Willie No Come Back Again?

‘It was rare to see so many youngsters playing in the first team together. As with most youngsters they could lack self-confidence and belief in themselves. What they needed was some old heads to lift them both on and off the park. They’re a talented bunch.’

Those are the words of a former Scotland internationalist who played for Hearts at the end of an illustrious, if controversial playing career. However, Willie Johnston wasn’t talking about the current crop of youngsters plying their trade at Tynecastle. In his excellent biography ‘Sent Off at Gunpoint’, Johnston was talking about the group of young players with dodgy 1980s hairstyles who were trying to break into the Hearts first team more than 30 years ago in 1982. One of the finest left wingers ever to play for Scotland, ’Bud’ Johnston was 35 years old when he was signed by then Hearts manager Alex Macdonald in September 1982. The likes of John Robertson, Gary Mackay, John Brough and Davie Bowman were the future of a club that was almost on its knees in 1981 before Wallace Mercer saved Edinburgh’s oldest and finest football club from oblivion. Three decades on and it seems the more things change the more they stay the same…

I wrote in a previous article about the sad demise of Scotland’s international team and how, in my view, things have been in a steady decline since the World Cup Finals in Argentina in 1978. Willie Johnston doesn’t need reminding he was sent home from those finals after admitting to taking a banned stimulant. The truth was he had taken anti hay fever medication which contained traces of the stimulant. He certainly didn’t take it to enhance his performance – Willie was one of the fastest players in the world and had no need to take any performance improving drug. As Scotland manager Ally MacLeod said at the time, perhaps unwisely, there was no way Johnston could have taken drugs on top of all the alcohol he had the night before. The bold Ally was jesting, of course, but the SFA viewed it as a serious matter and Johnston never played for Scotland again.

Johnston may have been nearing the end of a career which included two spells at Rangers – the first of which saw him score two goals to help the Ibrox side lift the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972 – West Bromwich Albion and Vancouver Whitecaps. However, Alex Macdonald saw Bud as the ideal man to bring his considerable experience to the likes of Robbo, Mackay and company, not only on the pitch but off it too.

Of course, controversy was a constant companion of Bud’s and I was at Celtic Park in March 1983 when the little winger was sent off during a Scottish Cup tie after an ‘altercation’ with Celtic’s Davie Provan. Johnston maintains to this day he barely touched the Celtic winger but the man in the hoops collapsed to the pitch and Bud was shown a red card. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing and perfectly understood Bud’s initial reaction when he refused to leave the pitch. To Hearts credit they backed their man and Wallace Mercer wrote to the SFA to protest at the treatment of the man from Cardenden. When two police officers at the game then came forward to say Willie had not struck Provan, the SFA knew there had been a miscarriage of justice and other than the automatic one match ban, there was no further punishment meted out to the veteran Hearts man.

Bud was someone who proved invaluable in the development of the younger players at Tynecastle at that time. John Robertson and Gary Mackay still regale a Bud story or three to this day and they readily acknowledge the contribution the great man made to their development. Yes, he could be a controversial character – but he was a character, something you don’t see much of in the game today.

As the curtain falls on a disappointing season for Hearts, it would be good to think today’s young Jambos could be influenced by someone who has done it all in the game, like the left winger who helped to nurture the Hearts youngsters of three decades ago.

Bud Johnston – Willie no come back again?!

 

Mike Smith

Twitter @Mike1874

  

Willie Johnston

Hearts failure to clinch promotion from the First Division at the end of season 1981/82 prompted player-manager Alex Macdonald to head to his old stomping ground of Ibrox Stadium for the experience need to guide youngsters John Robertson, Gary Mackay and Davie Bowman. As well as appointing former Ger Sandy Jardine as his right hand man, Macdonald also secured the services of winger Willie Johnston in the summer of 1982.

At the age of 36, ‘Bud’ was in the twilight of his controversial career that included 17 red cards and infamously being sent home from the Scotland World Cup squad in Argentina in 1978. Many observers doubted the wisdom of bringing such a character to Tynecastle. However, Willie Johnston achieved much in the game. He scored in Rangers European Cup Winners Cup Final triumph over Dynamo Moscow in 1972 and played at the highest level in English football with West Bromwich Albion who paid Rangers close to £140k for his services - which in December 1972 was a small fortune.

It was during his spell at The Hawthorns that Johnston was sent home from Scotland’s World Cup squad in 1978 after taking medication for his hay fever. However, Reactivan was a banned stimulant and Johnston inadvertently brought shame on his country although it’s fair to say he was naïve rather than trying to cheat. West Brom manager Ron Atkinson met Bud at the airport on his return and reportedly said ‘there is some good news - you’ve got a sponsorship deal with Boots the Chemist!’ It was also reported that Johnston once sold a garden shed to a West Brom fan while waiting to take a corner kick as a player was getting treatment for an injury!

Johnston left the midlands for a spell with Vancouver Whitecaps in 1979 before returning for a brief spell with Birmingham City and a return to Rangers in 1980. Whilst in his second spell at Rangers, Johnston infamously stamped on Aberdeen’s John McMaster who required the kiss of life. Afterwards came a classic Bud quote - ‘I’m not proud of what I did - I thought it was Willie Miller’. Two years later he signed for Hearts and helped Hearts secure promotion. His experience helped the maroons not only survive in the Premier League but qualify for the UEFA Cup - it was Bud who scored the goal in a 1-1 draw against Celtic that secured Hearts place in Europe the following season.

After leaving Hearts, Johnston had a brief sojourn at East Fife before retiring at the age of 39. Willie Johnston was, without doubt, one of the most colourful players to play for Hearts and even today, the likes of Gary Mackay and John Robertson say he was a huge influence on their successful careers. Today, Willie ’Bud’ Johnston runs the Port Brae pub in Kirkcaldy.