Gorgie glory nights lifted Hearts to European highs

MIKE AITKEN

ALTHOUGH it’s true followers of Hearts have experienced fewer rushes of adrenalin in Europe at Tynecastle over 46 years of continental competition than were seen during the many glory nights at Ibrox, Celtic Park, Pittodrie and Tannadice, the cocktail of excitement served up at the atmospheric stadium in Gorgie was just as intoxicating.

Because the spectators were accommodated so close to the pitch, there was an intimacy attached to watching European ties at Tynecastle which distinguished the experience from matches played at most other Scottish grounds. Even for those striplings whose memories of attending Hearts’ games against foreign opposition only stretches back to last season’s UEFA Cup defeat from Bordeaux, the short walk from Gorgie to the cavernous stands of Murrayfield is bound to feel, in terms of partisan ambience, like a journey into no-man’s land.

Between 1958, when they went into the European Cup as the champions of Scotland, and the 2003-04 UEFA Cup, Hearts staged 27 European ties at Tynecastle. The club’s debut was against Standard Liege from Belgium. The European Cup was the brainchild of a French sportswriter, Gabriel Hanot, who worked for L’Equipe. The Scots were involved from the start with Sir George Graham, the secretary of the SFA, chairing the first organising committee. Hibs reached the semi-finals of the inaugural invitational competition in 1956 but in the two seasons which followed Rangers were unable to match the progress of the Easter Road club.

Still employing legendary players of the calibre of Willie Bauld, Dave Mackay, Jimmy Wardhaugh and Ian Crawford under the tutelage of manager Tommy Walker, there were hopes Hearts might match the feats of their city rivals. Alas, those dreams were dashed in Belgium when Bonga-Bonga, the Liege striker known as the king of the Congo, led the Hearts’ defence a merry dance.

Since Standard brought an unassailable 5-1 lead to Tynecastle, a modest turn-out was expected to witness the second phase of a lost cause. However, a 4-0 win over Hibs in the Edinburgh derby staged prior to the return leg worked wonders for the frayed nerves of their supporters and 40,000 saw Bauld, the king of Hearts, score twice as the Scottish champions made amends with a 2-1 victory. The match generated income at Tynecastle of £10,000 - a substantial sum in the Fifties.

When Hearts made their second (and last) appearance in the European Cup of 1960, they were unfortunate to draw the Portuguese wizards, Benfica, and unsurprisingly lost in both Edinburgh and Lisbon. Hearts went on to qualify three times for the old Fairs Cup during the Sixties. If there was no shame attached to losing at home to mighty Inter Milan in 1961, Hearts were entitled to feel short-changed when a thrilling draw with Real Zaragoza four years later ended in the disappointment of a third game in Spain and a 1-0 loss.

It wasn’t until 1976 that patrons of Tynecastle found out for themselves what all the fuss was about in Europe. Having made the trip behind the Iron Curtain into East Germany and lost 2-0 to Locomotiv Leipzig (who missed a penalty) in the first leg of a Cup-Winners’ Cup tie, few would have wagered even a meagre sum on Hearts scoring three times without reply in the return.

As it turned out, those in the 18,000 crowd who kept the faith were rewarded with an astonishing 5-1 success on the night and a 5-3 victory on aggregate. Hearts had a couple of lively wingers on their books at the time in Bobby Prentice and Kenny Aird. Thanks to their neat footwork on a saturated pitch, Hearts raced into a 2-0 lead as first-half shots from Roy Kay and Willie Gibson levelled the aggregate score. Any thoughts of a comfortable passage, however, were dashed when Fritsche scored for Leipzig before half-time.

The away-goal rule meant Hearts had to score two more to qualify. Urged on by their dynamic captain, Jim Brown, who scored himself from midfield after 74 minutes, Drew Busby snapped up the fourth goal a minute later and, amid scenes of euphoria, Gibson rattled home his own second and Hearts’ fifth.

The reward for this swashbuckling effort was a second-round tie against Hamburg. Those able-bodied members of the press corps who played a bounce match against Hearts before the first leg in Germany knew this was going to be a tricky proposition when the team of hacks held John Hagart’s men to a 1-1 draw.

While Jim Jefferies always maintained the journalists fielded more players that day than there were extras in Ben Hur, it was hard to be optimistic about Hearts’ chances against Manny Kaltz and Co when Ken Robertson of the Sunday Express could score against them. The records show Hamburg won 8-3 on aggregate, notching four goals at Tynecastle as well as on home turf.

By the Eighties, Hearts could reflect on a modest record in Europe, winning just six of their 22 ties, with four of those victories coming at Tynecastle.

Under the shrewd management of Alex MacDonald and Sandy Jardine, both of whom were seasoned performers with Rangers where the pair won Cup-Winners’ Cup medals in 1972, Hearts took another season or two to find their feet in Europe but eventually looked the part.

In spite of speaking to the players in 1984 for over an hour before the match in Paris - the longest team talk of their careers - MacDonald and Jardine could only watch helplessly from the dug-out as a Paris St-Germain side inspired by Safet Susic, a brilliant attacking midfielder, won 4-0. Two years later, in spite of goals at Tynecastle from John Roberston, Sandy Clark and Wayne Foster in a 3-2 win, Hearts were again eliminated at the first hurdle by a capable Dukla Prague outfit which contained half the Czech national side.

The prospect of Hearts embarking on the European adventure of their dreams in 1988 was hard to envisage when St Patrick’s Athletic were dispatched in perfunctory fashion in the first round. When a disappointing draw unfolded with Austria Vienna at Tynecastle in the first leg of the second round, the European jinx appeared poised to strike again. On the domestic front, Hearts were going through a struggle that season. In Europe, Mike Galloway, who was better known as a centre-half, was used up front by MacDonald where his ability in the air troubled the continentals. It was Galloway’s eye for a goal in the second leg at the Prater Stadium which sped Hearts into the third round.

Drawn against Velez Mostar, a robust crew from Yugoslavia, Hearts again played the first leg at Tynecastle. Guided by the experienced Eamonn Bannon, who returned to play for his first club after making more than 50 appearances in Europe with Dundee United, Hearts delighted 17,417 supporters with an emphatic 3-0 success. Bannon himself, the prolific Galloway and John Colquhoun were the scorers. So fluent was the performance, the margin of victory could have been greater. Although Hearts were beaten 2-1 in the second leg, the stage was now set for Tynecastle's most notable European night.

The first leg of the quarter-final against mighty Bayern Munich stirred huge interest. Not only were the opposition formidable - Jupp Heynckes’ men had already scored 12 goals away from home in the competition - but John Robertson was brought home to Tynecastle from Newcastle for a club record fee of £750,000. Having reached the last eight without their greatest goalscorer, however, MacDonald chose to leave the striker on the bench.

In front of a crowd of 26,294, it was the man Robertson was brought back to replace, Iain Ferguson, who provided the 54th-minute goal from a crisply-struck shot which earned Hearts a famous 1-0 victory. Making his European debut for the club at right-back, Alan McLaren, 18, turned in such a mature performance that many who saw him in action believed they were catching a first glimpse of a future Scotland captain. The back four of McLaren, Dave McPherson, Craig Levein and Tosh McKinlay performed to such a high standard that goalkeeper Henry Smith didn’t have to make a save of note.

While Hearts had their chances in the second leg - notably when John Colquhoun could have scored the necessary away goal - the journey ended in Munich’s Olympic Stadium. Hearts would never come so close to reaching a European semi-final again, though Tynecastle would host a few more glittering nights. The 4-2 win over Slavia Prague and the 3-2 victory against Stuttgart were among the exhilarating highlights.

At all of those games, the ground itself played the part of 12th man. Tynecastle was built for excitement and, on European nights, the sense of theatre was a match for any stadium in the land.

The late sportswriter, John Fairgrieve, who always wore his heart on his sleeve, once demanded after a particularly dishevelled domestic performance from Hearts that Tynecastle should be turned into a car park. My guess is if John looks down on Gorgie from the great press box in the sky, tears of bewilderment will flood the site before the old stadium is replaced by a block of flats.

Taken from the Scotsman