Alan Gordon

Published on Tuesday 23 February 2010 21:00

Footballer who managed to capture the hearts of both Hearts and Hibs fans

Alan Gordon, footballer. Born: 14 May, 1944 in Edinburgh.

Died: 18 February, 2010 in Edinburgh, aged 65.

THE match programme introducing Alan Gordon to Hibs fans in 1972 made mention, before his goal feats, of his MA in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and his ongoing traineeship as a chartered accountant. How many exasperated fathers that February afternoon will have drawn the biog to the attention of their football-fanatic sons, in the vain hope it might have persuaded the boys to devote more time to their studies? I know of one who did – mine.

Letters after your name are rare in football, not least Scottish football. They'll certainly prompt nicknames, maybe derision, most likely suspicion, as if your larger-than-standard brain could be distracted, mid-match, by a fleeting intellectual consideration, causing you to miss a hurtling cross. A year on from his debut Gordon had scored decisively, stylishly and often for Hibs, helping them to three national cup finals against Celtic, two of which ended in triumph, but The Scotsman's John Rafferty was having cause to ask whether the blond centre-forward was still deserving of the descriptions "languid" and, worse, "soft". Presumably that day's scoreline answered his question: Airdrie 0, Alan Gordon 4.

Gordon was not "too smart" for football, even though he moved his Hibs manager Eddie Turnbull to famously remark: "The trouble with you is that all your brains are in your heid!" But my favourite story about him comes from much earlier in his career, when he was probably "too football" for George Heriot's School.

A few years ago I wrote a book about a Hibs fan trying to swap sides and follow Hearts and Gordon was the perfect choice of guest-of-honour at the launch party, having played for both teams with distinction. His Tynecastle years began at the age of 17 when he was still sporting a blue Heriot's blazer and he had the party in stitches when he recounted having to ask the headmaster for time off lessons for an important European match.

"Heriot's was rugby-only in those days and if it wasn't bad enough that I was a footballer, I was the only pupil who had a car thanks to my ill-gotten gains from Hearts and I had to park it next to some disapproving masters," Gordon recalled. "The headmaster was a formidable fellow, as you'd expect, and in 1961 I had to knock on his door. Hearts had drawn Inter Milan in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the most glamorous tie, and luckily I was picked for the squad.

"I was thrilled and hoped the head would be quite pleased too. I told him about the San Siro because I reckoned he wouldn't have heard of the great Milan stadium. But with the game being midweek I was going to have to miss a few classes – Wednesdays were double maths and Latin, I seem to recall. This prompted a lot of harrumphing and finally a decision: 'No, no Gordon, this simply won't do. You'd be setting a dangerous precedent.'"

Naturally, the player was disappointed, but he told me he cheered himself up by imagining a long queue of boys outside the head's office, all with ever-more fantastical excuses for a skive.

At Hearts, Gordon straddled the eras of Willie Bauld and Donald Ford, scoring 49 goals in league alone during two spells at Tynecastle, with a South African adventure in between. There was one that got away. Late on in the 1964-65 First Division decider against Kilmarnock, with Hearts needing a single goal for the championship, he had a shot well saved by Killie goalkeeper Bobby Ferguson. In that Hibs match programme he confessed to having recurring nightmares about that miss, although by then he was among fans who would encourage him to view it in a happier light.

Gordon had arrived at Easter Road after three seasons with Dundee United where his penalty-box prowess with head and left foot had brought him a total haul of 50 goals. Compared with his exploits at Easter Road, however, this may have rated as one of his more languid spells. An outrageous piece of business at 12,000, he was the final addition to the Hibs team that became known as Turnbull's Tornadoes.

The other day on Sky Sports News I heard a contemporary footballer, whose name has already been forgotten, explain how it takes "about a year" for a player to adjust to life at a new club. At Hibs, Gordon started scoring right away and never stopped. In all, there were 51 goals in 84 league matches, the strike tally topping 80 when Europe and the cups are included, the team losing just twice when he failed to find the net.

With Jimmy O'Rourke, Gordon formed a classic little-and-large strike force: Gordon was tall and debonair; O'Rourke less so. They'd have been the first to acknowledge terrific service: from Pat Stanton's surges from midfield, the subtle promptings of Alex Edwards and Alec Cropley, the buccaneering runs of John Brownlie and Arthur Duncan. Hibs were a team of great flair (and great hair) in the first half of the 1970s, and a Gordon goal was their most elegant imprint. The Scotsman was in no doubt they were Easter Road's best ever. "This side were certainly better than the Famous Five of a decade or two back ... as good as the Celtic side of a few years ago," went the 1973 match report for a 5-0 defeat of Morton when "Gordon swooped twice with the grace of Cassius Clay to first head a goal then miraculously net with an angled shot while running at speed on a treacherous, muddy surface. The crowd sang Christmas carols and other songs in praise of this fabulous 11." Gordon scored five hat-tricks in green and white. He scored two against Celtic in the 1972 Drybrough Cup final (and the winner to keep the trophy in Leith a year later), two against Sporting Lisbon, two against Hearts in the 7-0 game. He scored in Communist-era Albania and other hostile places, such as Ibrox and Parkhead, and although his aerial duels with Celtic centre-half Billy McNeill were one of the highlights of the era, and although Hibs twice finished runners-up to the Old Firm in the league title race, they won top marks for artistic impression but couldn't quite break the dominance of Glasgow's Big Two.

Gordon nearly won Scotland's Player of the Year award, losing out to Celtic's George Connelly. He nearly represented his country but got injured. When he starred for an international 11 in a testimonial for Willi Schultz, the West German commented: "I'm glad I never met him in matches against Scotland."

As a prolific striker, the dashing Alan Gordon had kept football's statisticians busy. He finally gave them a break by hanging up his boots with Dundee, the boy with a head for figures who became the footballer with a head for goals then concentrating on accountancy full-time.

More than just this fan's favourite player from a fine team in a thrilling era for Scottish football, he's survived by his wife Hazel, children Brian and Lyndsey and grandchildren Lucy and Ross.