Hearts 1 - 0 Clydebank - 26th April 1986

[jr ewing]

13 minutes ago, samgolden said:

I think the game that mattered was the game vAberdeen 1-1 when I think a Jim Bett Handled the ball in our box but Valentine gave them the pen  does anyone agree 

No should have been 4-0 against Clydebank which would have won us the league. 

[martoon]

8 minutes ago, jr ewing said:

No should have been 4-0 against Clydebank which would have won us the league. 

 

St. Mirren would still have conceded the necessary. 

 

Convinced of it.

[HMFC 86]

13 minutes ago, gator said:

It was almost like a sense of relief when he scored after so many being saved or missed, it almost seemed like it wasn't going to be our day and as you say the worry was they would score on the break! It was a great goal, I still have the Pink from that match! 

 

It was a sense of relief, but I didn't remember we scored that goal as early as the 34th minute, shows how nervous we were and our levels of expectation, based on the run we had

[gorgie rd eh11]

Bringing up an 1986 thread. 

[gator]

4 minutes ago, martoon said:

 

St. Mirren would still have conceded the necessary. 

 

Convinced of it.

I am not gonna disagree with that, it would have highlighted the corruption in Scottish football even more but when did that ever matter as we are currently seeing!

[tcjambo]

On 07/01/2011 at 09:39, Coco said:

One of my favourite Gary Mackay goals. Though he was really helped with the final bobble making the ball sit up.

 

It was such a shame when his confidence for going forward like that was destroyed by Joe Jordan making him play as a wing back. Gary had fantastic ability to burst into the box when he was younger.

Great player for us in the first half of his career. I agree never reached that level and seemed to score fewer goals in the 90s than the 80s.

[Hectormasson]

14 minutes ago, jr ewing said:

No should have been 4-0 against Clydebank which would have won us the league. 

Hearts were totally shit against clydebank that afternoon , clydebank had a lot of the play , but mackays goal was a beauty,   seemed the nerves were setting in   as clydebank were shit that season?       Saying that we couldn't beat them at old kilbowie      0-1      & a 1-1 ,late clarke equliser .

 

[gator]

4 minutes ago, gorgie rd eh11 said:

Bringing up an 1986 thread. 

This day will always be remembered by me, my first Hearts match, my son's birthday and Chernobyl! I look back at it with a big smile, thinking about walking to the stadium that day, all of the anticipation, yes it was a missed opportunity but we did win the match and some things (St' Rollover) are beyond our control!

[SwindonJambo]

34 years ago, yikes! I was there. A nervous performance, won by a fantastic goal by one of the star performers of that season. I remember it being a sunny day and a bunch of maroon and white balloons released from the school end  when the teams came out.

[Jamhammer]

I'll always think it was the draw with Aberdeen that really cost us. A soft as shite penalty for them too. Nothing really changes

[a11ank]

As others have said, this is the game we could have wrapped up the title.  We were crap and scaped a 1-0 victory!

 

I don't think Frank McGarvey would have been doing cartwheels on the last day of the season, if we had won 4-0 against Clydebank!!

 

The nerves had set in long before Dens😬

[SwindonJambo]

1 minute ago, Jamhammer said:

I'll always think it was the draw with Aberdeen that really cost us. A soft as shite penalty for them too. Nothing really changes

 

We were very poor that day and were lucky to get a draw even though their pen, awarded by Willie Miller, was outrageous . In reality you could blame any of the 10 games we drew or 6 games we lost.

[Baldwigforjack]

My earliest memory of being at Tynecastle, although I definetely had been to lots of games before that.

[soonbe110]

On 07/01/2011 at 00:20, Fozzyonthefence said:

Another perhaps forgotten about match by many that cost us the title. Had we pumped the already relegated Bankies that last game wouldn't have mattered as the goal difference would have been too much for Celtic (or a more spectacular lie down would have been required).

👍 Been arguing that point on here  for as long as I can remember. 3/4-0 and the title party would have been at tynie that night. 

[soonbe110]

On 07/01/2011 at 22:55, Silvery_Moon said:

yeah I was at that. We were losing till late on IIRC.

JC equalised. One of the few live tv matches in those days

  

[Jamhammer]

13 minutes ago, SwindonJambo said:

 

We were very poor that day and were lucky to get a draw even though their pen, awarded by Willie Miller, was outrageous . In reality you could blame any of the 10 games we drew or 6 games we lost.

I dunno why this one always hurts me more though. I really enjoyed the bouncy when JC equalised. When we beat Dundee Utd, who were our closest challengers up there I thought we'd won it

[Skippy Doodle]

 

[Forever Hearts]

53 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

JC equalised. One of the few live tv matches in those days

  

Was it not the first ever Scottish televised league game? 

[soonbe110]

Just now, Forever Hearts said:

Was it not the first ever Scottish televised league game? 

I was going to say that but then thought maybe I was mistaken. It was a Sunday afternoon irc 

[SwindonJambo]

52 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

JC equalised. One of the few live tv matches in those days

  

 

It was the 1st league match ever shown live in Scotland. It was supposed to be an OF game the previous November but a TV dispute followed and there was no Scottish football on TV at all between November 85 and April 86. Attendances rose but most of our great 85/86 games have no film footage at all unfortunately.

[Bankiestu]

Clydebank did well against Hearts that season. 1-0 to the Bankies at Kilbowie which I believe was the last game you lost before your unbeaten run started. The second game at Kilbowie was a real let off for you as well. The Bankies played virtually the whole second half with 10 men and then took the lead. Sandy Clark equalised at the Bankies Club end with four minutes to go and he was a mile offside. I have to say I was devastated for you not winning the league that year and remember well the game at Tynecastle when the Clydebank fans were shoved in the top corner of the main stand and it took a wonder goal to win it. I think the ball took a wee bobble before MacKay hit it and that's what made it fly into the net.

[East Lothian Jambo]

Few mentions for Gerry McCabe. He was a good player who should've played at a higher level than he did 

 

Was a very nervy display that day 

 

 

[Back to 2005]

3 hours ago, martoon said:

Happy with the win that day and, naïvely (I was only 17, nearly 18), believed the title was won and just needed clinching.

 

Iirc, we were on course at half time that afternoon as Celtic were being held 0-0. That is just from memory so may not be accurate.

 

Haven't watched the link posted but did watch the highlights a few months back. A bit painful.

 

PS I checked. It was Celtic 0-0 Dundee at half time. Celtic won 2-0 but Mo Johnston only clinched it with the 2nd with 5 minutes left. We really were close to it that day.

Celtic had to play Motherwell midweek and again I think they won 2-0. Wasn't too bothered as we seemed invincible then. Oh the naivety of youth....

[Back to 2005]

19 minutes ago, SwindonJambo said:

 

It was the 1st league match ever shown live in Scotland. It was supposed to be an OF game the previous November but a TV dispute followed and there was no Scottish football on TV at all between November 85 and April 86. Attendances rose but most of our great 85/86 games have no film footage at all unfortunately.

So many games I would love to see again. Rangers in the cup, the late winner at pittodrie, wee team on new years day, Motherwell in a blizzard! 

[queensferryjambo]

30 minutes ago, Back to 2005 said:

So many games I would love to see again. Rangers in the cup, the late winner at pittodrie, wee team on new years day, Motherwell in a blizzard! 

 

Wins at Parkhead, Ibrox and Pittodrie as well.  

[Skippy Doodle]

Apologies. I do not have a lot from that season 

 

 

[Worthing Jambo]

1 minute ago, Skippy Doodle said:

Apologies. I do not have a lot from that season 

 

 

There wasn’t much but I have tapes showing the  ten o’clock news sports updates and a few of the Sportscene and Scotsport highlights shows.

I have the full cup final as well.

Whether there is anything still on the tapes is another matter.

34 years, were has that gone!

 

[cookieboy]

So many games that could be "the one" that cost us the title. I still say Goughs equaliser in the 97th minute at Tannadice was the one .

[Hectormasson]

On 07/01/2011 at 00:20, Walter Bishop said:

Must have been around 25,000 there!!

Said attendance 20.195.        Seemed a lot more than that ???

[john1965]

I had given but smoking in 1980 when my son was born but was so nervous that day I took a fag of my brother and it took me another 3 years to stop smoking again

[martoon]

2 hours ago, Back to 2005 said:

Celtic had to play Motherwell midweek and again I think they won 2-0. Wasn't too bothered as we seemed invincible then. Oh the naivety of youth....

 

True, bud. 

 

I recall tuning into the radio that night to hear the full time result and thought "So feckin what? It will make Saturday even better when we clinch it ourselves".

 

Still one of my favourite ever seasons. The pigshit thick Hibby will never understand that.That's why they still squeal with joy about the, for them, cheap victory that is Albert Kidd etc. 

 

 

[Thomaso]

On 07/01/2011 at 09:56, Ferris Bueller said:

22 thousand ....where are they all now ( well at least a small % of them as some maybe dead sadly and not all would fit inside tynie now anyway )

 

So as delia smith once said ! ! (not to us of course ) where are you ? ?

22,000 turned up to potentially watch Hearts win the title - do you expect that attendance every game at Tynecastle?

[Thomaso]

5 hours ago, martoon said:

Happy with the win that day and, naïvely (I was only 17, nearly 18), believed the title was won and just needed clinching.

 

Iirc, we were on course at half time that afternoon as Celtic were being held 0-0. That is just from memory so may not be accurate.

 

Haven't watched the link posted but did watch the highlights a few months back. A bit painful.

 

PS I checked. It was Celtic 0-0 Dundee at half time. Celtic won 2-0 but Mo Johnston only clinched it with the 2nd with 5 minutes left. We really were close to it that day.

It was 0-0 until Dundee got a man sent off!

[Kiwidoug]

I was disappointed with our home performances against Aberdeen and Clydebank.

 

Nerves, fatigue, I don't know but we were poor in both games.  At that business end of the season, with Celtic in hot pursuit, they unquestionably cost us the league imo.

[bigcoll]

6 hours ago, Gashauskis9 said:

Same day as Chernobyl.  Should have called all the leagues that night 👍

Closer to the mark then you realise. Didn't realize at the time what an existential threat it was until watching 'chernobyl'.   about 2 Hiroshima bombs a day for 30 days. Clearly we should have been self isolating with newspapers stuck to windows. And if we were top at the time we were clear winners 🤔🤔

[martoon]

47 minutes ago, Cruickshank for Scotland said:

It was 0-0 until Dundee got a man sent off!

 

Didn't know that, Cruickie. 

[Kiwidoug]

50 minutes ago, Cruickshank for Scotland said:

It was 0-0 until Dundee got a man sent off!

Can you remember why he was sent off?  Wearing the wrong coloured jersey perhaps?

[Anonymous benefactor]

What year did Clydebank go out of existence or leave league (think there`s a revived version in lower league)? Was this the last time they visited Tynecastle?

34 years ago. A long time ago. Surprised so many remember.

[Thomaso]

20 minutes ago, Anonymous benefactor said:

What year did Clydebank go out of existence or leave league (think there`s a revived version in lower league)? Was this the last time they visited Tynecastle?

34 years ago. A long time ago. Surprised so many remember.

That game and that season is etched in my brain.

[Thomaso]

1 hour ago, Kiwidoug said:

I was disappointed with our home performances against Aberdeen and Clydebank.

 

Nerves, fatigue, I don't know but we were poor in both games.  At that business end of the season, with Celtic in hot pursuit, they unquestionably cost us the league imo.

I still don’t think Jardine intentionally handled the ball - unfortunately Willie Miller didn’t agree!

[Morgan]

1 hour ago, Cruickshank for Scotland said:

It was 0-0 until Dundee got a man sent off!

Jesus, I’d forgotten all about that.   

[Guest ToqueJambo]

5 hours ago, Jamhammer said:

I dunno why this one always hurts me more though. I really enjoyed the bouncy when JC equalised. When we beat Dundee Utd, who were our closest challengers up there I thought we'd won it

 

This. Dundee Utd was a huge win. They'd only lost 1 game in their previous 20 odd games and were dishing out 4 or 5 goal humpings all over the shop. No-one was really talking about Celtic. Even Aberdeen seemed like bigger challengers.

 

Hard to believe now, but it was still really a 4 horse race in early April, with Celtic arguably 4th favourites.

 

Before the Aberdeen draw (which felt like the kind of late draw champions get) we'd scored 3 goals in each of our previous 3 games. The nerves set in big time for everyone after D Utd as everyone realised we could actually do it. Before then no-one - including Doddie and the players - had really talked about actually winning the thing as I remember it. I seem to remember we were suddenly title favourites and maybe they did talk about it as a possibility a bit. I was at the Aberdeen and Clydebank games and you could really feel the tension. It was horrible.

 

On the other hand, the pressure was massively off Celtic. They just kept plugging away. Aberdeen and D utd lost crucial games and all of a sudden they went from 4th favourites to 2nd favourites. St Mirren did them a favour on the last day while we lost in very unfortunate circumstances and that was that. It was hard to get enthusiastic about football again after that and the cup final.

Edited April 26, 2020 by ToqueJambo

[Anonymous benefactor]

On 07/01/2011 at 01:20, Fozzyonthefence said:

Another perhaps forgotten about match by many that cost us the title. Had we pumped the already relegated Bankies that last game wouldn't have mattered as the goal difference would have been too much for Celtic (or a more spectacular lie down would have been required).

Getting horsed 6-2 at Paisley didn`t help the goal difference much either.

[awadooningorgie2]

23 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

This. Dundee Utd was a huge win. They'd only lost 1 game in their previous 20 odd games and were dishing out 4 or 5 goal humpings all over the shop. No-one was really talking about Celtic. Even Aberdeen seemed like bigger challengers.

 

Hard to believe now, but it was still really a 4 horse race in early April, with Celtic arguably 4th favourites.

 

Before the Aberdeen draw (which felt like the kind of late draw champions get) we'd scored 3 goals in each of our previous 3 games. The nerves set in big time for everyone after D Utd as everyone realised we could actually do it. Before then no-one - including Doddie and the players - had really talked about actually winning the thing as I remember it. I seem to remember we were suddenly title favourites and maybe they did talk about it as a possibility a bit. I was at the Aberdeen and Clydebank games and you could really feel the tension. It was horrible.

 

On the other hand, the pressure was massively off Celtic. They just kept plugging away. Aberdeen and D utd lost crucial games and all of a sudden they went from 4th favourites to 2nd favourites. St Mirren did them a favour on the last day while we lost in very unfortunate circumstances and that was that. It was hard to get enthusiastic about football again after that and the cup final.

Very well summed up ToqueJambo. I wonder if the spectacular performance at Tannadice put too much pressure on us.

The Aberdeen game was tense however they were a bloody good side. The Clydebank game was just weird. It did feel like what you need to do to win a  championship - don't play well but get the points.

 

As mentioned above, I recall being slightly happy that Celtic won midweek so we could actually be there and see Hearts win the league. 31 games unbeaten you just couldn't see us losing. 

 

Here's hoping there is some levelling out in society and football and some future generations can witness the same thrill.

 

From November onwards it was extraordinary. Motherwell in the snow, as mentioned above, we went top I recall. Then there were World Cup play off games against Australia so we played a lot more games than other clubs with players on duty so kept momentum. Injuries were minimal funnily enough............ 

 

 

 

 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

15 minutes ago, awadooningorgie2 said:

Very well summed up ToqueJambo. I wonder if the spectacular performance at Tannadice put too much pressure on us.

The Aberdeen game was tense however they were a bloody good side. The Clydebank game was just weird. It did feel like what you need to do to win a  championship - don't play well but get the points.

 

As mentioned above, I recall being slightly happy that Celtic won midweek so we could actually be there and see Hearts win the league. 31 games unbeaten you just couldn't see us losing. 

 

Here's hoping there is some levelling out in society and football and some future generations can witness the same thrill.

 

From November onwards it was extraordinary. Motherwell in the snow, as mentioned above, we went top I recall. Then there were World Cup play off games against Australia so we played a lot more games than other clubs with players on duty so kept momentum. Injuries were minimal funnily enough............ 

 

 

 

 

 

We probably used about 14 or 15 players. Outwith what became the main first XI that season, Jardine, Cowie and MacDonald were very good subs and stand-ins, but all we had in reserve after those 3 were Colin McAdam (was Andy Watson with us that year too? Possibly, unfortunately)  and some youngsters in Murray, Sandison and McNaughton I think. Injuries even close to what we had the last couple of seasons would probably have seen us finish at the other end of the table that season! That might be why Levein was a disciple of the pre season sand dunes method of training as they did it under Doddie.

Edited April 26, 2020 by ToqueJambo

[gator]

I really thought after that season we would kick on and challenge for titles on a regular bases, IIRC Rangers dished out some huge cash to sign a bunch of stars from England (Terry Butcher, Mark Hately) and went on a streak, little did I know no team outside of the Old Firm is likely to win the title in my lifetime unless things change drastically! It has been brought up in other threads perhaps we will see some big changes now with the reshuffling of football!

[J.T.F.Robertson]

2 hours ago, Kiwidoug said:

I was disappointed in our home performances against Aberdeen and Clydebank.

 

Nerves, fatigue, I don't know but we were poor in both games.  At that business end of the season, with Celtic in hot pursuit, they unquestionably cost us the league imo.

 

Those were my first two games after getting home and I felt a bit like that. We'd been sweeping all before us up to that point and I started to feel it might be me. Then came Dens followed by the final and by that time I knew it was.

 

 

[gator]

1 minute ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

Those were my first two games after getting home and I felt a bit like that. We'd been sweeping all before us up to that point and I started to feel it might be me. Then came Dens followed by the final and by that time I knew it was.

 

 

I hope you don't visit Tynecastle often! 😀

[J.T.F.Robertson]

17 minutes ago, gator said:

I hope you don't visit Tynecastle often! 😀

 

Go home every year, 'tho with all that's going on just now ...... 

Knew after Dundee the final was basically a write-off btw, think most of us did.

 

[Anonymous benefactor]

36 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

Go home every year, 'tho with all that's going on just now ...... 

Knew after Dundee the final was basically a write-off btw, think most of us did.

 

More importantly the players knew that Aberdeen (and Celtic and Dundee United and maybe Dundee and Rangers too)were by then a better team.  Back in September we were horsed 6-2 in Paisley with fans throwing scarves away. We nearly won league and cup and were nearly relegated in years after. 85-86 was an accident , this year is more like reality.