Games of Our Lives

1. Hibernian 1-5 Heart of Midlothian

As we reach number one on our countdown, it only makes sense for the most memorable game of my life to also be the most memorable Edinbugh Derby ever, the derby to end all derbies if you will. Hearts triumphed by four goals over their counterparts at Hampden in the 2012 Scottish Cup final.

This game was absolutely huge, with tensions running high as perhaps the most high-stakes Edinburgh Derby perhaps ever approached. The matchup was confirmed in early April and this meant that there was over a month for the pressure to reach almost intolerable levels in Scotland’s capital. This was more than just the usual bragging rights that came with such a game. This was an opportunity to write history and, as any of the players on each side will tell you, cement yourself into the hearts and minds of everyone with any connection to either club. There was some talk of shifting the fixture from Hampden Park in Glasgow to Murrayfield for the convenience of everyone, but the stubborn-as-ever SFA had no ears for this discussion. So, on the 19th of May 2012, 50,000 Lothian residents descended on Scotland’s second city. The atmosphere inside the national stadium was amazing, with both sets of fans in fine voice. However, very soon it would become clear that there would be only one group of supporters celebrating at full time.

Hearts took the lead just before the fifteen minute mark, as a corner was only half cleared which allowed Darren Barr to steal in and score his first goal for the boys in maroon and spark wild scenes in one end.

They doubled their lead just ten minutes later through talisman Rudi Skacel, who dispatched a great strike beyond Mark Brown in the Hibs goal. The Leithers were dragged partially back into the game through defender James McPake as he pushed a shot in from close range just before half time.

However, the game was effectively ended as a contest four minutes after the interval with Hearts scoring twice in quick succession. Danny Grainger scored from the penalty spot after Pa Kuijabi cemented his place as a Hearts hero as he was sent off for two bookings. Minutes later, Ryan McGowan steered a diving header into the net from extremely close range.

Just mere minutes after Hibernian had dragged themselves into the game their fans had seen enough, and a mass exodus began as Hearts went through the motions. Rudi Skacel added a fifth goal late on to really put the icing on the cake for the Hearts fans, who hadn’t tasted defeat against their rivals in three years.

When the final whistle sounded, a party broke out of epic proportions as everyone in maroon celebrated the biggest result in their clubs history. 200,000 people lined the streets of Edinburgh the next day to salute their new heroes, who to this day are revered by those in Gorgie.

2. Heart of Midlothian 2-0 Hibernian

On the 30th March 2014, Hibernian came to Tynecastle with a chance to do the unthinkable: send Hearts down to the Championship. Of course, their fans took full advantage of this and coined the now infamous phrase ‘relegation party’. They turned up in full party mode, with blow up palm trees, party hats and even balloons to really try and rub it in over their rivals. As many of you know, what happened both on that day and in the weeks and months and even years after became perhaps the funniest ever ‘oops moment.’

Hearts hadn’t had their troubles to seek in the 2013/14 season, with Lithuanian Vladimir Romanov really throwing the club to the wolves, which resulted in a fifteen point deduction before a ball was kicked. On top of this, the club were placed under a transfer embargo and forced to simply use youth players who, in many cases, were simply not ready to play in top level games. There were only three contracted players over the age of 21; midfielder Ryan Stevenson, Goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald and attempted footballer/professional arsehole Jamie Hamill.

The young team fought valiantly against the impending, inescapable doom of relegation and managed to survive until around April time before succumbing to the drop, which was later than many had expected.

Onto the game, and Hearts were clearly aware of the ramifications, and they took the lead after just seven minutes through Dale Carrick. The place exploded in all but one of the stands, as that familiar feeling came over those that were there for a party. Hibs came into the game on a two game losing streak, and their fans had saw this high-stakes fixture as a way to ignite their season and drive up the table.

The game itself was fairly even, with both sides coming close following the goal, but the break arrived with the score locked at 1-0.

In the second half, Hibs should have equalised through Jordon Forster who headed beyond MacDonald, but hilariously the linesman raised his flag for offside, despite replays showing that the Hibs defender was at least five yards onside.

Former Hearts man Alan Maybury got his marching orders in the final minute for taking out Sam Nicholson as he looked to breakaway, with the visitors really piling on the pressure.

Hibs committed men forward in search of an equaliser late on, and Hearts took full advantage of having an extra man to almost take the roof off the stadium. A slick counter attack led by Ryan Stevenson left youngster Billy King in on goal and he was the calmest man inside Tynecastle as he took the ball round the goalkeeper and fired it into the empty net to spark wild scenes on the park, in the dugouts and of course in the stands. All of the pressure of the last few months was gone and had been replaced by utter jubilation for anyone connected with Heart of Midlothian.

And what of Hibs? Well, after their little relegation shin-dig they continued in dire form and were consigned to the relegation playoff, against championship opposition in Hamilton Academical. They won the first leg 2-0 and were confident of beating the drop in the return leg, but that was simply not to be. They lost 0-2 at home to Hamilton, and in the end they were relegated on penalties, which I believe may be known as karma. On top of this, it also took them three years to come back up, with their rivals doing it in just one.

3. Heart of Midlothian 2-2 Rangers

Seeing your team lift a trophy simply doesn’t happen every day, and neither does a last minute equaliser from two goals down… and yet both happened on May 2nd 2015 as Heart of Midlothian celebrated their rampant Ladbrokes Championship win with a somewhat mixed draw against the team that ultimately finished third in what many pundits and fans saw as a ‘one horse race’.

To say that Hearts were jubilant would have been drastically underselling the fervent nature of that day, with the game itself a mere distraction from the impending title party.

Rangers arrived at Tynecastle under Stuart McCall (their third manager that season) vying with Hibernian for the huge heights of second place and the playoff bonus that came with it. Indeed, their efforts would prove fruitless as the other Edinburgh team won their game anyway.

The visitors took the lead just before the half-hour mark through Darren McGregor who rose highest to power in a header. Kenny Miller added to their lead minutes later. Despite the lack of real importance of the game, Hearts boss Robbie Neilson managed to get himself sent to the stand just before the goal, although at Tynecastle the difference between being in the stand and the dugout isn’t really that profound.

From his new, elevated position, Neilson opted to throw on his wrecking ball, the aforementioned Genero Zeefuik. It was an inspired change, with the big Dutchman rewarding his manager’s faith with two goals in the final ten minutes. He fired in a rasping volley right on ninety minutes, to spark wild scenes among the home contingent, and a mass exodus for those of a blue persuasion.

The game itself was fun, but the celebrations afterwards will live long in the memory as Hearts celebrated their first league title in 30 years.

4. Seattle Seahawks 27-24 San Francisco 49ers

We return back across the pond for number four, with the Seattle Seahawks’ pulsating overtime defeat of their rivals the 49ers. This game took place during the excessively inconvenient ‘Monday Night Football’ slot, which meant it kicked off at around 1:30am UK time. The fixture pitted two teams in good form against each other, and on top of this they are two teams who plainly do not like each other one bit.

This game will be remembered by many as the Jadeveon Clowney game, with the Seahawks pass-rusher totally taking the game into his own hands and dominating his opposition.

The game was a real thriller, with huge levels of excitement for both sets of fans. It flip-flopped, with both teams having long spells of dominance but ultimately failing to make them count for much.

It was a game that was won ultimately, once again, due to an individual error, with 49ers kicker Chase McLaughlin missing a chance in overtime to seal his side’s ninth-straight victory and allowing the Seahawks one last chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

They took their chance, and kicker Jason Myers drilled a 42 yard effort through the posts to clinch the win and spark jubilant scenes both in the Pacific Northwest and in a tiny third-floor flat in Caledonian Court across the ocean.

This victory was a real sign of intent from the ‘Hawks, and it also brought the previously unbeaten Niners back down to earth with a bump as their rivals defeated them at home for the first time in two years.

5. Heart of Midlothian 4-0 Celtic

Number five in our countdown marks the first (and last) time a Craig Levein team will make an appearance. Indeed, this game was perhaps the infamous former Hearts manager’s finest moment during his second spell in charge in the capital.

A buoyant Celtic team arrived at Tynecastle Park on the morning of Sunday 17th December without even a thought that they’d return west with anything except a victory. And why should they? They hadn’t been beaten by the Jambos in over five years, they were on a sixty-nine match unbeaten run, and in all honesty their opponents were nothing special.

However, that all flew out the window just twenty-six minutes in, as sixteen-year-old Harry Cochrane slammed in a strike from the edge of the box to claim his first goal for Hearts. All four sides of Tynecastle were shocked, with all but one jubilant in equal measure.

Things went from bad to worse for the champions just nine minutes later, as former Rangers forward Kyle Lafferty fired in a wonderful strike beyond Craig Gordon that kissed the inside of the post before nestling in the back of the net. The stadium erupted in a mixture of shock and awe as many began to dream of ending Celtic’s seemingly unbreakable run.

The dreams turned to almost reality only three minutes after the half-time interval as David Milinkovic seized on an amateur mistake from Jozo Simunovic to send those in the stands into raptures.

Milinkovic added a fourth goal from the penalty spot in the seventy-sixth minute to really put the crown on a truly amazing day for everyone of a maroon persuasion.

No one, and I truly mean no one, even had a hint of a thought that Hearts would be the ones to end Celtic’s long, long run. Not even the most ambitious of Hearts fan saw it coming, and I really think that it was one of the biggest upsets Scottish football has seen.

This game stands as the highpoint of a somewhat disappointing season for Hearts, and as previously mentioned it was certainly Mr Levein’s best moment following his return to club management.

6. Heart of Midlothian 10-0 Cowdenbeath

No, it’s not a typo, our sixth game is genuinely a match where a team won by a margin of 10 goals. I know it seems difficult to envisage, but there was actually a time when Heart of Midlothian were quite good. So good in fact, that in March 2015 they annihilated Cowdenbeath in a Ladbrokes Championship game which really wasn’t much of a contest. Admittedly, Hearts were helped by their opposition not really putting up much of a fight, with five of the ten goals coming in a crazy fifteen minute spell at the end of the first half. This game was naturally memorable due to the bonkers nature of the scoring, with nothing of that nature really being seen on a football field all that often.

Hearts were helped by Dutch striker Genero Zeefuik’s first half hat-tick, which would have been a world record for the fastest treble ever but for Cowden defender Lewis Toshney taking an age to leave the field following his red card.

Cowdenbeath really didn’t offer much to the match at all, with Hearts’ goalkeeper Neil Alexander’s fully white kit remaining resplendent and unblemished throughout the ninety-minutes.

Genero Zeefuik, Sam Nicholson, Billy King, Morgaro Gomis, Danny Wilson, Alim Ozturk and Osman Sow all helped themselves a goal or two (or even three) in a day which will live long in the memory of everyone who was there.

Perhaps the funniest part of this game is the fact that it isn’t even the most memorable game of that season, with more on that coming later.

7. Seattle Seahawks 10-9 Minnesota Vikings

Number seven in the countdown comes from the National Football League over in the US, as we travel back to January 2016 as the Seattle Seahawks take on the Minnesota Vikings in the annual playoffs.

Much like our previous entry, this game was definitely one for the purists, with a real lack of much quality in a game which took place in freezing temperatures. Also similar to our previous entry is that this is the first Seahawks game that I can actually remember watching. It was fascinating, and the game itself was like nothing that I’d ever seen before.

As said above, looking back on the highlights of the game doesn’t really offer that much to look at, however for me it was fantastic. Huge, huge players crashing into each other, fans going absolutely wild and just the fact that it was something totally different.

Indeed, much of the quality in the game came in a crazy three-and-a-half minute spell where the ‘Hawks ran up 10 points thanks to some wonderful improvisation from quarterback Russell Wilson. This firmly cemented the man Wilson threw to, Tyler Lockett as my favourite player in this new found sport, and that remains true today.

In the end, the game actually came down to a minute of horrendous failure on the part of the Vikings’ kicker Blair Walsh (almost certainly more on him later) who (there will be a theme here) missed a somewhat simple kick in his team’s hour of need.

This game was essentially the beginning of the end for my relatively-healthy sleep schedule because, as many of you will know, NFL games kick off at pretty awkward times over here in the UK, and now I will often find myself not sleeping until 5am following Seahawks games. And to think it all stemmed from a game with very little scoring!

8. Heart of Midlothian 1-0 Auchinleck Talbot

The first entry into this countdown may come as some surprise to many, and some others may have even forgotten that this game ever happened. Alas, on a freezing cold day in January 2012, we find a half-empty Tynecastle Park awaiting a routine Scottish Cup victory over part-time opponents.

Now this was hardly a classic, and many as mentioned above you could be forgiven for forgetting that it took place. Yet for me, it is the first football game that I can actually remember. From the overriding stench of the local brewery, to the overpriced and somewhat undercooked hot dog, it all sticks in the memory. It’s also a memorable game because it is the first entry into Hearts Scottish Cup win of 2012, which I can reveal will feature quite heavily in the countdown.

Hearts named a fairly strong team, with seven of the eleven selected actually playing in the final in May. Fraser Mullen was handed a debut and not really heard from again, along with young striker Fraser Morton, whom I can’t even picture in my mind at all.

Unsurprisingly, Hearts won the game in the end through a rather scrappy goal from Gordon Smith although it wasn’t without some late drama. The visiting fans exploded in the final minutes of the game as Gordon Pope rifled the ball home beyond Jamie MacDonald, but their celebrations were cut short by the linesman raising his flag and referee John Beaton disallowing the goal for offside. In the aftermath, TV replays rather clearly showed that this was a harsh call, and the Junior side should have at least taken the tie to a replay.

While fixtures like this are often once-in-a-lifetime, funnily enough history did repeat itself in February 2019, although this game was rather less memorable as Hearts brushed away their opponents 4-0 with ease.