That Day in 1986...

It’s the time of the year. Flowers blooming, bees buzzing, days getting longer….and football fans sobbing their hearts out in front of the television cameras. As another long campaign draws to a conclusion, the directors of sport at Britain’s growing number of satellite television broadcasters are rubbing their hands in anticipation of capturing the moment teams clinch the league championship or, as increasingly seems to be the case, teams suffer relegation. Or, perhaps more importantly in terms of increasing the height of drama, the reaction of the supporters who have followed their team throughout the season and now face the moment of truth. The agony etched on the faces of some fans is recorded for posterity and adds to the already dramatic nature of events. This is a relatively recent development to the game we all love. Call me an old cynic but I have a growing suspicion that more and more of these emotionally charged scenes among some of the fans are due more to the fact that the fans concerned realise they’ll be blubbing their eyes out on national television rather than out of any worrying concern about which league they’ll be watching their team next season – if they go to watch them at all.


Now being a Hearts supporter, I realise I’m laying myself open to a charge of hypocrisy here. Not that every season ends in tears for us, of course. But back in 1986 on the final day of the league season at Dens Park there were tears aplenty among the vast travelling support from Edinburgh as Hearts lost two goals in the final eight minutes to Dundee, thereby losing the league championship to Celtic on goal difference. The scenes of distraught Jambos sitting with heads in hands on the Dens Park terracing were beamed around the country as one of the most dramatic endings in league history was played out to a disbelieving nation. Hearts had been unbeaten in all competitions since the beginning of October but lost the game they needed to avoid defeat in most. Like most of the fifteen thousand Hearts fans at Dundee that day, I fought back the tears myself. But this was a genuine show of grief from the maroon army. In the mid 1980s only the BBC and ITV televised football and there was none of this ‘last day on a Sunday for live television coverage’ scenarios we have these days. That day at Dens Park was a Saturday with a normal three o’clock kick-off and there were only highlights on television late on Saturday evening (not that many Hearts fans were inclined to watch them) But in these days of satellite television coverage, with a multitude of cameras covering the game from almost every conceivable angle, the reaction of supporters is an important part of the coverage. And don’t some fans know it!

How often will we see pictures of fans chewing fingernails, or covering their faces, or wiping tears from their eyes in the days ahead? Quite often these are relatively young supporters who are still in the infancy of their football fan career. And some of the fans may be those who follow the bigger teams like Rangers, Manchester United or Chelsea. Now with all due respect if any of those clubs lose out on a league title or cup then, disappointing though that is for their fans, the floods of tears at the end of a game seem to me to be of the crocodile variety. The consistently successful clubs are never a season or two away from lifting silverware of some sort so the extreme emotion on display from some fans does irritate me somewhat. For the fans of those clubs who don’t regularly win trophies the agony of getting so close to victory is tangible but more often than not, they’re usually proud of their team for getting so close. It’s not so much tears on display as a show of pride that their team didn’t let them down.

This year’s Scottish Cup final promises to be a memorable occasion with Dundee United and Ross County battling it out for the famous old trophy. I suspect the television cameras will be hoping to hone in on either County or United fans sobbing at the end of the game. I doubt they will find any - there will just be immense pride for simply being there.

Much as there was for Hearts fans twenty four years ago. Hearts were unbeaten in league and cup games from October 1985 until that first Saturday in May 1986. They stood on the verge of a league and cup double. Needing just a point from their final game at Dundee to secure their first league championship since 1960, they lost out due to two goals in the last eight minutes from Dundee sub Albert Kidd. A week later a shell-shocked Hearts team lost the Scottish Cup final to Aberdeen.

Although the trauma suffered at Dens Park will never leave, looking back it was - until that fateful day - the best of times to be a Hearts supporter. Although it didn't feel like it on 3rd May 1986!