How Good Was Hearts’ Legendary Gary Mackay?

Gary Mackay has been in the news this week with the launch of his new autobiography, and it got me casting my mind back to the era of his time as a Hearts player, which was a truly fun time to be a Jambo for the most part, with other Tynecastle favourites like Henry Smith, John Colquhoun, Sandy Clark and of course, John Robertson to name but a few plying their trade for the club during that period.

Mackay managed to outlast all of those great names of course, and went onto play in more competitive matches for the club than any other player in the club’s history. But how good a player was the man often dubbed as ‘Mr Hearts’?

My first season following the club was the infamous ’85/86 season, which despite ending in bitter disappointment was still undoubtedly one of the most memorable seasons I’ve ever experienced.

Mackay was a promising young midfielder at the time (22 years old), and he was Hearts’ main attacking threat from the middle of the park back then.

With his mop of bleach-blonde hair and boundless energy all over the park, Mackay really stuck out in matches in that season, and over the next couple of years would go onto establish himself as one of the country’s most effective attacking midfielders.

Despite playing for Hearts, who were a club traditionally overlooked by the national team setup when it came to international honours for players (and still are to some extent), Mackay was able to force his way into Andy Roxburgh’s Scotland squads. It was then that he arguably hit the pinnacle of his career when he came off the bench to score the winning goal (and a cracker it was too) in a Euro qualifier in Bulgaria, which eventually made Mackay a hero in Ireland as it helped them on their way to the Euro ’88 finals in Germany.

However just as it seemed as though Mackay’s career would continue its swift ascent, his form started to take a real turn for the worse in the late ’80s. It all seemed to happen when Alex MacDonald made him the Hearts club captain, an honour which Gary would have taken much more seriously than anyone else at the club due to his enormous personal affection for Hearts.

It’s not that Mackay suddenly became a bad player, but his influence on matches started to lessen significantly in an attacking sense, which again could have been due to the weight of responsibility in being the captain.

Whatever it was paled into insignificance at what was about to happen to Mackay the midfielder when Joe Jordan took over the reigns in the Tynecastle manager’s office as we entered the ’90s, however.

Jordan was never the most popular of Hearts managers, and one of the decisions that contributed to this was his deployment of Mackay at right back for almost an entire season – possibly more in fact.

This was an insult to a player who had once been mentioned in the same breath as Paul McStay and Ian Durrant (when they were both at their peak) when it came to midfield players, but Mackay being the Jambo that he was manfully accepted the task, and actually did pretty well in this position given its unfamiliarity to him.

Thankfully Mackay outlasted Jordan at Tynecastle, and there was still plenty of time for him to give us some glimpses of his former self before his Hearts career was out.

Sandy Clark soon had Gary back in his familiar central midfield berth, and if he wasn’t quite capable of delivering his vintage best of say ’86 or ’88, he was certainly a very valuable player for all of the subsequent Hearts managers that he played under, especially Jim Jefferies for whom he latterly ended up being something of a ‘super-sub’.

My lasting memory of Gary Mackay the player was his ability to link up with John Robertson on the edge of the opposition’s penalty box to great effect. Playing a quick one-two with Robbo near the danger area was something of a Mackay trademark, and you’d probably lose count of the number of goals and penalties that he earned using this ploy.

Overall there’s no doubt that Gary Mackay was a fantastic servant for Hearts as a player. However I do sometimes think that perhaps if things had been different (e.g. he hadn’t been made captain or Jordan hadn’t come to Hearts) he may well have gone onto become a much more prominent midfielder than the one that he ultimately became. For me he was right up there with the very best that the Scottish game had to offer in his position in the mid-to-late 80s, but something happened that hampered his progress there, and arguably he was never quite the same again, even if he did ultimately contribute greatly to many Hearts teams in later years.

Here are some of my favourite Mackay memories…..see if you can recall any:

1) A tremendous solo effort in the infamous penultimate game of the season against Clydebank at Tynecastle in ’86. Midway through the first half he took a short pass from George Cowie near the half way line and ran aggressively at the Bankies’ defence. He then cut onto his left foot and just as he prepared to have a shot from around 25 yards, the ball bobbled up nicely and he ended up striking it like a volley – the result was it rocketed spectacularly into the top right hand corner of the net. A goal fit to win a championship it most certainly was, just a pity that it wasn’t quite enough to do just that.

2) A truly phenomenal second half display in a derby against Hibs at Tynecastle in ’87 (I think!). Hearts were a goal down at half-time to a Joe McBride free-kick, but attacking the packed School End in the second half, Mackay took the game by the proverbial scruff of the neck and completely dominated the match. Hearts only managed a draw in the end, but they got that courtesy of a clinically taken and wildly celebrated Mackay penalty. Possibly the best I’ve ever seen him play.

3) Scoring the aforementioned goal for Scotland in Bulgaria. It was such a proud moment seeing ‘Mr Hearts’ doing the business for his country live on TV, and what a great goal it was, taking a pass from a team-mate deep inside opposition territory and planting a left-foot strike powerfully across the ‘keeper into the far corner.

4) Becoming the only player I can ever remember to hit the ball into the old pie hut on the School End terracing! I think the opposition may have been Dunfermline for some reason, but it wasn’t one of Gary’s better afternoons, and this was probably about as close as he got to scoring that day!

5) Inspiring a second half fightback in a game against the dominant Rangers side of the ’90s after coming on as sub for Sandy Clark’s team. 2-0 down at home, Mackay pulled one back with a low shot with his left foot midway through the half, before having a hand in the dramatic late equaliser from John Colquhoun, a diving header that sparked scenes of celebration that you simply do not get at football matches these days.

6) The more I write about Mackay, the more I realise that most of his memorable goals came from his less-favoured left foot! This is another of those, which came on a less-than-memorable afternoon at Hampden against St Mirren in the Scottish Cup semi-final of 1987. Trailing 1-0, Mackay ghosted into the penalty area to plant a shot very similar to the one he scored in Bulgaria behind Campbell Money and in off the post. We thought it was enough for a replay….and that’s all I can remember!

7) Being the first player I ever saw shooting from the half-way line in the flesh. He did this with literally the second kick of the ball in an astonishing 6-0 over St Mirren at freezing Love Street in ’87/88 after the ball was rolled to him from the centre. It didn’t miss by much either, and our old foe Campbell Money looked worried until the very last minute, when the ball sailed just a foot or so over his crossbar. A good afternoon that one….

Hopefully some of these will have rung a few bell. There are dozens of other great memories of Gary Mackay playing for Hearts too, so feel free to share them in the comments section below….