Hearts legend 'Buzzbomb' Busby recounts the days of hard games for hard men

He has delayed opening his pub in Dumbarton to do this interview and reminisce about Hearts. It's a small price to pay that Busby is interrupted several times by mobile calls from impatient regulars wondering what's happened to their lunchtime sup.

Conversation, not surprisingly during Edinburgh derby week, is dominated by Sunday's match at Easter Road.

As a player, Busby came into his own in these fixtures and thrived on their intensity. Any meekness went out the window as he set about Hibs, sometimes quite literally.

His effort and commitment earned him a place in Tynecastle folklore and the nickname "Buzzbomb."

He sits sifting through memories and pouring out anecdotes like they only happened last week. To him, they quite easily could have. His recollections are intriguingly vivid, not to mention gripping, and prompt images of a day when football was a hard game perpetrated by even harder men.

He leans forward to discuss perhaps his most infamous day in a maroon shirt, the East of Scotland Shield match against Hibs in May 1978.

"That's the derby game I remember most, the one I was sent off in. Last game of the season and with about five minutes to go Des Bremner and I challenged for the ball and both got a yellow card.

"I knew straight away I'd be suspended for the start of the next season because I'd had too many bookings. Hearts had just been promoted back into the Premier League so I was absolutely sick.

"Hibs then got a free-kick which was taken quickly and the ball bounced between Bremner and Arthur Duncan. I charged in and went right through the two of them. Both of them were helped off the park. I was sent off. It caused a bit of a melee.

"John Lambie, Hibs coach at the time, ran on the park and threw a punch at me.

"There have been a lot of conflicting stories about what happened that day, things like John Brownlie supposedly getting his leg broken. That's a lot of rubbish. We kicked each other but always with the front of the boot."

It isn't long before another derby tale rolls off his tongue. "George Stewart was playing centre-half for Hibs and I was centre-forward," he continues.

"I went in for a challenge with him and accidentally he got hurt. He was carried off and I think he got six or seven stitches in his leg. He was obviously very upset about it.

"About a year later, we're playing Hibs at Easter Road and I'd been out injured for two months with a bad knee. I was desperate to make the game but my knee was a bit dodgy.

"Anyway, I played and found myself going in for a 50-50 with Stewart. The last thing I was thinking about was my injury, so I went flying in and my knee went. I looked up and big George was doing a rain dance over the top of me, he was absolutely delighted."

That act of reckless bravery typified Busby, a shining light in an era of mediocrity at Hearts during the 1970s. He was relegated twice during six years at Tynecastle – "they were the lows of my life," he says – but never once was his commitment questioned by supporters.

As a 60-year-old pub landlord he takes a similar approach, unless someone offers the chance to pore over his Hearts halcyon days.

Busby was on holiday for a fortnight in Florida last month, the first time in 11 years he hadn't spent a weekend behind his bar, the Waverley.

"Football ruled my life for years, morning, noon and night. Now I'm in the pub game and it's ruling my life." True dedication, as one beer company says. He played football the same way.

"I'd been known to get tore into the Hibs players, hard as I could. But I remember one game going for a tackle with John Blackley. The way I went in, I could just see the whites of his eyes and I thought, 'Ah'm done in here.' Blackley could easily have broken my leg but he just stepped aside. I'll never forget him for that.

"People could see by your actions on the park that you cared about it. If we got beat, I'd fling the Sunday papers in the bin and wouldn't read them.

"In another game at Easter Road, I was told to stop Blackley and (Eric] Schaedler breaking forward. I had to keep them in sight at all times and if they made a run I had to match it.

"Hibs had a free-kick round about the halfway line so I'm watching Blackley and Schaedler. Then wee Joe Harper sneaks up and pings one in at the back post. Big Alan Anderson, our captain, ran up to me and said: 'See you, are you too ******* good to pick up?' I nearly punched his lights out because I'd run about all day after the other two."

Busby was the man Hibs fans loved to hate. He could antagonise opponents and mesmerise his own supporters and seemed to pride himself on both in equal measure.

"I didn't really get on with the Hibs support," he says. "If you look at the likes of Donald Park who played with me at Hearts and is now coaching at Hibs, I don't think I could have done that.

"When you ran out the tunnel at the old Easter Road for a derby game, you'd get a spittal right on the back of your head. They were spitting on you as you ran out which actually helped get you going. It was some place.

"I must admit, Hibs in those days had a tremendous team. Pat Stanton, John Blackley, Jimmy O'Rourke, Alan Gordon. They also had a guy called Alex Edwards in midfield, what a player he was. If he wasn't playing I always felt we had a good chance."

Hibs' success during the 1970s got under Busby's skin but he opines that Hearts only had themselves to blame. Financial pressure did not give way until after Wallace Mercer's 1981 takeover, by which time Busby had headed to pastures new with the Canadian club Toronto Blizzard.

"The Hearts fans hated Bobby Seith (who signed Busby from Airdrie for £35,000 in 1973] but he was a true professional. We trained morning and afternoon and then worked on set-pieces. The guy was a perfectionist, he just couldn't sell himself to the supporters. After he left, it gradually went downhill.

"We went from John Hagart as manager, who wasn't too bad, to Willie Ormond, who was hopeless. He didn't put anything into it. The players didn't realise how bad the club's financial situation was at the time.

"When I first joined Hearts we trained at Saughton Enclosure and it was very professional. It got to the stage where we were turning up for training and there was nowhere to train.

"Sometimes you arrived and there was no-one to take training. Either myself or Jim Jefferies would have to take it. All we were doing was running round the track at Tynecastle.

"If it was winter and the track was frozen, we had to run about the terracing.

"We were paid £35 a week, with £20 per appearance and £20 per win. From that point of view, you were never injured. I think I only ever played one reserve game for Hearts.

"Even if you were injured, it was 'How's your ankle?' 'Fine.'

"Plenty times I played and should never have been on the park. I remember playing Morton in a cup replay when Ormond was the manager. My right leg was totally knackered but he flung me in.

"I couldn't even kick the ball with my right, I was trying to tackle with my left which was just stupid. I ended up scoring the winner but I was out for a month.

"Our wingers at the time were Kenny Aird, Donald Park and Rab Prentice. Rab was a fantastic footballer, a striker's dream. When Hagart gave his team talks and laid out formations in front of us, he would use pennies for all the players. Except Prentice would be a 10p piece because he was the man who was going to win it for us."

Difficult to imagine Csaba Laszlo doing likewise, but football has moved on considerably while Busby has been pulling pints in Dunbartonshire. His dedication back in the day remains something to behold, for he journeyed by train from Alexandria to Gorgie every day, a four-hour daily round trip.

"Hearts was the pinnacle of my career," he says. "After I left, it really was downhill. Hearts is the club I always associate myself with and I'm proud to have played for them.

"I left and went to Toronto and was treated like a superstar. When I arrived it was 'pick your own car.' At Hearts, it was £30 towards a new pair of boots, if you wanted a dearer pair you paid the rest."

Busby's last post in football was in 1984 as player-manager of Queen of the South.

"I wish I'd pursued football more after I left Queen of the South and stayed in the game. The dedication and passion of the supporters nowadays never fails to amaze me, especially at Hearts.

"If half the players there showed the passion of those fans, we wouldn't have any problems.

"I'll be watching the game on Sunday. The thing that worries me when I look at the two teams is Hibs have three guys up front who can score 15-20 goals a season each – Nish, Fletcher and Riordan. At Hearts, we don't have that."

Drew Busby, were he 30 years younger, would quickly sort that out.

Taken from the Scotsman