Back in those halcyon days of 1986, when Fine Fare was still a big hitter in sponsorship circles and blokes in bleached mullets roamed around football parks, Hearts stuck seven goals past Hamilton on Scottish Premier League duty.
Thirty years on at Tynecastle on Saturday, it seemed that Hearts could play for about three decades and still not get the ball in the Hamilton net.
The hosts had a dozen pops at goal during an increasingly frustrating, futile first half and then found themselves a goal down early in the second period when Ali Crawford cracked in a neatly executed volley for the spirited visitors.
In this game, of course, patience can be a virtue. “The last time at home, we were three up against Inverness after 40-odd minutes but it’s not always going to be like that,” said Don Cowie, the well-travelled 33-year-old. “We’ve now got a squad where, if we don’t get that early goal, we can change it because we’ve got so much quality. That’s exactly what happened. Sam came on and made a huge impact in the game.”
The Sam in question was the young substitute Sam Nicholson, whose thrusting, jinking invention turned the match in Hearts’s favour as he made the kind of hefty impact usually reserved for a stick of dynamite.
He set up an equaliser nine minutes after coming on, earned a somewhat dubious penalty in the 81st minute which Jamie Walker converted and then sealed the three points with a searing strike in the game’s dying embers. For a 30 minute shift, it was pretty productive.
Hearts continue to make purposeful strides and this latest victory, the Edinburgh club’s third in a row, now has them sitting in second place in the table behind Celtic. A victory against St Johnstone this weekend could see them go top albeit briefly as the reigning Scottish champions from Glasgow’s east end play 24 hours later.
It’s early days as far as the campaign is concerned but Cowie, who had stints down south with Watford, Cardiff City and Wigan Athletic, is confident Hearts have enough in their armoury to mount a robust challenge.
"That’s what we need to realise,” added Cowie. “We’ve got a good 20-odd quality players at this club and everyone will get their chance. When you get it, take it.
"We’re all in this together and we believe we can make a real impact in the league. Whether we can hit the heights of Celtic, time will tell. But right now, after getting a lot of stick at the start of the season, all of a sudden we’re second in the league.”
There were plenty of observers who assumed Rangers would be Celtic’s main rivals for supremacy this season but Saturday’s Old Firm result put certain gases at a peep.
“We just think we’re a good team,” noted Cowie. “When I look at the league table, I look to the team above us. There is no point looking back.”
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