Has there ever been more tension surrounding an Edinburgh derby than the meeting between Hibernian and Hearts at Easter Road in September 1990? How did we get to the point where the Police entered the Hearts dressing room at half-time and asked them not to score another goal?
‘Probably not’ is the answer to the first question; the answer to the second is less simple.
In 1990, the city of Edinburgh almost lost one of its two most famous football clubs. This is a story of attempted takeovers, protest movements and, above all, the undying love football fans have for their teams.
Wallace Mercer’s hostile takeover
Three months before the explosive September 1990 derby, the terraces of Easter Road were packed. On this occasion, however, there was no match taking place. A ‘Hands off Hibs’ movement had been launched to protest Hearts’ chairman Wallace Mercer’s proposal that the Tynecastle club buy out their city rivals; one of the many Hands off Hibs campaign events was taking place at Easter Road.
At the end of the previous season, 1989/90, Hibs were £6 million in debt and battling for their future. Three years earlier, in 1987, things were seemingly looking brighter for the Easter Road side when solicitor David Duff took a seat on the club’s board. Working with Duff, David Rowland (a future Conservative Party Treasurer and tax exile) agreed to bankroll an acquisition of Hibernian. However, the purchase was based on Hibs fans digging deep and investing in their team, too. The Leith side became the first Scottish team to be listed on the stock market and an advertising campaign encouraged fans to buy shares in their club and ‘share in Hibernian’s future’. The initial uptake was significant; it was reported that more than 1,700 supporters took up the offer, raising an estimated £1.6 million.
Hibs fans had reason to be excited. In October 1987, future Scotland number one Andy Goram signed for the club from Oldham for £325,000. A year later, Scotland international Steve Archibald, who, in 1984, had signed for Barcelona as Diego Maradona’s replacement, arrived in Leith, and scored 16 goals in his first season with the club. However, things began to unravel as the finer details of the ‘new Hibernian’ became clearer. Hibernian had been divided into three sections: parent company Edinburgh Hibernian PLC, Hibernian Leisure, and Hibernian Land and Property. Within the small print of the newly formed Hibernian PLC was the acquisition of a loss-making restaurant chain in the south of England, owned by one of David Rowland’s companies. These debts dragged Hibs into receivership.
When David Rowland decided to sell up his 29.9 per cent share in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC, David Duff and the Hibs board learned that Wallace Mercer had launched an audacious bid to buy Hibernian and merge the club with city rivals Hearts. Mercer pitched his bid as a merging of the two sides – with the goal of challenging Glasgow’s ‘big two’ – but Hibs fans were in little doubt that this was a takeover, and any sale to Mercer would signal the end of the Leith club.
Mercer may have had the business links, but one thing he could not compete with was the sheer weight of emotion, community spirit and love that formed the ‘Hands off Hibs’ movement. During the summer of 1990, various fundraising events took place throughout the city with Hibs fans desperate to secure the future of their club. The Hands off Hibs rally brought former players and club legends back to Easter Road, with some Hearts fans reportedly in attendance standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their city rivals.
One protest rally was even attended by Hearts striker John Robertson. From a player’s point of view, Robertson raised concerns that any merger between the clubs would result in a full playing squad losing their jobs. In attending the rally at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, Robertson had disobeyed the wishes of his chairman Mercer.
Ultimately, and surely with the impact of the Hands off Hibs campaign fresh in their minds, David Duff and his partners didn’t sell their shares. This meant Mercer couldn’t acquire the percentage holding in Hibs that he needed, and his takeover bid was unsuccessful. However, Hibs’ future remained in grave danger and tensions were still simmering in Leith when the 1990/91 season kicked off.
‘Emotions of a long, difficult summer come to the surface’
When it came to matchday, Saturday 15 September 1990, Easter Road was at boiling point. If the backdrop of Mercer’s takeover proposal wasn’t enough, both teams’ poor starts to the campaign added further fuel to the fire. Having only managed a point each from the opening three rounds of fixtures, the Edinburgh sides sat beside newly promoted St Johnstone at the bottom of the league. The disappointing start had cost Hearts manager Alex MacDonald his job. Therefore, Sandy Clark, stepping in as caretaker, sat opposite his Hibs counterpart Alex Miller in the dugout. For his own safety – and having spent parts of the summer under police protection – Mercer had been advised not to attend the match.
FIFA referee Jim McCluskey would need all his experience to keep a lid on the on-field action. As McCluskey blew his whistle, the fans had something to concentrate on other than fighting each other. Scuffles had broken out pre-match, and they would do so again within 12 minutes of the game starting, as the visitors took an early lead. Hearts forward John Robertson latched onto a loose ball on the left wing, just outside the penalty box. Jinking between two Hibs defenders, Robertson sent a clipped cross towards the front post, which Hibs midfielder Pat McGinlay headed past his goalkeeper Andy Goram and into the net.
Following the opening goal, fans burst onto the park and Robertson was struck by a Hibernian supporter. The striker recalls this moment in his autobiography: “I felt a thump on my back just below my neck” Robertson says. “I genuinely thought it was Fozzy [Wayne Foster] as he had been known to be a bit heavy handed with his celebrations. As I turned round, I was astonished to see it was actually a Hibs fan. Before I could react, Andy Goram had raced from his goal and pulled the lad away. As that happened, a Hearts fan ran on to the pitch and punched the Hibs fan. Cue bedlam.”
Fighting continued in the stands as the game resumed. Shortly afterwards, McCluskey took the players off the park. Gerry McNee aptly captured the afternoon’s mood in his Scotsport commentary when he said: ‘The emotions of a long, difficult summer are coming to the surface today’.
When the game restarted, Hibs looked like they may find a route back into the match, but Hearts soon reasserted their dominance. With 24 minutes on the clock, Craig Levein rose highest to meet a John Colquhoun corner kick. The defender’s header shouldn’t have troubled Andy Goram in the Hibs goal, but John Robertson’s attempt to steer the ball home seemed to distract the ‘keeper and it ended in the back of the net for 2-0. Robertson did get his name on the scoresheet a minute before half-time. The industrious Colquhoun slipped a ball through to Wayne Foster on the right-hand-side of the box. Foster’s cross was perfect for his strike partner to head past Goram from close range.
An Inspector Calls… on the Hearts dressing room
As the Hearts players enjoyed their half-time refreshments, safe in the knowledge that – barring the most unlikely of derby day comebacks – they were 45 minutes away from their first victory of the season, they received an unexpected visitor to their dressing room. Speaking on Scotland’s Game television series, John Robertson reflects on the surprise when a senior police officer put his head round the dressing room door. “He said to us: ‘We fear another pitch invasion, you know, we’re going to basically say if you score another goal and Hibs fans invade, we may have to stop the game, so you know, if you can help it, don’t score,’” Robertson recalls. “We were all looking stunned, thinking – some strange request, that. He went out the door and Sandy Clark said ‘Yeah, yeah officer, no problem at all, no worries, I know where you’re coming from, we’ll leave it at that’. He shut the door and said: ‘Nah, that ain’t happening guys.'”
Despite Sandy Clark’s hunger for more goals, the Police got their way, as the game’s second half passed off without any major incidents. Two long range efforts from Hibs’ Brian Hamilton brought out a couple of smart stops from Henry Smith in the Hearts goal but, beyond that, the game drifted towards the final whistle and a 3-0 victory for the visitors.
Tom Wright, Hibs historian and author of Hibernian, The Life and Times of a Famous Football Club, was on the Easter Road terraces that afternoon. “To my mind, considering the circumstances, there had probably never before been a greater desire among the support to beat our local rivals,” he recalls of the September 1990 derby. “However, most decent Hibs fans would also have been thoroughly ashamed at the embarrassing behaviour of some of their supporters that afternoon, both on the terracing and also on the field that had forced the game to be held up for several minutes.”
Reflecting on the Hands off Hibs campaign, Wright speaks of the strength of feeling Mercer’s proposal ignited across the city, from both sides of the football divide. “The Hands off Hibs campaign that had not only helped create an even bigger sense of community among the Hibs support but also great anger, had also received the backing of a great many Hearts supporters and also from much further afield, a prominent councillor who also supported the Gorgie side publicly coming out against Mercer’s proposal,” he says. “Many Hibs fans had also spent considerable time and effort in collecting a huge amount of petitions opposing the move that had eventually been presented at Tynecastle. The Hands off Hibs committee were said to have come away from the ground with the feeling that not everyone behind the scenes at Tynecastle was behind Mercer’s proposal.”
The team that wouldn’t die
Salvation for Hibs came in the form of Edinburgh entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer. Sir Tom’s grandfather and great uncle had boosted Hibs financially a century earlier and, in 1990, the Kwik Fit owner purchased Hibs’ share capital from receivers, which weakened Wallace Mercer’s position and, ultimately, saved Hibs from potential extinction. A new board was formed, with David Duff and David Rowland no longer involved.
Despite the positive outcome off the park, season 1990/91 was a long slog for the Leith side on the pitch. Alex Miller’s side managed only six league wins all season – finishing second from bottom of the table – and their interest in the two domestic cup competitions ended in the early rounds.
However, it wasn’t long before Hibs fans had a chance to celebrate. In November 1991, Alex Miller’s men defeated Dunfermline in the League Cup Final at Hampden to lift their first major trophy in almost two decades. A much-improved league campaign saw Hibs finish the 1991/92 season in fifth place, securing the return of European football to Easter Road in the process. Due to their resolve and fighting spirit, led by the fans on the terraces, the Hibs side of this era is affectionately known as ‘The Team That Wouldn’t Die’.
Across the city, Joe Jordan was appointed Hearts’ manager and they went on to finish season 1990/91 in fifth position. They remained unbeaten against their city rivals that campaign, winning two and drawing one of the remaining three league fixtures, including a 4-1 hammering of Hibs at Easter Road on 2 January 1991.
Wallace Mercer remained chairman of Hearts until 1994 when he sold his shares in the club. A year earlier, David Duff was convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in prison.
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