Scottish Cup: Former manager Jim Jefferies on Hearts’ 1998 final win
| Sportscene Football Classics | |
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| Watch Hearts v Rangers in the 1998 Scottish Cup final from 19:15 BST on Saturday on BBC Scotland and the BBC Sport website | |
The one-way traffic didn’t cease at full-time when Hearts ended 36 trophy-barren years with Scottish Cup success in 1998.
After surviving a Rangers siege at Celtic Park in a 2-1 win, Jim Jefferies and his players were on the team bus snaking its way back to Tynecastle amid a scene jam-packed with Jambos as far as the eye could see.
The journey became a victory crawl and even the emergency services got carried away with the euphoria.
“The bus could hardly move for the last four or five miles,” recalls Jefferies. “Everyone was singing in the streets, police were waving Hearts flags from their cars in front of us. When we passed the fire station, the guys there were all dancing on top of the fire engines.
“A drive that would normally have taken five minutes took us an hour and a half. It was fantastic – the place was jumping.”
Twenty-two years on, Jefferies tells BBC Scotland about the greatest moment of his career and champagne-fuelled celebrations with Dick Campbell in Magaluf…
Mind games & tactical tweak
Few people outside Tynecastle gave Hearts a hope. This, after all, was the last hurrah of Walter Smith’s trophy-laden Rangers tenure. The legendary manager had announced his impending exit and, with Rangers’ pursuit of 10 successive league titles having been foiled by Celtic a week previously, Smith was determined to bow out clutching a trophy.
His side had beaten Hearts in the Scottish and League Cup finals in 1996 – including a 5-1 trouncing – and a hat-trick looked a safe bet.
Jefferies, though, spotted fissures of weakness in Smith’s previously all-conquering team and spent the build-up working on his players’ minds as much as their legs.
“We went away down south to England to prepare,” he says. “We knew there would be a lot of talk and wanted to get away from it all. We stayed at the Forest of Arden and trained at the facilities Scotland had used at the Euros.
“It was little things like getting into the players’ heads that week and telling them, ‘you’ll never believe how you’ll be treated by the supporters if you pull this off, because it has been causing them agony for so long’.
“We had a leisurely day on the Sunday, played golf, and trained Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We knew the weekend was going to be hot, so we didn’t want to tire them too much.
“We then stayed at Dunblane Hydro the night before the game and I could tell at breakfast that this team had a real chance. Just by looking at them all and watching them that morning, I sensed they felt this was their day.”
Taking only a point from four league meetings with Rangers that season was enough to convince Jefferies to rip up his usual game plan for the showpiece.
“The fact we played well in those two previous finals against Rangers – the 5-1 scoreline was harsh on us – gave us belief to get back there and put things right. And things were changing at Ibrox – Walter was leaving, Paul Gascoigne was away, Brian Laudrup was going to Chelsea.
“Another big plus for us was that Jorg Albertz wasn’t available. Most of their midfield were hard workers rather than creative.
“We changed our tactics. I said to the players, ‘we’ve lost 13 goals in four league games against them, we can’t afford to give them three goals of a start’. We were getting plaudits for our attacking football but Rangers would hit on the break and punish us. So we sat deeper and let them come on to us.”
Rousset redemption as Hearts hang on
Hearts had gone 42 years since last winning the Scottish Cup, but just 38 seconds into the final they were in front. Steve Fulton was chopped down by Ian Ferguson and Colin Cameron tucked away the spot-kick.
“I turned round and saw [BBC reporter] Chick Young sitting behind the dugout,” Jefferies says. “I looked at him, he put his thumbs up, and I asked, ‘how long to go?'”
Rangers were again caught cold at the start of the second half. Lorenzo Amoruso dithered, Stephane Adam latched on to a long ball and fired past Andy Goram.
Chances kept piling up for Smith’s side but they couldn’t covert until Ally McCoist pulled a goal back 10 minutes from time. And their barrage of pressure looked to have produced a late penalty when McCoist was hauled down by Davie Weir.
“The referee, Willie Young, was honest – he said he would have given the penalty,” Jefferies says. “But they had a system they had discussed before the game, where if the linesman runs to the corner flag then it’s a penalty. If he stays level with the 18-yard line, that means it’s outside the box. Thankfully for us, the linesman stayed where he was.
“Rangers were fuming. Every time I bump into Ally McCoist he still complains about it. Then we had to suffer a bit longer because Willie played about seven minutes of stoppage time. I asked him, ‘is this what happens when you’re up against Celtic or Rangers?’
“He said, ‘look, your big goalie was mucking about with the ball at his feet’. I said, ‘that’s in the rules. It’s up to Rangers to put him under pressure and make him pick it up’. But Rangers were too knackered by that stage to go and close him down.”
Victory marked redemption for Hearts goalkeeper Gilles Rousset, who had coughed up a howler to put his side 2-0 down in the 5-1 cup drubbing by Rangers in 1996, but produced a man-of-the-match performance this time around.
“Sometimes these things can destroy a goalkeeper, but he had four or five unbelievable stops in the ’98 final. He’s a great big guy, loved being at Hearts, I still keep in touch with him. He’s over in China now as assistant manager [at Beijing Sinobo Guoan].
“He has a great sense of humour. Last time I spoke to him I asked if he’s enjoying it in China. He said, ‘it’s going great, gaffer. And they’re paying me more money than you ever did!'”
Partying with Dick Campbell in Magaluf
Befitting of a team who could party as well as they could play, the celebrations were long and raucous.
From Tynecastle that evening to the open-top bus parade the following day, the memories remain fresh and cherished for 69-year-old Jefferies, who is now back in fine fettle after a heart attack in September.
“I still get stopped by people saying you gave us the greatest day of our lives,” he says. “I wish I had a pound for every person who has told me that.”
And Jefferies’ annual summer getaway to Magaluf with his players kept the party going.
“You soon learn things,” he recalls. “We first went to the same hotel as the players – that was a disaster. Next year, we book it for a different floor – still a disaster. Same with the hotel next door the following year. So we eventually ended up with the players on one end of town and the coaching staff on the other.”
The manager did get in the spirit of things, though, with a load of old pals.
“That year, Dunfermline were out there too and I was very friendly with the manager Bert Paton and his coaching staff Dick and Iain Campbell, Jimmy Bone,” says Jefferies.
“They were in the hotel next to us and Bert phoned me and said, ‘there will be a bottle of champagne waiting on your veranda when you arrive’.
“When we went up, the whole Dunfermline backroom staff were sitting there. We got through a case of champagne rather than just a bottle. They were fantastic because they know what it’s like for a club outside the Old Firm to win a trophy.”
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