  Not sure who was driving, but they were involved in a crash - I think Donald came off worse than Tommy (could be wrong about that). He did then get a knee injury while playing. Ended up at Falkirk for a season.

 

He ran a gift shop in South Queensferry for many years, and now lives up near Dundee I think.   His involvement with getting FoH started should never be forgotten.  A PHM is ever there was one.  :notworthy:

 

I liked Willie Gibson - he took ridiculous amount of stick from the fans, mainly because he was also lightweight and  had a lazy-looking  running style, but that made his goal tally all the more remarkable.    

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Donald wasn't just a great player, he was a big help to both Save Our Hearts and the Foundation, where he was a Director.

 

I was at a meeting with Donald & George Foulkes when& he was Chairman - turns out they both had radio shows on Radio Forth back in the day - bizarre! Anyway, Donald was adamant that we absolutely did not have to leave Tynecastle and put his point pretty forcefully to George.

 

Thankfully, Donald was right!

 

Lovely man as well.

Edited by iainmac
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The Goalscoring Knee

Put the wind up me for a sec with the subject line.

One of my very favourite Hearts men.

A very fine player, a very thoughtful footballer and an absolute gent on and off the park. Always seemed to take absolute joy in his goals too.

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8 minutes ago, sirwalter said:

A very good football player - quick and intelligent with an eye for goal. Quite a late developer and I'm not sure that he would have made it to the top level as the game works now.

 

My recollection is that the booking was subsequently rescinded with Donald's good reputation carrying the day. I was at the game and cricketer Ford "bowled" the ball towards the referee in a manner that did seem to have an element of dissent about it.

 

I'm not convinced that he won a cricket cap despite getting very close to that distinction. I have the feeling that his father and\or a brother did do so.   

Think you are correct - very very close though

"Ford was an all-round sportsman and, as well as playing professional football, he was also a competent cricketer. During his footballing years, he regularly played for the West Lothian County side during the summer off-season. Ford's cricket career outlasted his footballing one, and so he was able to devote more time to it in his veteran years, captaining West Lothian for 3 seasons in his mid-thirties. His undoubted cricketing highlight was selection in the first Scotland squad for the Benson & Hedges Cup, in 1980."

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1 hour ago, Turkishcap said:

He was booked v Partick, threw the ball to the referee but it was windy so ref booked him, I was there.

71 or 72 I think.

I was there and pretty sure it was his only ever booking. 

Donald was my first hero, even named my first car Donald 

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1 minute ago, XB52 said:

I was there and pretty sure it was his only ever booking. 

Donald was my first hero, even named my first car Donald 

Me too.

I remember the outrage amongst the fans was unreal, as they knew Donald would never deliberately do that.He bowled it back to the ref, who wasn't looking and it hit him.

He always used to run and get the ball if it had been kicked away

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7 minutes ago, Factuer Moi said:

 

Fantastic memories there. Yon pillars in the Main Stand used to really annoy me 😂

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After Willie Wallace left for Celtic Fordy had to step up - and he did. I think he was top scorer every year after that till he left for Falkirk. I remember he scored for Falkirk in both legs of the League Cup QF (we won 7-5) but refused to celebrate either time 😄.

 

He was so fast but also timed his jumps so well, for me best shown by his header at Ibrox for the only goal when Tommy Murrat sat on the ball. Murray and he combined well at the time then, of course, Busby came along. Only missed one penalty but was great as it is hard to score 3 in a game when the goali has watched you twice before (v Morton). Willie Gibson took over but was only better with penalties (never missed one in his whole career)/

 

After Fordy left the sad decline into the yo-yo years started....

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Just now, Boy Daniel said:

Fantastic memories there. Yon pillars in the Main Stand used to really annoy me 😂

I was in the Old stand a few times, only a couple of times up top though. I remember the pillars and craning my neck to see round them. Was around 10 years old back then.

It was noisy too, a mini Shed.

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The Goalscoring Knee
2 minutes ago, JTJ said:

Willie Gibson took over but was only better with penalties (never missed one in his whole career)/

I liked Gibson as well as Ford. Never understood why so many folk took agin him. At a time when we were starting to really hit the skids, he scored an extraordinary number of goals

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Memory tells me his debut was at firhill where he scored a great 20 yarder from the inside right position . I was at the game but I could easily be wrong 

As someone already mentioned scored winner against Der hun in SC replay at Tynecastle 

Always remember after drawing at ibrox press was full of 'rangers don't lose replays' articles 

 

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jambos are go!

I remember him scoring a h at trick at Pittodri e when we came back to win after being two down to win at half time.

Another memory is when he chased a lost cause that looked certain to be going out for a throw at Motherwell. The entire Well defence stopped and he just caught it and  got to the by line and cutback it back for Eric Carruthers to side foot in.t

 

 For a couple of seasons he was the man in a one  man team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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