Hearts go out to Sinclair

Sinclair "Sinky" Pentland stuck with his team through relegation and promotion, through the Wallace Mercer years and Save Our Hearts, when results were dire and relegation stung.

He stayed while managers like Joe Jordan, Sandy Clarke and Tommy McLean came and went, players pledged allegiance then vanished within weeks and the Gorgie Road stadium finally fell into foreign hands. And through it all he would nearly always mark the final whistle by staggering home, belting out Hearts songs at the top of his voice.

Indeed Sinky became such a fixture at Tynecastle - largely thanks to a quirky knack for getting himself into various madcap situations that involved being thrown out of rival clubs' grounds - that he became the fans' adopted "fan" with his own terracing chant, far too rude to reveal here.

Now, though, his place in Tynecastle's Wheatfield Stand, Section D, Row 24, Seat 1 - "Handy for the pie shop and the toilets if I've had a bit too much to drink," he grins - sits empty.

Sinky, terracing veteran of many a desperate Jambo battle and fevered celebration, is embroiled in his own courageous off-pitch fight, stricken with cancer, and now lying in a hospice bed.

This weekend one of the biggest derby games to be played at Easter Road in recent history will kick off in front of an anticipated 20,400 fans and, for once, Sinky won't be there. But if he can't get to the game, Tynecastle has rallied round to take at least a flavour of Gorgie Road spirit to him . . .

In a remarkable and unprecedented show of support for one of their most dedicated fans, Hearts players present and past, management and key backroom staff have acknowledged his devotion to their club by paying a series of emotional and surprise visits to his hospice bed.

Among them, Rudy Skcel who left his signed number 19 shirt and, in a video message to the fan filmed moments after he scored a hat-trick against St Mirren in his Hearts return match, told him: "I told you I'd score a goal for you - instead, I scored three."

Management duo Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown, coach Gary Locke and fans' favourites Gary MacKay, Giles Rousset, and John Robertson have all made private visits to his hospice bed. First team player Andy Driver has also put his own injury woes aside to make time to visit.

Today, in another gesture of support, players, fellow supporters and youngsters from Hearts' Under-19 squad will gather at the Marie Curie Hospice in Fairmilehead for a poignant and bitter-sweet 48th birthday party for Tynecastle's best known fan.

The response from the club, players and fellow supporters has, says Sinky, of Saughton Mains, been overwhelming.

"I just want to thank people for coming here to see me," he says. "I feel very humbled with all this attention.

"It makes me very proud to be a Hearts supporter."

His proudest moment of all was on Sunday when, in a logistical challenge of massive proportions, his friends arranged for an ambulance to pick him up from the hospice and take him to watch the match against Kilmarnock.

With medics on standby, Sinky was introduced to the players as they arrived for what would ultimately be an ill-fated 3-0 defeat to the visitors.

The score couldn't dampen Sinky's enjoyment - not when he'd just heard his fellow supporters chant his name. Besides, in a supportive "career" spanning three decades, he's seen plenty of lows - and one or two highs as well.

Among them the day he led out the Hearts team as their mascot - at the rather grand age of 15. "I think I was the oldest mascot they've ever had," he grins. "I'm not very big, so I didn't look my age, but I wasn't much younger than some of the players.

"Hearts were playing Dundee, we won and I got to keep the penny they used to decide who kicked off. Still got it," he adds, "it's my talisman."

His exploits at grounds around the country have become legendary among Hearts' supporters although he only admits to being turfed out of three football grounds and that, he claims with a glint in his eye, was because stewards picked on him because of his diminutive stature. Nothing to do with his terracing banter he claims.

Tales of his foreign trips supporting Hearts - Bordeaux and Athens, Prague and Majorca - are equally well known, the Spanish island in particular providing inspiration for that terracing song . . .

"The story goes that he met a certain lady while in Majorca and had a very nice time," laughs his friend, Callum Anderson. "It's a bit near the knuckle, but that's what terracing humour is.

"There's another story of how he ended up naked, swinging off a lamppost, 20 yards from the door to the local police station."Most Hearts fans have heard of Sinky."

Indeed, when word got out on the Jambo Kickback website that the sore back postman Sinky had suffered for months was actually cancer of the spine - and later confirmed to have spread to his lungs and his liver - there was an amazing response from his fellow fans.

The website's 'Sinky' thread has had 33,000 hits and more than 370 comments, making it one of the most viewed topics on the site's massive Terrace forum.

Hearts' Andy Driver says visiting Sinky at the hospice to hear his tales has been a pleasure. "For someone in his situation, it's unbelievable how happy he is. Everyone's looking forward to his birthday party."

Meanwhile, dedicated Jambo Sinky says there's one birthday present he'd like more than any other.

"All I want for my birthday is for three points on Sunday," he grins.