Hearts' former vice-chairman Smith looks back on unbeaten run

TWENTY-FIVE years ago this week, Hearts' most memorable and emotional season took off. Not with the inspirational defeat of an Old Firm club or an annihilation of their Edinburgh rivals Hibernian.

But with a meagre 1-1 home draw against Dundee. It was season 1985/86 and the rollercoaster was starting, although not yet running at full speed.

Iain Jardine's equaliser to Derek McWilliams' early goal for Dundee began an unbeaten league run which would stretch seven months, all the way to that fateful day at Dens Park. Events in May 1986 have long since overshadowed what went beforehand that season as Hearts ultimately let the league championship and Scottish Cup slip inside seven horrible days. Nonetheless, an enthralling campaign until then is remembered fondly by those involved.

On October 5, 1985, in front of a crowd of 8512, a draw against Dundee left Hearts eighth in a ten-team Scottish Premier Division. After nine matches, and with only two wins to their credit, they sat just two points ahead of bottom-placed Motherwell in the two-points-for-a-win system. Hearts supporters trudged out of Tynecastle that day resigned to an apparently difficult and arduous season ahead, but unknown to them the ensuing seven months would see their team written into the annals of Scottish football.

After earning promotion from the First Division in 1983, Hearts finished fifth and seventh respectively in the Premier Division over the following two seasons. Public expectation in autumn 1985 was therefore moderate. The club was seen as a top-flight outfit in every sense, although not one capable of challenging the Old Firm or New Firm, as Aberdeen and Dundee United became known during the 1980s.

Chairman Wallace Mercer harboured typically boundless ambition four years into his stewardship of the club. Even he could not have imagined how the rest of the campaign would transpire. Over the next 26 league games, Hearts recorded 18 wins and eight draws and got so close to the championship trophy they could see their reflection in the polished silverware.

Pilmar Smith, Mercer's vice-chairman, recalls a state of insouciance around Tynecastle as it all began. "We started badly in the league but there wasn't a feeling of doom and gloom," he said. "We certainly never realised we were going to go on the run that we did.

"Alex MacDonald and Sandy Jardine were upbeat and Wallace always had an infectious enthusiasm about him so we weren't down in the dumps about how we started the season. That only happened at the finish, but we just accepted the start to the league. If you're a Hearts supporter, we don't expect everything to go well all the time. We're well used to that.

"I couldn't look at anything to do with the 1985/86 season for years, it hurt so much. Then somebody gave me a DVD all about it and, I'm sure like a lot of people, I'd forgotten how well we'd played throughout that season. It's important to remember all the great games and all the pleasure we got out of that season. That was almost forgotten about because the season hinged on those last two weeks.

"It would do the players and the management a disservice not to remember how well we played. I got a lot of pleasure watching that DVD and recalling the happiness. That's how I would look back on it. It was a terrible tragedy at Dundee and I'll never forget that day, but it's easy to forget about the great football we played during the season and all the memorable games."

Against Dundee as the incredible run began that October afternoon, the Hearts team read almost like a Who's Who of semi-recent Tynecastle folklore: Henry Smith, Walter Kidd, Brian Wittaker, Sandy Jardine, Neil Berry, Craig Levein, John Colquhoun, Iain Jardine, Sandy Clark, Gary Mackay and John Robertson. Substitutes were Andy Watson and Kenny Black.

"That's a bit of a team in any era," continued Smith. "They maybe just took a wee while to gel. Most of these players were all great favourites with the Hearts supporters so it was something that just came together that year. That's what often happens with good teams.

"Craig Levein wouldn't have stayed with Hearts if he hadn't suffered the ligament injuries he did. He was a super player: quick, tall, good touch and intelligent. Alex Ferguson was always asking about Craig. If he hadn't got his injuries he'd have been at Man United or anywhere he wanted. He was good enough to play at that kind of level. It was a tragedy what happened to him, but of course we didn't know what cruciate ligaments were in these days. Even cartilage injuries could finish a player's career."

Levein's class epitomised Hearts that season and, in some ways, reflected the intelligence with which the club was being run by the late Mercer.

"Wallace was always a nervous character on matchdays, I could write a book about him," chuckled Smith. "He was always reaching for the sky and full of enthusiasm, that used to drive the rest of us on. I was maybe the stable one, trying to keep our feet on the ground, but Wallace was always pushing us on.

"He had high aims in 1985, as he did every season. It was a tragedy for him that, for all the good players who came through Hearts, and all the camaraderie and team spirit, we never won anything. We all felt terrible about that.

"I used to hear the supporters singing championees towards the end of the (1985/86] season but I didn't like that. I never liked to be celebrating things that haven't happened yet: some of them jumped the gun as supporters are apt to do. You can't blame them for that."

They weren't quite so joyous after drawing 1-1 with Dundee back in October 1985, but they weren't to know what had just begun.

Part one in a series of articles to mark the 25th anniversary of Hearts' drama-filled 1985-86 season sees Barry Anderson talk to then vice-chairman Pilmar Smith

OCTOBER 5

Hearts 1 (I Jardine), Dundee 1.

OCTOBER 12

Celtic 0, Hearts 1 (Robertson)

OCTOBER 19

Hearts 3 (Robertson 2, Mackay), St Mirren 0.

OCTOBER 30

Hearts 1 (Levein), Aberdeen 0.

Don't miss the Remember When section of Saturday's Evening News for classic Hearts and Hibs reports from down the years

Look out for Part Two of our series in November