Oh what a night.....

Some people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot...
some when the first man landed on the moon...

Me? Well I will always remember May 2nd 1998. Why I hear you ask? Well Hearts were playing away at Aberdeen and as you all know the trip up to sheep worrying country is always one of the highlights of the season but this was one was even better than normal. This was the day that many of us have dreamed about, it was the day that Hibs were relegated...here's my diary (all of which I swear is true) of a great day in Aberdeen. If I had to rate it out of ten I would give it eleven.

The day started of as most trips to Aberdeen do. A long journey, a few lager shandies, some even had a lager tops! Then we got ourselves booked into digs round the back of Union Street, just time for a few more shandies then we headed of for the game. The game was ok but the highlight of the match was the roar that went round the Hearts area of the ground when the radioheads within our section announced the demise of the Vermin. The look on the police womans face, who was standing beside me (Yes standing as Aberdeen had made an arse of the ticket allocation and there weren't enough seats to go round) was brilliant...she didn't know what was going on and was looking pretty worried!!

I don't think anyone who was there will ever forget the Gorgie version of we'll meet again...just picture the scene...4000 jubiliant Jambos all standing waving there hands from side to side...pure class!!

Now this is where the story gets good...after the game we went back to our digs for a quick shower and a shave. When ready we hit the town and our first pub was a small bar/restaurant called Goldies. We sat down and there was only one other guy in the bar sitting at the table next to us with his girlfriend. He looked gutted, but since he had a skinny build, red hair and freckles we never really thought anything of it. After a while the barman shouted over to him "Haw! McLeish...are you playing football for the pub team tomorrow" His reply was "No I'm gutted....I'm really feeling for Alex". Then it clicked, after a quick check with the barman, it turned out that of all the tables, in all the bars in Aberdeen we were sitting next to Alex McLeish's brother. His worst nightmare was just about to come true as 6 drunken Jambos started signing "Cheer up Ecky McLeish....Oh what can it mean....to a sad Hibbie...etc etc etc.." Needless to say we were soon asked to leave the bar as Bro McLeish sat with his head in his hands....BRILLIANT!!! It couldn't get any better or so we thought!

BUT yes it did!!!

Later on after copious amounts of Lager, we hit the new club in Aberdeen called Amadeus. If you are ever in Aberdeen give it a go...its superb, probably the best club that I have been to in Scotland. At a guess I would say it holds about 2500 people and there were about 1 million birds in there that night...Frank MacAvenie would have had a field day. Theres not a lot else to tell about the club apart from the free buses that they run back to the city centre.

Now this is what really made the day for us.

There we were 6 drunken Jambos, full of bevvy dreaming of bed and that drunk that even though there were about a million girls in that club we were left birdless. The bus was Jam packed and there wasn't even standing room left when from the back of the bus someone starts belting out H E A R T S...Hearts Hearts Glorious Hearts...etc etc This started us of and by the time we had started moving I guess that more than half the bus was signing the Hearts song. I think every Jambo that had stayed in Aberdeen was on that bus....what a laugh...as we went through the whole Hearts song book...we started stand up if you hate Hibbees. I stood up and started jumping about and guess who I was standing up and jumping about next to......

JIM HAMILTON

Unbelievably 150 miles from Embra at 3 in the morning on a public service bus going through Union Street about 50 people are signing stand up if you hate Hibees and Jim Hamilton is leading the choir.

What a day...what a night..

But still it gets better...we got of at the same stop as Hammy and after a quick natter we walk away and shout "Cherio Hammy" just as a couple of girlies (very nice young girlies but also pretty niave) walked by. We get blethering to them and they ask us how we know Hammy....In our drunken state Craig, one of the guys I was with, chipped in just before I told them that we were Hearts fans, telling them that we had just signed pre contract agreements with Hearts and that we had been up to watch them play today.

Needless to say an invite to breakfast followed soon. So Nikki and Lisa if you are reading this, and I am sure that you are not, I'm sorry but Grant and Craig haven't really signed a pre contract agreement with Hearts. Thanx for brekkie anyway!!

What a day..what a night...and oh what fun you can have being a professional footballer. (even if you are only pretending.)

Thornie