MEET THE JAMBOS COACH WHO'S LASTED 21 YEAR

ALAN SCOTT wasn't even behind the wheel for the best bus journey he has taken in 21 years of driving Hearts around the country.

The Jambos coach driver has ferried the team in silence from Dundee after they blew the title on the last day of the season in 1986.

He has steered them through scenes of Gorgie joy when they won the Scottish Cup against Rangers in 1998.

He has listened to more dance music than Fat Boy Slim, played Pavarotti on the road from Inverness and once left the team hotel without two first-team stars before a game at Ibrox.

Officially, he is employed by coach operators Park's of Hamilton but he can't bring himself to admit the time spent with his beloved Jambos every week counts as work.

The54-year-old from Stonehouse is known to everyone at Tynecastle as Scooby, which fits perfectly because he doesn't have a clue why former striker Scott Crabbe gave him the nickname in the first place.

But what also fits is his sense of belonging to a team he will drive to the Cup Final at Hampden this weekend, all the time praying for a repeat of their 2-1 victory over Rangers at Parkhead eight years ago.

It sparked off scenes of joy in the capital that he would love to witness again this weekend.

Scooby said: "I wasn't even driving for the bus journey that gave me my greatest memory in all my time with Hearts - the day after we won the Scottish Cup in 1998.

"The club invited me to take part in the open bus tour through Edinburgh and I'll never forget those scenes as long as I live.

"It was an amazing weekend and a fantastic feeling to drive along the M8 from Glasgow after the game with the trophy up at the windscreen of the bus.

"We had an escort to Harthill Services by a police motorbike from the Strathclyde force, who handed over to colleagues at Lothian and Borders. They gave us four motorbikes, a car and two vans, all of which had Hearts scarves tied around their flashing lights.

"I'll never forget passing Sighthill Fire Station and seeing all the firemen waving from the top of their ladders and then a huge crowd of people packing the streets as we approached Gorgie Road.

"Police horses then took over to escort us to Tynecastle and it took us 45 minutes to travel less than half a mile.

"I had to drive so carefully and I remember looking in my wing mirror and seeing sets of feet hanging down from the roof of the coach. A few players had opened the emergency exits and jumped on to the roof and the fans loved it."

Scooby first worked for Hearts in 1985 when a planned bus tour around the UK with a group of Americans was cancelled at the last minute. He was asked instead to take the Hearts youth team, including Crabbe, to a tournament in France and his relationship with the club blossomed.

But that first season also saw him suffer his lowest point in the job when an Albert Kidd double handed Dundee a 2-0 win at Dens and denied the Jambos the title.

Scooby said: "It was horrible, not a word was said on the bus journey home. To make matters worse we were stuck in a traffic jam outside Dundee for half an hour because so many Hearts fans had travelled to the game.

"But that was one of very few low points. Hearts pride themselves in being a family club and I've never felt anything but part of the family.

"No one has ever looked down on me and I love the companionship. I get to watch football too - it's a win win situation."

Scooby's mileometer has taken apounding over the years with trips from Dingwall to Dumfries and all stops in between, but not as much of a pummelling as his ears.

He said: "Alex MacDonald loved playing the Hearts tapes, which was fine, but these days the boys all prefer modern dance music.

"To be fair, Elvis put on some Pavarotti on a trip down from Inverness last year and the boys enjoyed it for a wee while before they told him to get it off."

An encyclopaedic knowledge of Scottish towns and cities and their football stadia is a must for Scooby, but so too is a sense of humour. He said: "Last season we left our base in East Kilbride in good time for our game against Rangers. We were halfway down the road when we realised we'd left Andy Webster and Robbie Neilson in the hotel, so I had to perform an about-turn.

"Robbo wasn't too happy because the players should have been on the bus on time but even he had to laugh when we pulled up at the hotel and saw Andy standing at the side of the road, holding up a sign on which he'd written 'Ibrox'.

"I was caught out earlier this season trying to impress George Burley during our pre-season tour of Ireland when we set off to play Bray Wanderers.

"I'd been warned at the hotel the road from Dublin was hellish, so I advised George to leave extra early. In the end, we sailed down the motorway without a problem and even though I deliberately slowed to 35 miles an hour we still arrived over two hours early.

"We bus drivers pride ourselves on our preparation and suss out where we're going before we make the trip, even if it means making a dummy run without the team.

"But the first time I went to Pittodrie I still managed to take the wrong exit at a roundabout and ended up driving along the seafront. We had to take a detour through the narrow road on the golf course to finally get to Pittodrie."

Scooby has no cup superstitions but will get up extra early tomorrow morning and turn over the engine of the bus to make sure there are no problems before the team board for Hampden, although in all his years he has never had a mechanical mishap.

He admits he is desperate to see Hearts lift the famous old trophy again, not just for the fans but especially for skipper Steven Pressley. Scooby said: "Elvis is a gent who has carried the team through so much this season but who still always has time for a kind word.

"I lost my dad, Andrew, earlier this season and Elvis asked me before the game with Falkirk why I wasn't my usual self. "I told him the story and he promised to score a goal and dedicate it to me, which he did in the Press after scoring twice in the 2-2 draw.

"I'm a nervous spectator and my insides will be churning in the hour up to kick-off. Hopefully Hearts can play their usual game and come away with the win but no one dares think it's going to be easy against Gretna.

"I don't yet know what the plans are after the game but if we have the good fortune to win the Cup, I wouldn't mind making that drive down Gorgie Road again."

Taken from the Daily Record