Hearts win by the odd goal – in eleven! - Dundee Utd 5-6 Hearts 17 February 1968

Their performance in gaining and losing a 2-0 lead, surviving a penalty, equalising twice in the second half, and snatching a fantastic 6-5 victory in this second-round tie with only five minutes to spare left 9000 spectators limp with excitement at Tannadice.

Perhaps it is unfair to single out one man when so many did well but this must stand, too, as the day Rene Moller hit the Scottish football scene like a blond bombshell. He would go on to play in that year's Scottish Cup final where Hearts lost out 3-1 to Dunfermline and net 21 goals in all for the club until his departure for Dutch club Randers Freja in April 1970.

Most observers had an uneasy feeling beforehand that perhaps too much was being expected of the quiet, 27-year-old Scandinavian, who was, after all, still only playing himself in after gathering rust during the long Danish close-season.

Moller settled these doubts after only four minutes play by making goalscoring look absurdly easy for Donald Ford – later to become an internationalist and a stalwart of the Hearts side in the 1970s – and went on to open his personal account with cool use of a lovely pass from Jim Irvine to hook in a spectacular goal and bring the score 4-4 in that seething second half.

Many people had remarked on his physical resemblance to Willie Bauld in the "King's" younger days. Argue that out for yourselves, but Moller's penetration and deadly finishing at Tannadice certainly recalled the glorious era of the Fifties.

Some felt that little was seen of Jim Irvine before he cracked in his spectacular winner. But surely what he did against his old club was more than valuable – one vital goal after laying it on twice for Moller with excellent passes.

Purists may not be happy about the way goals were lost almost as freely as they were scored but this was a tremendous turmoil of a game which, among the excited spectators at least, banished all thought of method football.

It was one of those rare afternoons when all the potential drama associated with football was poured into one Cup tie and spilled over. Both attacks gave the fans treble value for money.

The state of the Tannadice surface, hard at one end, softening under the sun at the other, made it virtually impossible for either side to use the right footwear. Hearts tried out three sets of boots before the match and admitted afterwards that none was really successful.

Both sides lost a player, Tommy Millar was carried off with a broken leg. Jim Townsend was helped off with a knee injury. Four men were booked – Townsend, Moller, and Miller for Hearts, Hainey for United. Yet this was no unsavoury game. Both Miller and Moller, in fact, had their names taken for dissent, and Mr Davidson's action in booking the Dane when he was struggling to find the right English words to tell him that a United defender had handled seemed over-officious.

Arthur Thomson got the top vote in defence in spite of a slip which gave Davie Wilson his goal. But fans present at Tannadice won't forget Kenny Garland's penalty save which was almost certainly the turning point in a fascinating, fantastic match.