As the football season approaches its finale,
the Auld Reekie Ranter recalls one last day of the season scenario which
occurred fifty years ago today. It was one of the most notorious results
inflicted on Heart of Midlothian – and at Tynecastle too.
On 24 April 1965 Kilmarnock visited Gorgie
for the final league game of season 1964/65. Normally such a fixture would have
been a routine end of season affair with little at stake. However, in this
particular season, this was a game the television companies of today could only
have dreamt about. For Hearts were top of the league - two points ahead of
second-placed Killie in the days when just two points were awarded for a win.
The Maroons required just a single point to clinch their third league title in
seven years even though it was generally accepted Hearts best years, the
all-conquering era of the 1950s, were behind them. Indeed, Hearts could even
afford to lose the game as long as it was just by a single goal. At that time
goal average rather than goal difference was used to decide the winner if teams
were level on points.
More than 37,000 fans packed into Tynecastle
to witness history. Hearts, managed by the legendary Tommy Walker, the man who
brought so much success to Gorgie in the 1950s, began like they were the team
who needed to win by two clear goals.
For the opening half an hour they were camped inside the Killie half. They
recorded seven corner kicks to the visitor’s one. After only six minutes, Roald
Jensen burst through between two Killie defenders and shot for goal. To the
agony of the Norwegian, his team mates and the home crowd, his shot smacked off
the post.
Hearts were creating chances in a game they
didn’t really need to but such was Walker’s philosophy, the need to entertain
the paying customer was the raison d’etre
for playing the game. It was this spirit of adventure which had brought trophy
after trophy to Tynecastle in the preceding decade. But this was now the 1960s
and the importance of not losing games was taking precedence over winning and
entertaining. On the half hour mark a goal finally did arrive – for Kilmarnock.
Davie Sneddon was left all on his own some to head home Tommy McLean’s
cross - the same Tommy McLean who,
nearly 30 years later, would become Hearts manager.
Tynecastle was stunned. A feeling of
disbelief enveloped the old ground. And while it did, just 60 seconds later,
Killie, incredibly, scored the crucial second goal when Black beat Alan
Anderson before passing to Brian McIlroy. His low shot flew past Hearts keeper Jim
Cruickshank and into the net.
Disbelief had now turned into the stuff of
nightmares for Hearts. But they knew that even one goal would still mean they
would win the league even if it meant a 2-1 defeat. They laid siege to the
Killie goal before half-time but couldn’t find the all-important breakthrough.
It was the same story in the second half.
Kilmarnock repelled Hearts incessant attacks. With just seconds remaining and
Killie looking like they would hang on for the title, Hearts Roy Barry burst
through the defence and passed the ball to Alan Gordon. The striker hit a
powerful effort which looked a goal – and, therefore, the league flag – all the
way. However, Killie keeper Ferguson threw himself across his goal and tipped
the ball wide for a corner. The Hearts players held their heads in their hands.
Seconds later, it was all over. Hearts had lost 2-0 and thereby handed the
league title to Kilmarnock by 0.42 of a goal – the tightest finish to a league
title race in Scottish football history.
Many point to this game as being the one
which signalled a decline in Hearts fortunes thereafter which would culminate
in relegation in 1977. Tommy Walker remained as manager for 18 months before
leaving Tynecastle. Many supporters, dismayed by the decline in their once
great club, never returned.
Many of today’s generation of Hearts
supporters still recoil in horror the events of another final day of the season
calamity when Hearts lost the league title in the final eight minutes of the
1985/86 season at Dundee. The newspapers of that day looked back to 1965 and
asked if history could repeat itself. Sadly, it did.
The pain of 1986 will never leave this Hearts
supporter. For those Hearts fans who suffered both calamities, 24 April 1965
will never leave either.
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