Robbie's penalty, memories of The Inspector and prepping for the Road to Wembley by doing 'The Road to Hampden from Penicuik'

So in this scene setting phase of the blog we reach our final destination. Penicuik Midlothian - location of my current abode. In October 2008 the Donkin family moved back to Scotland - to Penicuik from Boston Lincolnshire. Obviously there were work and family related reasons for doing this but a huge influencing factor was the chance to see my beloved Hearts more often. Football fans will see the sense in this – others will think that perhaps life priorities are a bit skewed. Ever since watching that first FA Cup tie between South Bank and Shildon in 1966 as a wide eyed 8 year old football has influenced the way I have conducted myself in a way that has not been altogether healthy.

I went self employed in 2003 and only entered semi retirement in March of this year. For the first five years of self employment I was doing well and earning more money than I expected. Most weeks I would work between 80 and 100 hours with the only sacred time off being Saturday afternoons to watch the football. In the summer of 2006 I thought why not spend some of this hard earned cash to treat myself to something more exciting than Boston United on a Saturday afternoon. So I bought a Hearts season ticket. The fact that I lived 310 miles from Tynecastle being a minor detail. Of course for the previous 15 years I had been living in Lincolnshire not on the moon so naturally I had managed to see a whole load of Hearts games over the period 1991 – 2006. My great pal Graeme Ogilvie (aka The Inspector) always managed to somehow sort me out with tickets for the big matches. Most notably for the away match in Prague against Sparta in September 2006 in the UEFA Cup. A big group of us sampled that magical atmosphere of Hearts playing away in Europe. Hearts were 2 down from the home leg with no real prospect of winning the tie. This seemed like an irrelevance as the maroon hordes partied in Prague. Hearts played well and drew 0-0 going out 0-2 on aggregate. I can still taste that half chicken that they serve instead of a pie at Czech football grounds.

Hilarity in Prague: The Inspector (left), me and Merky stalwart Paul Dixon (right)

Graeme also sorted out tickets for me and my son Brian for the Scottish Cup finals in 1998 when Hearts beat Rangers at Parkhead and in 2006 when Hearts thrashed the mighty Gretna on penalties. It was great to keep in touch with my old mates supporting Hearts and for the home games I attended when on loan to Boston then Saturday lunchtimes in the Merchiston Hearts Supporters Club with the Inspector holding court were very special. I guess between 1991 and 2006 I was averaging about 5 or 6 Hearts matches a season – nowhere near enough!

The Scottish Cup run in 2006 and the atmosphere at the semi final and final matches at Hampden was the clincher for the season ticket purchase for season that followed. In the semi final Hearts beat city rivals Hibs at Hampden 4-0 with Paul Hartley scoring a hat-trick. Some people though are never happy. Our group was about 12 strong and was being led by The Inpsector. One minute to go and Robbie Neilson mis-places as pass. Davie Greig bellows “Neilson you are a fucking disgrace – you should never be allowed to pull on a maroon jersey”. The Inspector intervenes: “Davie, we are 4-0 up … against Hibs …. In a Scottish Cup semi final … and there is only 1 minute to go. What more do you want !?” Indeed. What more does anyone want from life?

In the final Hearts beat Gretna on penalties after the match finished 1-1 after extra time. For most of the afternoon it was like being awake in a nightmare, with Hearts expected to win easily we were looking to pick up the cup without any hassle and head back happy to Gorgie to start celebrating. Arrangements had been made for later that evening. Hearts scored in the first half but could not shrug off spirited resistance from the minnows. Fifteen minutes to go Gretna equalise. Oh my God the unthinkable can’t happen – can it? All through extra time the Hearts were the better team and had a stick-on penalty claim turned down. As the clock ticked down and the match entered the final minute my mind turned to the penalties that would follow. I tried to convince myself it would be ok. Hearts Paul Hartley was the penalty king and he would surely set things off in the right direction. No sooner had this thought entered my head but Hartley kicked out petulantly at a Gretna player right in front of us. The red card was brandished. The penalty contest would be conducted without Hearts trump card. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. Steven Pressley converts the first penalty for Hearts, the Gretna first choice kicker responds in kind. Then Robbie Neilson walks from the centre circle towards the penalty area at the other end of the pitch. Robbie is now the Hearts manager and is well respected and loved. In 2006 he was not nearly so popular with some of the Hearts support – see Davie Greig’s comment in the previous paragraph. “On no – no fuckin Neilson!” was the cry from Big Davie. Some of our group turned their backs on the action as they could not watch. WHHOOOF! The ball was despatched to the left the keeper dived to the right. A textbook penalty from Robbie – oh ya beauty! After this the result was never in doubt. Skacel and Pospisil took encouragement from Neilson’s intervention and scored a couple more for the good guys. Craig Gordon saved one and the fourth Gretna kicker missed. Hearts won 4-2 on penalties and we did indeed celebrate. After that I just had to get a season ticket and move back north as soon as it could be arranged.

The much maligned (then) and much lauded (now) Robbie Neilson lifts the Cup in 2006

Since that eventful day in 2006 I have had a season ticket ever since and have missed very few games at Tynecastle. When we moved north in October 2008 I was looking forward to a lifetime of Saturdays at Tynecastle every other weekend in the football season in the company of mates who had become known as the Merky gang – a reference to our pre match drinking, verging on serious alcohol abuse, in the Merchiston Hearts Supporters Club. Things in life never stay the same and in August 2011 my best pal and the orchestrator of our own little band of Hearts supporters Graeme Ogilvie passed away. Rest in Peace Inspector. The Merky gang have dwindled in number since 2011 and where 12 or 13 of us sat bevvying and laughing before the games there are now only 3 or 4 of us marked present at the Merky. I still have my season ticket and there have been some good times on the pitch. In May 2012 Hearts memorably thrashed Hibs 5-1 in the Scottish FA Cup final. Following relegation in 2014 Hearts had a great season in 2014-15 when we romped to the Championship title winning the division with about 6 games to spare. In European competition, prior to relegation, there have been memorable nights taking on Spurs and Liverpool in the Europa League.

Snapped at my beloved Tynecastle - Come on the Hearts !

As was stated in one of the very first posts in this blog it has been a lifetime ambition to do the Road to Wembley. After Graeme’s passing there was no longer a three line whip for all of the Merky Gang to attend all of the Hearts home games. So in October 2011 I embarked on the Scottish equivalent of the ‘road’ and set foot out on ‘The Road to Hampden from Penicuik’. Here in Scotland we have the Scottish Junior Cup as well as the Scottish FA Cup. The term ‘junior’ does not mean juvenile – it refers to a second tier of adult football. I don’t pretend to understand the relationship between the Junior FA and the Scottish FA but I do know that until about 10 years ago they were mutually exclusive. These days there is some collaborative stuff going on and in 2007 it was agreed that the winners of the Scottish Junior FA Cup were to ‘qualify’ to play in the Scottish FA Cup the following season. So I embarked on a two year project to firstly follow the Junior Cup from my home town in Penicuik. Then in the season 2012-13 follow the winners of the Junior Cup, and their subsequent conquerors, to Hampden in June 2013. I did this and I blogged it. See http://hampdenfrompenicuik.blogspot.co.uk/ As you will see I attended the following ties:

Scottish Junior FA Cup Season 2011-12

Rd 1      Penicuik 1 Glenrothes 1

Replay  Glenrothes 0 Penicuik 3

Rd 2      Glasgow Perthshire 0 Penicuik 0

Replay   Penicuik 4 Glasgow Perthshire 1

Rd 3      Auchinleck Talbot 6 Penicuik 0

Rd 4      Musselburgh 1 Auuchinleck Talbot 3

Rd 5      Auchinleck Talbot 5 St Rochs 0

QF        Auchinleck Talbot 2 Boness 0

SF         Auchinleck Talbot 0 Bonnyrigg Rose 0 (Auhinleck win 6-5 on penalties)

Final     Shotts Bon Accord 2 Auchinleck Talbot 1 (played at Livingston FC)

Scottish FA Cup 2012-13

Rd 1      Shotts Bon Accord 1 Edinburgh City 1

Replay  Edinburgh City 4 Shotts Bon Accord 1

Rd 2     Montrose 1 Edinburgh City 3

Rd 3      Edinburgh City 0 Queen of the South 2

Rd 4     Kilmarnock 2 Queen of the South 1

Rd 5     Kilmarnock 2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0

Rd 6     Kilmarnock 2 Hibernian 4

SF        Hibernian 4 Falkirk 3 (aet at Hampden)

Final     Hibernian 0 Celtic 3 (at Hampden)

If you click on the blog link you might be a bit disappointed. Some great pics in there and I did attend all 19 games. However you will note some minimalist reporting. In brief I was very very busy at work and did not have the time to do the project justice. I am now all but retired and I do have the time and the energy to report in full on every match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland in 2016-17 and I can’t wait to get started.

This post concludes my scene setting / rationale for the blog. I am hoping that readers will have got a flavour of my obsession for Hearts, football in general and the Cup competitions in particular. I hope too that readers will appreciate the reasons behind dedicating the book / blog to three great men: my late Dad, the late great Graeme ‘The Inspector’ Ogilvie and my son Brian.

The blog now moves in to ‘real time’. Reminiscing is over and the blog will now be concerned with the Road to Wembley from Scotland in 2016-17. This coming Friday (the 8^th July) the draw for the Extra Preliminary Round will be made. After the draw is released I will be heading for the tie drawn nearest to the Scottish border on Saturday August 6^th. It could be Penrith, it could be Alnwick Town – if both of these teams are drawn away it could be Ashington or Morpeth. One thing for sure is that it is going to be fun. Keep reading folks.