Most memorable Hearts moment at Arbroath - and an early meeting with nemesis

Eamonn Bannon during his first spell at Hearts

Then-upcoming stars such as Eamonn Bannon and Walter Kidd featured on some of these occasions, as did much-loved and brilliant old stagers like Drew Busby. So, too, did someone who would later play the part of the club’s nemesis. Indeed, Albert Kidd could have broken hearts a long time before 1986.

Hearts travel to Gayfield to face Arbroath on competitive duty for the first time since 1980. This was a period when meetings between the two maroon-coloured clubs occurred at fairly regular intervals – they had played each other twelve times in the previous eight years. The most dramatic of these clashes undoubtedly took place at Gayfield on April 29, 1978.

Win or bust

Hearts needed to win to guarantee promotion as runners-up to champions Morton, who were hosting Dundee. The Dens Park side were lying a point behind Hearts in third place prior to kick-off but they had a far better goal difference than their Gorgie rivals. If Hearts drew and Dundee won, that would be enough to pip Willie Ormond’s side. Interestingly, the same fixtures are scheduled for this weekend in the same division.

Arbroath’s Kidd was just 20-years-old in April 1978. The Dundonian was a player full of promise and had joined the Gayfield club from Brechin City for £10,000 the previous year with Arbroath supporters helping foot the bill.

He lined up in the No 10 shirt and almost put his side ahead after a nervous start from the visitors. Heavy rain meant the players were finding it difficult to keep their feet. A deflected Kidd effort hit the bar. He also saw a 25-yard effort tipped over by Hearts goalkeeper John Brough.

Hearts were fortunate they had their own 20-year-old in the shape of Bannon. The midfielder had left his teenage years behind just days earlier and had a full head of hair when he glanced in the goal that earned Hearts a place back in Scottish football’s top-flight.

It was one of very few headers he scored in a distinguished career. If there was one complaint, it was that it had come too early. Hearts sill had 70 minutes to hold out against a side they had swept aside on their last visit on Christmas Eve.

‘Tensions were running high’

“Donald Park took the corner and I made a run to the front post. I effectively just glanced it and it went into the top right-hand corner,” recalled Bannon yesterday. “I can still see the look on the guy’s face who was on the post for Arbroath. It was a guy called Allan McKenzie, who I went to PE college with later at Jordanhill.

“It’s funny how a goal can leave a stamp on your brain. I can still see his face. He jumped up slightly but the ball went between his head and the crossbar. It was a funny game. We were nervous obviously. Tensions were running high.”

A sea of maroon

One of the great regrets about Friday’s game is that, while live on BBC Scotland, there will be no fans present at Gayfield. It was a trip many Hearts fans had identified as a must, either for old times’ sake or perhaps because they wished to tick such a unique ground off the list of those visited.

Still predominantly old-fashioned terracing, it hasn’t changed much since the late 1970s. Rather than sitting empty, as will be the case tomorrow, the ground was full to the brim with over 8,000 supporters when Bannon’s goal took Hearts back into the Premier Division.

“I just remember when we were running out the whole place being a sea of maroon,” he said. “Obviously, their colours are the same as our colours. It looked like the place had been completely taken over by Hearts supporters, which it probably had in the main.”

The longer it remained 1-0, the nervier these fans grew – especially when filtered through that Dundee had staged a comeback to lead 3-2 in Greenock after two late goals.

Tayport Hotel and cases of whisky

“We stopped on the way home at the Tayport Hotel, which used to be by the bridge there – we had a few drinks, I remember that,” added Bannon, who was toasting not only his side’s success and his own central part in it but also the conclusion of his first full season as a regular in the Hearts team. He played in every league match and scored 13 goals in total.

Three of these came in the one game against Kilmarnock earlier in the campaign and just days after another memorable trip to Gayfield. Not one but two Hearts players scored hat-tricks that afternoon. While Busby and Willie Gibson were left to fight over the match ball, they each got a crate of J&B whisky put up by the drinks company as the prize for such a feat, which – it being Christmas Eve – was a nicely-timed bonus.

Four points adrift of leaders Dundee in third place with a game in hand, Hearts held a narrow 1-0 lead over their hosts – who included future Tynecastle player Jimmy Bone in their line-up – at half-time. Six goals in 36 second-half minutes blew Arbroath away, with Busby netting a seven-minute hat-trick between the 46th and 53rd minutes. Normally the penalty taker, he gave Gibson the chance to seal his hat-trick and secure his own crate of sponsor’s whisky eight minutes from time. “I don’t like whisky anyway!’ said Busby.

After Friday night’s thrashing of Dundee at Tynecastle, who knows what else Hearts are capable of as they head back up the north-East coast for a long overdue visit to a town older fans might associate with something other than smokies.

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