WHEN Hearts lost the title in the closing minutes of season 1985-86, the hangover which followed was industrial strength.
One week on from tearful supporters walking around in a daze at Dens Park after seeing Albert Kidd climb off the bench to end a 27-match unbeaten league run, the Gorgie side were unable to raise themselves for the Scottish Cup final at Hampden which ended in an abject 3-0 defeat to Aberdeen.
If those same fans believed the summer recess would have restorative powers, they were sorely mistaken.
Sent to Love Street for the opening league match of 1986-87- for many, the scene of a crime following St Mirren’s dismal 0-5 defeat to Celtic on the final day of the previous campaign – Hearts’ hopes of gaining a slither of vengeance ended in a bleak goalless draw. But worse was to follow.
Ten days later, the side led jointly by Alex MacDonald and Sandy Jardine lost at home to Montrose in the League Cup – setting the tone for a campaign of profound disappointment.
The team exited the UEFA Cup at the first hurdle, losing on away goals to Dukla Prague, and were beaten in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup by none other than eventual winners St Mirren.
A fifth-placed finish in the Premier League seemed to confirm that the events on Tayside on May 3 took more of a psychological toll than anyone expected.
MacDonald made only minimal changes to the squad over that summer – Allan Moore and Wayne Foster the most conspicuous arrivals. With hindsight, the best way to banish the memory of what happened might have been a complete overhaul.
Forty years on, as Hearts supporters prepare to return to another place of trauma, there are fewer concerns that the side which lost the title to Celtic at Parkhead on May 16 will have had their sleep disturbed by night tremors in the build-up.
Of the 16 players who featured that dramatic afternoon, nine are no longer at the club. Of those who remain, Blair Spittal is absent through injury.
Cammy Devlin (left) and Stephen Kingsley are devastated as Celtic fans storm the pitch
Lawrence Shankland’s goal had put Hearts within touching distance of the title
Derek McInnes and his coaching staff are also now ensconced at Rangers, meaning the bulk of those who came within three minutes of becoming Scottish champions have moved on.
But what of those who have lived to tell the unfortunate tale of just how close they came to bringing the title back to Gorgie or the first time since 1960?
Stuart Findlay, Harry Milne, Claudio Braga, Stephen Kingsley, Jordi Altena and Pierre Landry Kabore were all involved that afternoon.
Do they sit in silence on the journey through and pretend it never happened? Or do they tell the story to those who weren’t there at the time, hoping that they too, might use it as fuel to their fires?
Because, everything that led to that point in May was still quite a story. Heartbreaking, ultimately. But still joyful, exhilarating and inspiring. Hearts didn’t win it. But they did not bottle it.
Everyone concerned with the club will also harbour a deep sense of injustice about how it all played out and the unedifying scenes which followed.
What’s done is done, of course. But using perceived injustices of the past to try and shape a brighter future has been a fundamental part of sport since Methuselah was but a lad.
And those who represented Hearts last season certainly have plenty of those to reference in this campaign.
Blair Spittal watches on as Callum Osmand seals Celtic’s title triumph
When McInnes’ side came from behind to beat Rangers at Tynecastle on the Bank Holiday Monday at the start of May, they effectively reduced a three-horse race to two.
With three games to go, Hearts were three points ahead of Celtic with a superior goal difference of five. Rangers, seven points back, needed a miracle.
Irrespective of what Celtic achieved, McInnes’ men knew that seven points from their closing games with Motherwell, Falkirk and Martin O’Neill’s side would guarantee them the title.
Travelling to Fir Park on the Saturday night to face a Motherwell side which had captured the imagination under the charismatic Jens Berthel Askou, Hearts also had to contend with the fact that they’d not won away in the league outside Edinburgh since the end of January.
Trailing to Kingsley’s own goal, Lawrence Shankland equalised for the visitors before the break.
When Alexandros Kyziridis fell to the ground following a challenge by Tawanda Maswanhise at a short corner, there felt a sense of inevitability about what would follow when referee Steven McLean was asked to review the incident on his pitch side monitor.
To the chagrin of every Hearts player and supporter in the ground, though, the referee stood by his decision not to award a penalty.
The visitors, ultimately, dropped two points. With Celtic eliminating Rangers from the race by winning 3-1 at Parkhead the next day, it was all becoming rather tense.
Claudio Braga (left) and Alexandros Kyziridis rue dropping points at Motherwell
Falkirk had enjoyed a fine return to the top flight, but John McGlynn faced a thankless task when he took his side back to his old stomping ground in the final midweek card.
With Colin Chisholm leading the supporters in a deafening pre-match rendition of The Hearts Song and the Gorgie Ultras raising a banner imploring the side to ‘Keep Believing’, McInnes’ outfit eased to a 3-0 win and awaited word of Celtic’s fortunes at Fir Park.
A win for Berthel Askou’s men would have seen Hearts cross the line with a game to spare. A draw would have required Celtic to win by three goals on the final day to snatch the title on goals scored.
And as a tempestuous match entered stoppage time tied at two goals apiece, that’s exactly how the picture looked.
Auston Trusty’s challenge with Sam Nicholson in the home side’s box appeared unremarkable and brought no immediate reaction from referee John Beaton.
When VAR Andrew Dallas summoned the official to review the incident, Beaton was adamant that Nicholson’s raised hand had made contact with the ball. Penalty.
Kelechi Iheanacho’s calm conversion in the 99th minute sparked bedlam in the Celtic end and a tidal wave of fury which even Gary Lineker got swept up in.
Sam Nicholson’s controversial handball proved a pivotal moment in the title race
Fifty miles east, Hearts players and management initially watched the pictures in stunned silence, knowing they could no longer afford a slender defeat at Parkhead.
‘It’s disgusting,’ McInnes later fumed in a rant which would land him in hot water with the SFA. ‘We’re up against it, we’re up against everybody.
‘To do it, we’re going to have to go and get a positive result. I’m looking forward to it already, there’ll be no feeling sorry for ourselves. What a game it’s going to be.’
It couldn’t really have been any other way. The league leaders since the autumn needing a point at the home of the champions who looked dead and buried when they lost at Tannadice with seven hurdles to go? Something had to give.
Even though the build-up was brief, the level of rancour and pettiness throughout the land was extraordinary.
Hearts fans, understandably, felt that two pivotal incidents in the final week had gone against them. In time, the SFA’s Key Match Incident Panel would concur with that view.
Yet, Celtic’s claim for an earlier penalty that night at Fir Park when Calum Ward cleaned out Daizen Maeda had also looked convincing.
For those prepared to go back long enough – and many were – Hearts had also won at Ibrox in September despite a clear handball by Shankland in the build-up going unpunished.
While Hearts were due some sympathy for the way the cards fell going down the home straight, without question, a degree of recency bias was also at play.
Hearts players arrived back at Tynecastle in their kits after making a swift exit from Parkhead
Mercifully, in terms of the football witnessed when the challengers met on that final day, there was no dubiety about the key decisions.
Shankland’s header to edge his side in front was clean as a whistle. Kyziridis’s handling of Kieran Tierney’s cross, which led to Arne Engels’ penalty equaliser, was also a straightforward decision. And Daizen Maeda’s pivotal goal with three minutes of the 90 left, initially flagged offside, was correctly awarded by VAR.
It was the scenes which followed Callum Osmand’s 98th minute clincher into an unguarded net which applied a lorry-load of salt to the visitors’ gaping wounds.
The impromptu pitch invasion by Celtic supporters was initially celebratory, but it threatened to become something more sinister when some individuals came face to face with some Hearts players.
The Tynecastle club said some players and staff had reported ‘serious physical and verbal abuse’. This week, one Celtic supporter was handed a two-year ban from grounds and ordered to do unpaid work after admitting making an offensive gesture towards Shankland while carrying a child.
Contrary to a claim by Tony Bloom that ‘one or two’ visiting players were assaulted, however, there’s never been any publicly confirmed evidence of this.
What’s beyond dispute is that the visiting players didn’t even bother to shower or attend to their media duties, opting to immediately board the team bus in their kit to escape the chaos.
Celtic did apologise to Hearts ‘for the situation encountered by their players and staff’ although O’Neill later distanced himself from this stance when asked if the scenes had shamed Scottish football.
‘I think it’s nonsense,’ he said. ‘I don’t know about confrontation in terms of the Hearts players. There’s a lot of hyperbole about that. Let’s find out the real picture.’
In time, though, Celtic were fined £7,500 for the pitch invasion with a reduction of 1000 match tickets suspended for a year.
Hearts also felt aggrieved that Celtic’s third goal had been the last act before referee Don Robertson blew the final whistle.
The SFA subsequently released an audio indicating that McInnes had expressed concerns about player safety and was content for the match to end when it did. After a minimum of eight minutes had been added on, Robertson called time at 98 minutes and seven seconds without ordering Hearts to restart the game.
A lot has changed in the 155 days since Callum McGregor raised the Premiership trophy for the fifth successive season.
Under Wouter Vrancken, Hearts’ estimable new head coach, players including Beau Reus, Laurent Mendy and Josh McPake have arrived and pushed the side to the point where another title challenge seems eminently possible.
Like the majority who’ll be tasked with advancing that aim with an early victory at Parkhead, they have no psychological scarring to deal with.
We can rest assured, though, that those who lost so painfully there last time around will have filled them in on the circumstances. With retribution on the line, a shared sense of injustice can go an awful long way.
