Being someone with maroon leanings, not only am I glad of the respite from the cinch Premiership this weekend, but I am also looking forward to FC Edinburgh’s game this Friday evening against Queen of the South at the Meadowbank Maracanã. I’m particularly keen to be reacquainted with one player in the visiting team, who made a significant contribution to one of the best days of my football supporting life. Sadly, he didn’t fulfil the promise that was expected, perhaps unfairly on one so young. But in Gorgie he will forever be remembered for one game in particular…
T'was the week before Christmas 2017. I took my then 12-year-old
grandson Jack to Tynecastle with, it has to be said, some trepidation. Hearts
were playing Celtic in the Premiership. Now, I have seen some poor Hearts teams
over the years and this one five years ago was in the distinctly average category.
Although the Maroons were fifth in the league, their performances had hardly
set the heather on fire and going into the game against the league leaders the
home team had been hit by something of an injury crisis meaning there were to be
first team debuts for a couple of untried 16-year-olds.
Celtic, on the other hand, were creating all sorts of records
and generally blowing away the opposition on a weekly basis. Under manager Brendan
Rodgers, the Hoops were on an incredible unbeaten run of 69 domestic games
stretching back two seasons. They were two points ahead of second placed
Aberdeen and had two games in hand. Surely, it would be a case of how many
goals Celtic would score against a depleted Hearts team?
On our way to Tynecastle, I explained the situation to young
Jack who nevertheless retained the admirable optimism of someone still to experience
the bitterness of life and following Hearts in particular. I suggested that,
when the scoreline reached 4-0, we would leave and head for the bus home. He
agreed and we pondered at which point in the game this would be. Hopefully, we
would still be there for the start of the second half…
One of those 16-year-olds making his debut was Harry
Cochrane. He was slightly built and looked more like Jack’s age. I did wonder
about the wisdom of Hearts manager Craig Levein thrusting such a young lad into
the cauldron of a home game against Celtic.
With our expectations at zero as the game kicked off, we were
pleasantly surprised when Hearts made a decent start. Celtic dominated possession,
as you would expect but the game was still goalless halfway through the first
half, much to our surprise. Surely it would only be a matter of time before we
saw the first goal. In the 26th minute we did – and the crowd of
over 18,000 were stunned as it went to the home team. Not only that but it was
fresh-faced Harry Cochrane who buried a low shot beyond Celtic keeper Craig
Gordon – whatever happened to him? – from the edge of the penalty box.
As is my custom I turned to young Jack and opined ‘it won’t
last’. But I didn’t expect the next goal to be from Kyle Lafferty to put Hearts
2-0 ahead. And this before half-time.
Having seen my optimism burst on far too many occasions in
over fifty years, I still expected Celtic to turn things around in the second half.
They began the second period with all guns blazing and a goal duly arrived just
three minutes after the re-start. But it came for Hearts when David Milinkovic
took advantage of poor Celtic defending to, incredibly, put Hearts three goals
ahead. Jack asked if my pessimism was still intact. I replied I would accept a
3-3 draw…
Celtic threw everything, including the metaphorical kitchen
sink at Hearts but the home defence stood firm. Young Cochrane looked dead on
his feet and another goal did arrive with fifteen minutes left – astonishingly it
was another for the home side when Milinkovic scored with a penalty kick. One of
the most remarkable games in Premiership history ended Hearts 4 Celtic 0. But
we didn’t leave at 4-0 – we stayed to milk the celebrations at the end.
Naturally, big things were expected of Harry Cochrane thereafter,
but it didn’t quite work out for him at Tynecastle. After a couple of loan
spells at Dunfermline Athletic and Montrose, Cochrane is now at Queen of the South.
It remains an anomaly that one of the poorest Hearts teams I
have seen in over fifty years produced arguably the best league result in that
time. Whatever else Harry Cochrane does in his career he will never forget that
Sunday lunchtime in Gorgie in 2017 when he helped deliver a Christmas present
Hearts fans could only have dreamt of!
Twitter @Mike1874
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