Exclusive:Albert Kidd's Hearts title truth as 1986 villain tells Jambos what he wants in Celtic and Rangers fight

Be on guard is the advice for any Jambos in the area. Albert Kidd’s whereabouts are well established. He left – fled? - Britain for South Australia shortly after leaving Hearts pole-axed by a late brace in May 1986. He knows what to expect at this time of year, as another anniversary hoves into view. There’s extra pertinence as we approach the 40-year mark with Hearts riding high in the Scottish top flight. Kidd also has a surprising revelation.

He mentions almost in passing that he is mates with Bobby Ferguson, the goalkeeper who pre-dates the former Dundee forward in the Gorgie gallery of scourges. They share a postcode on the other side of the world, far from the scenes of their perceived crimes at Dens Park and, in Ferguson's case, Tynecastle.

Remarkably, despite knowing Ferguson for so long - they even once worked together - Kidd was only recently made aware of this connection after he was invited to a derby clash between West Adelaide, his former club, and Adelaide City. His host Neil McGachey, another former footballing Scot, took him aside. “He said: 'You are probably not familiar with this, Albert'," recalls Kidd. "There are only two people who denied the league to Hearts. You are one of them. But do you know Bob Ferguson? 'Yeah I know Bob really well, did a bit of business with him. Vacation soccer schools and stuff..' And he went into the story. I could not believe it.”

This was just last month. “I was only made aware of that situation a few weeks ago. I was good mates with Bob Ferguson because we had done soccer clinics over here over the years and what not. He was associated with a similar thing that happened between Dundee and Hearts when I came on and scored two goals. His was saving a goal in the last five minutes for Kilmarnock. It was so close to what happened in '86. It was arguably even more sickening for Hearts.”

Where each trauma ranks in the cruelty stakes is up for debate. But the actions of two players who later fetched up in Adelaide had similarly devastating consequences for Hearts and their supporters. It was nothing personal, you understand. They were simply doing their jobs. Ferguson’s motives were crystal clear as he stretched to tip Alan Gordon’s net-bound shot past the post at Tynecastle on 24 April 1965: Kilmarnock, leading 2-0 in a dramatic final day shootout for the title, were minutes away from a maiden Scottish League title having finished runners-up in four of the previous five seasons.

The goal-saving stop was hugely significant. Although Hearts would still have lost the game, scoring would have secured them the title on goal average. Ferguson was as pivotal to Kilmarnock’s success and therefore Hearts’ downfall as David Sneddon and Brian McIlroy, goalscorers that afternoon.

“Then, when it seemed the flag must be in Killie’s grasp, Hearts inside man Alan Gordon found himself in possession about eight yards out, and gave the ball all he had,” reported The Sunday Post the following morning. “Like lightning Ferguson - a hero all through – hurtled himself across the goal to finger-tip the shot round for a last desperate corner. That we knew was it!” Kilmarnock won the league by 0.042 of a goal.

Ferguson, then only 20, went on to be capped seven times for Scotland. He enjoyed a good career at West Ham United before emigrating to Australia in 1981.

The story of Albert Kidd and Hearts

As for Kidd, well, you’ll need to have been living in a cave to be unaware of his part in the Hearts story. Hibs and Celtic fans still celebrate ‘Albert Kidd Day’ on 3 May each year. It’s a date Hearts supporters dread. Rangers fans probably aren’t minded to get out the bunting either.

Hearts only needed a point against Dundee at Dens Park to ward off nearest challengers Celtic and put maroon ribbons on the Scottish League trophy. The Tynecastle side had built up seemingly sufficient room to manoeuvre due to their remarkable run of form—they were 31 games unbeaten since a 1-1 draw against Dundee, of all teams. Celtic were still required to win by a minimum margin of three goals against St Mirren if the worst came to the worst and Hearts lost at Dens.

Within an hour at Paisley, the visitors were five up. Kidd was kicking his heels on the Dundee bench having badgered Archie Knox, the Dundee manager, all week about being named in the matchday squad because, as he put it, 'I always do well against them (Hearts)'. Knox softened his stance having not given Kidd any minutes since January and named him as one of two substitutes. Hearts had chosen to have a radio on their bench to keep abreast of the situation at Love Street.

The news wasn’t good. Kidd could sense nerves were jangling. He was sent on after 61 minutes for Tosh McKinlay and was on hand to sweep home John Brown’s headed knockdown from Robert Connor’s corner with seven minutes left.

For his second goal four minutes later, shell-shocked Hearts midfielder Kenny Black could do little more than dangle a foot in the air as Kidd danced round him. He then played a one-two with Graham Harvey before drilling a shot beyond Henry Smith. The added twist of the knife was this agonising detail: if goal average rather than goal difference was still applied to separate teams finishing level on points—as in 1965—Hearts would have been champions.

Fast forward to today. With nine games left back in 1986 in the days of two points for a win, Hearts held a four-point lead over second-placed Dundee United, who admittedly had three games in hand. Ahead of this evening’s clash with Kilmarnock, with the same number of games remaining, they are five points clear of Celtic and six ahead of Rangers in third place. Another three points at Rugby Park and people will be saying they can only throw it away on the home straight. The next visitors to Tynecastle are yes, you guessed it, Dundee.

So where is Albert positioned amid the rising excitement? The last time we spoke was to mark the fact it was approaching 40 years since a non-Old Firm side had won the title. I wanted to know, given Rangers and Celtic’s subsequent stranglehold on the Scottish league title, whether he felt differently about his goals. Understandably, he stressed he could not regret scoring them because they helped make his name. They also meant Dundee had done what they needed to do in their bid to qualify for Europe for the first time since the mid-1970s. Sadly for them, Rangers also beat Motherwell and sealed fifth place on goal difference.

But other than retaining an affection for Celtic, Kidd is not directly involved now. A perhaps unlikely dimension is Motherwell’s presence in the title reckoning. He spent two years at Fir Park, where he was a great favourite of manager Ally MacLeod. It took a record £80,000 offer from Dundee to prise him away.

They might be rank outsiders, but Kidd would obviously salute a Motherwell triumph. And yet, he admits, a Hearts success—the first since 1960—would have him clinking glasses with Ferguson, his fellow Hearts-breaker, in the bar of the Maryatville Hotel in the Adelaide suburbs where Kidd plans to catch up with his now 81-year-old pal in the next few weeks. He imagines it might feel cathartic for them both to see Hearts finally get over the line.

“Derek McInnes has a very decent side and he is obviously a decent coach," says Kidd. "Sitting five points clear from Celtic and Celtic are not playing well. They are in the driving seat to win it on their own steam and do it well. Even on the run in, before the split, they have Killlie, Dundee, Livingston and Motherwell - win those four games outright and get 12 points I think it is over. The others are dropping points. Had Rangers won that league meeting there with Celtic they would have been rolling and Celtic would have been struggling.

‘You can sense Celtic’s problems’

“I keep in touch with a lot of people from Celtic," he adds. “I just think it is disappointing, this is what I need to say – the supporters clashing with the board, that affects it. Players will definitely be taking some of that onto the pitch. I watched (Callum) McGregor. He seems to be in a bit of a daze. He is still playing pretty well but when they score a goal, they never really seem to celebrate. When Hearts score, they are ecstatic.

“When you look at Celtic, you can sense the problems off the park. They don’t have time to sort it out. The Celtic fans are up in arms, they have the right to voice an opinion. It is one of the biggest clubs in the world as we all know. Get it sorted out! …If I would pick anyone to win the league, I think Hearts deserve it. I think it would be nice – nice is the word – for Hearts to win the league.”

There, he said it. It might be a cold day in hell before Kidd is welcome at Tynecastle and many Hearts fans might scoff at his sentiments. However, it perhaps underlines this feeling that many, including even the unlikeliest of people, are willing Hearts on. It might be one in the eye for Sandy Clark, the former Hearts striker, who said on radio in reference to Kidd a few years back that “I’d like to kick his head in”. They ran into each other at a football writers’ dinner in Glasgow in 2016. Kidd introduced himself. “I know who you are,” Clark replied sharply.

Kidd concedes he might have milked things a bit although the Celtic Park lap of honour story the following season is a fabrication. Dundee’s opening league match did deposit Kidd at the home of his childhood team and it may well have been sweet knowing he was every bit as integral to the unfurling of the league flag as the likes of Paul McStay and Mo Johnston.

Iain Ferguson, who was on loan back at Dundee from Rangers at the time and is Kidd's great friend, kicked the ball towards the Jungle area of Parkhead at the end of the warm-up. Kidd duly trotted off to retrieve it and heard applause building. “We were coming back in, it was just me left on the pitch. Everyone in this stadium started clapping,” he recalls.

Matches against Hearts were unsurprisingly trickier. Kidd recalls the late Brian Whittaker giving him a particularly hard time. He was also bundled out of Brockville in the boot of teammate Brian Scrimgeour’s car when, during a short stay at Falkirk, he was involved in an incident against Hearts that saw John Robertson receive his marching orders.

Infamy, infamy, they all have it in for him. Recently he even felt slightly uncomfortable in his adopted city. Davie Mitchell, the Adelaide-born former Rangers player, phoned to invite him to a Rangers fans’ convention organised by the John Brown Loyal, named after the player who assisted one of Kidd’s two goals v Hearts and who was guest of honour. “I thought they must have made a mistake. Then I said, 'Oh is Bomber (Brown) there?' He said yes. And I knew he had put my name forward.

“I went with Steven, my eldest lad.” Kidd chose to go in disguise. “I put on a voice and had a hat on and dark glasses. Bomber knew Steven, once got him a trial at Rangers. ‘Oh hello. Steven,’ he said. I then took off my hat and sunglasses. He flipped!

“Someone said I should go into the function room. Bomber says, ‘don’t go up there, it might get out of hand’. I had no intentions of going up there with the Rangers fans. People get a few drinks in them and things can quickly go wrong. But we had lunch together the following day.”

Life is very good for Kidd, now 68. He has a new left knee – not the leg with which he scored those goals, although he always was impressively two-footed - and retired two years ago after establishing a building, retail and commercial fit-out and project management company, with offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra as well as Adelaide.

"We are planning a year’s holiday to go right round Australia,” he says. Although he owns a boat, called Kidd U Knot, he is hitting the road with his wife Maureen, who’s also from Dundee. “I now have a flash caravan. We are going to duck out for a wee bit. If you’d said to me 10 years ago, ‘you’ll be a caravan guy’ I’d have said: ‘No way!’ But I absolutely love it. There is a sense of freedom driving a 32-ft van and getting the chairs and bbq out at night and having a gin and tonic in the evening sun.”

The Kidds arrived in Adelaide in 1987. Four children and 14 grandchildren later, it’s now important to have some time for themselves. Hearts fans will wish he had gone walkabout around this time 40 years ago. “The kids are not happy,” he says. “They’ve lost babysitters with me and Maureen going away. We are leaving at the end of April.

“We are spoilt here,” he adds. “We have a house right on the beach with a balcony. Happy life. Life is short but we don’t want for anything.”

He now has time to reflect on what exactly it means to be Albert Kidd. Even in Australia he is used to introducing himself to people and seeing an eyebrow arch, and then the response: ‘Really?’ Maybe that’s why he prefers to be known as Alby. “Something just came up on Facebook the other day,” he says. “A desperate Celtic fan, talking about the title race, had written: ‘What we need is Albert Kidd!’ I showed it to my wife. She just sighed: ‘When’s this ever going to settle down?’” Perhaps only when Hearts next win the league.