Travel travails fail to halt die-hard John

JOHN HORSBURGH has been a Hearts supporter now for more than 40 years. He says he's been through a lot of ups and downs during that time and he has travelled all over Europe watching Hearts. He is a member of Danderhall Hearts Supporters' Club and he rarely misses a match.

First Hearts game: "The first match I can recollect attending was in about 1961 or 1962. It was a League Cup tie against Dundee at Tynecastle. I think Dundee were the League champions at that time but Hearts won 2-0. Before that, I had only been at Junior games and I was amazed by the size of the crowd."

Most memorable moment: "I'm going to be boring and say the same as nearly everyone else - the Scottish Cup final in 1998. As a Hearts fan, I'd seen us lose the League on two occasions on the final day of the season and the Scottish Cup in 1998 was the first trophy I'd seen us lift - apart from the East of Scotland Shield, obviously. We won the League Cup in 1962 in my first season but since I didn't go to the final, I don't count that. After supporting Hearts for 36 years and not seeing them win anything, you begin to think you're a jinx so the Cup win was such a big relief."

Favourite all-time player: "That's a tough one because I've seen a lot of great players in my time, but I'm going to go back a few years and go for Jim Cruickshank. I've always been a bit critical of goalkeepers but that's because I saw what I consider to be the perfect keeper in Cruickshank. He was a great keeper and it's a shame he never got the international recognition he deserved."

Favourite all-time manager: "It has to be Jim Jefferies because he delivered the goods for us in 1998. He was the one who brought the Cup back so he will always have legendary status for that. I'd also give a lot of credit to Alex MacDonald because he brought a lot of stability to the club when he came in and that helped us a lot at a difficult time."

Greatest lengths gone to see Hearts: "Well, I've been to Europe on many occasions with Hearts with my first being a trip to Hamburg but one memory which sticks out was a trip to Tannadice. We got the bus and it broke down at Danderhall and we got it as far as the centre of Edinburgh when it broke down again. At this stage, a couple of us jumped in a taxi which cost us a few quid. We arrived late and Hearts were a goal down by the time we got there. It turned out to be the only goal of the game. We met a few guys from our bus who had commandeered a mini-bus so we got a lift with that only for that bus to break down about three times somewhere between Dundee and Edinburgh. We eventually got home at about 10.00pm. The following week, though, we played Hibs and beat them so all was forgiven."

Funniest Hearts related moment: "It was a match at Firhill in the 1960s. Partick stuffed us 5-1 that day but Donald Ford had missed a great chance early in the game which might have turned it in our favour. As we were coming out, my mate tried to demonstrate how Ford should have kicked it but unfortunately he was wearing a slip-on shoe and it came flying off and went through a tenement window. We were on the floor with laughter and we had to pay the woman to get her window fixed."

Taken from the Scotsman