Jefferies ready to break Hearts and lead parade again

What Jim Jefferies had his fingers on was something far more capable of lifting the decibel count. The Tennent’s Scottish Cup. Reports said that 200,000 spilled on to the streets of the capital on a warm Sunday in May 1998, just to see Heart of Midlothian parade their first piece of silverware.

Jefferies will probably allow himself a fleeting smile of satisfaction today as his team bus enjoys a more relaxed journey to Tynecastle than the one he was on seven years ago. Then, the last mile took an hour to travel. This time, though, his task is to break hearts, not fulfil a lifetime’s ambition.

It is ironic that the last manager to win the Scottish Cup who did not work for either Celtic or Rangers, should be given such a mission. Jefferies may have moved on since he left Hearts in December 2000, but not even his Kilmarnock tracksuit or his presence in the away dugout for today’s fourth-round encounter will disguise his place in Tynecastle history.

Some managers are forever banging on about their achievements, yet Jefferies is reluctant. It took almost half an hour of an interview session on Thursday, and several attempts to get him back down memory lane, before he would even embrace the subject of May 16, 1998 and the 2-1 victory over Rangers in the final that had grown men in tears, including some who were almost on their deathbed.

Jefferies is fully aware that his only concern now is Kilmarnock, where he has been manager for almost three years following a spell at Bradford City. He carefully fenced off all questions that might see him accused of a conflict of interest — from his thoughts on the new Lithuanian investment in Hearts to their mental state after the numbing extra-time defeat by Motherwell in midweek in the CIS Insurance Cup semi-final — but when pushed one more time to recall the scenes he helped to create in Edinburgh seven years ago, the memories flooded out of him.

The final itself, when half of Celtic Park was covered in maroon; the open top bus journey from the Royal Mile, down Princes Street and on to Tynecastle. Or the venerable Hearts fan whom Jefferies took the trophy to, just weeks before the old man died.

“It’s the kind of thing that ought to inspire players because no one would have ever have imagined the reception we got,” Jefferies smiled. “We were still on the M8 before we had even hit Edinburgh and there were policemen on top of a Range Rover waving to us. When we got to Wester Hailes, we passed a fire station and the firemen were all out on top of two fire engines decked out in Hearts colours — I’m just glad there was not a fire because I don’t think they’d have left.

“Going through the city was unforgettable. The last bit, to the ground, turned a five-minute journey into an hour. There were so many people, the bus could not move. That’s what winning a cup is all about. That’s what emotion does to you, but those Hearts fans had waited a long time.”

Jefferies knows that because he is one of them. He grew up as a supporter of the club and played for them, experiencing the pain of losing a Scottish Cup final — ironically, against Rangers — in 1976. That was why Jefferies took the trophy to the home of one man in his home town of Lauder, in the Borders, who could not be there on the day those success-starved fans ended 36 years of waiting.

“I used to speak to him when I met him in the town, so I got him tickets for the final,” Jefferies recounts. “But a week before the game, he came to visit me and said he would have to hand them back. He had a heart problem and his doctors had advised him not to go to Celtic Park in case the excitement proved too much. He was gutted. So, when I got back to Lauder on the Monday, I went to see him with my wife and we took the trophy.

“When we got to his house, his wife opened the door and saw us there with the Scottish Cup. She almost had a heart attack on the spot. Her husband was sitting in the living room watching the cup final that he had taped on his video. She said her man had been watching it again and again since Saturday. He died a couple of weeks later. But to bring that sort of happiness to someone is immense.”

The game itself is Jefferies’s own personal favourite. “It was the greatest day I have had in football,” he declares. A penalty from Colin Cameron and Stephane Adam’s goal early in the second half had given Hearts a lead that they defended almost to the end, when Ally McCoist came off the bench to score for Rangers and induce panic among the Hearts fans, and their manager, during five long minutes of stoppage time.

“Bloody Willie Young,” Jefferies laughs, rebuking the referee. “He put ten years on my life with that. It came the season before the boards went up to tell you how much extra time there is. We didn’t know how long we had to hold out. No one did but Willie. We’ve had a laugh about it since. People forget that we’d lost two finals to Rangers a few seasons earlier and I didn’t want to make it three.

“We got thumped in the 1996 Scottish Cup final, which was my first season as manager of Hearts, but to reach the final at that stage was beyond expectations. Then, the following season, we lost the Scottish League Cup final, again at Celtic Park because Hampden was being rebuilt, going down 4-3. Hearts had experienced a lot of heartache.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk