Hearts' 23,000 fans, £500 bus fines and distrust - enormity of Aberdeen Scottish Cup semi-final laid bare

It was shortly after Simon Murray glanced a header into his own net at Tynecastle to all but secure a Scottish Cup quarter-final victory for Hearts over Dundee last month when Craig Thomson’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “Get the bus on!” the message read.

The Hearts supporter of more than five decades standing knew that, with Hibs facing Celtic on the Sunday, the onus was on him to act fast in his role as Hampden travel coordinator. If the in-form rivals won, then buses in Edinburgh might be hard to come by given another set of supporters would be requiring transport to Glasgow on the same weekend – maybe for the same game, depending on the draw.

“I made sure I emailed the bus company on the Saturday morning, stating ‘I’m in here first’,” recalls Thomson.

Hearts train ahead of their match against Aberdeen. | SNS Group

The 49-seater that he initially booked has since needed to be upgraded to a 53-seater, which might surprise some given Hearts have not scored a goal in a month. It is testimony to the enduring loyalty of these supporters that around 23,000 of them will be making the journey through for Saturday’s semi-final encounter with Aberdeen. It's said to be Hearts' biggest following for a game outside Edinburgh since the League Cup final against St Mirren in 2013. This is despite the dip in results and performances that prompted chief executive Andrew McKinlay to issue an oddly timed apology to supporters on Thursday.

This interview was broadcast on the club’s in-house TV channel while manager Neil Critchley was meeting reporters for a pre-semi-final briefing at the club’s training base at Oriam. “Two games out, we had it clearly in our hands,” McKinlay lamented with reference to Hearts' now wrecked top six ambitions.

Almost simultaneously Critchley was attempting to focus minds on the task ahead while seeking to ensure the disappointment of the previous weekend’s failure did not seep into preparations for the Hampden assignment. “You have to overcome disappointment and you have to put that to the back of your mind and move on very quickly,” he said.

This is big for Hearts

Both men were singing from the same hymn sheet in one respect: this weekend is massive. “Obviously we’ve got no bigger game than the one coming up this weekend,” said McKinlay. “So that’s a huge opportunity for the team to prove their doubters wrong. I sincerely hope they can do that.”

If it sounded slightly like a threat, that’s because it might have been one. Many feel Critchley’s Hearts future hinges on a successful outcome against Aberdeen despite the manager only being in place since October, when the team were bottom of the league. They are now seventh, albeit with nowhere else to go but down in the last five Premiership fixtures.

Another league table, the unofficial and slightly arbitrary ‘since Critchley was appointed’ one, shows Hearts sitting in fourth place, behind Hibs but ahead of Aberdeen. It was probably what Critchley was referring to when he was asked on Thursday about evidence for his contention that Hearts are improving. He pointed to the total of two points from eight league games that he inherited. “We've (since) accumulated a lot of points,” he said.

Hearts head coach Neil Critchley. | SNS Group

“We'd be comfortably in the top six if I was here all season. But I wasn't and the reason I am here now is because of what happened.

“I can only deal with the here and now and the group that's in front of me. I think we've shown progress. The next step is for us to go and take a big step forward on Saturday and progress to the final.”

All roads lead to Hampden. At least from Edinburgh, with Hearts fans expected to outnumber their Aberdeen counterparts almost two-to-one. It is a remarkable show of support in spite of everything. The faith might be wavering slightly, however.

Hearts fans and distrust in players

“There’s an element of distrust in the current team,” notes Thomson, who was born the day England won the World Cup and whose first Hearts game was against Ayr United in 1971 with Donald Ford netting the winner. “They just have not delivered on the big occasion really. There’s a massive chance to put it right tomorrow so hopefully they do.”

Critchley’s team selection will be fiercely scrutinised. He already knows he will have to disappoint an extra player due to the number of substitutes permitted in Scottish Cup ties – eight compared to nine in league matches. Centre-half Frankie Kent, who has not played since December when he picked up a quad injury against Copenhagen, made a surprise appearance at Thursday’s press conference, suggesting he is in contention to start against Aberdeen. It could mean Critchley is preparing to ditch his unloved diamond midfield formation and switch to three at the back or else pitch the Englishman in at right centre-half with Michael Steinwender moving to right-back.

Whether he is deployed from the start, or makes an appearance off the bench, Kent is aware of what is at stake. “The pressure is on for Saturday,” he said. “There is no getting away from it, it is a big game. It is up to us to put on a good performance and show some bottle, really.”

Hearts defender Frankie Kent. | SNS Group

Fans will expect that as a minimum. It’s not necessarily the football that these supporters are going for, which might be just as well. Take those on the ‘Thomson tours’ bus, for example. “When the draw was made, I thought Hearts played quite well in the quarter-final against Dundee,” says the trip leader. “We were probably in better form than Aberdeen were, but now….it’s probably flipped the other way. I was at Motherwell on Saturday and that was poor. It is probably a case of travelling more in hope than expectation. But you never know with Hearts.

“There is a little bit of fan apathy at the moment. It is incredible that they are taking 22,000-23,000 given the season they’ve had.”

Thomson is charged with getting 53 of these fans there, via a pit stop in a Glasgow hostelry for bacon rolls and breakfast beers. He won’t start relaxing until he sees a sleek bus sitting outside the Good Companions pub in Oxgangs, where the day will begin shortly before 9am.

Hearts fans’ day out

“It’s a good mix of family, friends, former work colleagues and their friends," he says. "One guy is coming, he is bringing 24!” It’s worth pointing out that this is a reference to companions rather than a pack of beer cans.

“There’s always this thing about not allowing booze on buses at the football,” Thomson explains. “The bus company are now very strict – it is a £500 deposit. If there’s booze on the bus you lose your deposit.”

That hasn’t always proved the case. Sometimes the enormity of the occasion overrides rules and regulations. Thomson has been running a bus, sometimes two if it’s a final, since the ‘Craig Beattie’ match against Celtic in 2012. That set up a never-to-be-forgotten winner-takes-all clash against Hibs.

Hearts fans have backed the club in their numbers. | SNS Group

“I remember on the way back (after the 5-1 victory) the driver stopped at the shopping centre just off the M8 and took us in there,” recalls Thomson. “‘Fill your boots, boys,’ he said. It was beers all the way back.”

The fear is it might be tears all the way back on Saturday but then Aberdeen fans have the same anxiety – and they have further to go. Trepidation appears to be one of the reasons for the Pittodrie club selling around 13,000 tickets, although that – for a 12.30pm kick off in Glasgow – is still admirable.

While the game might not be a sell-out, the atmosphere should be what a clash between two teams perpetually vying for the title of Scotland’s third force deserves. It is also the first meeting of the teams at Hampden this century and conjures up memories of the 1986 final, when it really was a case of tears all the way home for Hearts.