How humble pictures helped Hearts win in Vienna as Eamonn Bannon recalls coach's novel approach

In a similar spirit of revivalism, Hearts are heading to Austria this week where they will play a competitive match in Vienna for the first time in 38 years when pictures of a different kind played a big role in a famous victory.

If the Cure enjoyed their peak years in the 1980s, Hearts too were quite a big deal in this decade - they even performed memorably at Ingliston, winning the Tennent’s Sixes there in 1985.

The competition is making a comeback this season, suggesting the Eighties are back in vogue. Hearts supporters of a certain age will have mainly fond memories of the era when, under the management of Alex MacDonald and Sandy Jardine, the club was revived and reinvigorated after their 1970s torpor. They enjoyed their best ever run in Europe in season 1988-89, reaching the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup, the competition now known as the Europa League.

One of the highlights of that campaign was the 1-0 win over FK Austria Wien in the second round, second leg at the famous Prater Stadium. After a goalless first leg at Tynecastle, the result saw Hearts progress to the third round. The victory in Vienna can lay claim to being among Hearts’ best ever European away wins and it was the first time in 30 years that the club had gone that far in a continental tournament without the aid of a bye.

Opposite ends of the managerial spectrum

Eamonn Bannon, back at Hearts that season after nine highly successful years with Dundee United, was a key contributor to the European run, bringing to bear the experience he had gained at Tannadice where Jim McLean’s squad had performed minor miracles by reaching the European Cup semi-finals in 1984 and the final of the Uefa Cup three years later. Playing under the autocratic McLean hadn’t always been a bed of roses for Bannon and the midfielder quickly appreciated MacDonald’s more relaxed approach at Hearts.

“You couldn't have got two completely different managers than those two,” recalled the gifted midfielder. “If you took the managerial spectrum, you had an Alex MacDonald at one end and a Jim McLean at the other.

“It just goes to show the different managerial styles, the different ways of doing things. Alex was very much pals with the boys. He was loved by the boys and would do anything for you. He was one of those guys. Not great on the coaching side - it was more Sandy Jardine that did coaching and told you about different players.”

It had been a turbulent start to the season for Hearts. The club had been toiling domestically and in between the two games against Austria Vienna, Jardine was dismissed as co-manager, with the team sitting third from bottom with two wins from 13 league games.

Walter Borthwick, a long-serving coach at Tynecastle, was promoted to assistant manager and it was Borthwick who came up with a novel way of familiarising the Hearts players with the Austrian opposition.

Prohaska in his back pocket

“You've got to remember that this is before you had videos of the [opposition] teams,” said Bannon. “You never had the analysis they have now.

“I remember the big thing was that Walter Borthwick brought in a picture of each player that we were playing against. He put a little picture up of the formation they were in and the guy you were playing against. I thought, that's quite clever.

“So the guy I was playing against, I knew what he looked like. There were never any videos. You didn't really dwell on them too much. You don't want to build them up to be world beaters.

“You’d maybe talk about one player who had to be watched. ‘Just watch, he's got a really good left foot’ - or something like that.”

It sounds almost endearingly primitive but in those pre-internet days, sourcing information on foreign opponents could be tough. One Vienna player who was well known to all and sundry was Herbert Prohaska, a seasoned Austrian international who had played at the 1978 and 1982 World Cups where his permed hairdo caught the eye along with his talent.

Jimmy Sandison was tasked with man-marking Prohaska, whose career was winding down in his homeland after successful stints in Italy with Inter and Roma, winning Serie A with the latter.

Despite Prohaska’s undoubted pedigree, it was Sandison who came out on top, sticking to his opponent like a second skin. Borthwick’s planning had paid off, and Sandison performed his duties superbly. His diligence extended to carrying the picture of Prohaska around with him. Even after the match, the photograph of the playmaker could apparently be seen poking out of the Hearts defender’s back pocket. The Scotsman’s Ian Wood, who had reported on the game in Vienna, noted wryly that this was apt because “that’s where the Austrian had been the entire evening”.

So effective had been Sandison’s marking job that Austria Vienna’s main attacking threat had been nullified and Hearts were able to pull off a result that was one of their finest on the road in European competition.

Galloway the hero

The Gorgie side will require something of the same spirit this Wednesday when they take on Rapid Vienna in the second leg of the Conference League play-off.

The sides played out a 2-2 draw in the first leg at Tynecastle last week which means that, just like in 1988, the Gorgie side will travel to Austria with it all to play for. The late Mike Galloway was Hearts’ hero 38 years ago, heading home a cross from Walter Kidd in the 57th minute. Bannon was the architect, springing the hosts’ offside trap with a delightful diagonal ball.

“The big controversy when we played Austria Vienna was that I passed the ball to Walter Kidd, who was right back, and when he received the ball, he looked about 30 yards offside!” said Bannon.

“But he marched on and crossed it over, and Mike Galloway bundled it in. So, it was quite a controversial sort of goal, but this was pre-VAR, so God knows whether it was onside or offside. Walter insists that he was onside.”

The Vienna players thought otherwise, protesting vigorously to Spanish referee Jose-Maria Enriquez Negreira. The local press was similarly up in arms. ‘Ein glattes Abseitstor warf die Austria aus dem UEFA pokal’ screamed the headline in Kronen Zeitung: ‘A clear offside goal knocked Austria out of the UEFA Cup.’

The small knot of around 400 Hearts fans gathered behind the goal didn’t care, celebrating madly on a freezing November evening.

With their league form stuttering, Europe was a welcome distraction for Hearts and Galloway was the unlikely hero. A force of nature who liked to live life to the full, Galloway brought the same all-or-nothing attitude to the field. He scored in both legs of the Uefa Cup first round against St Patrick’s Athletic and repeated the feat in the games with Velez Mostar in the third round. The quarter-final against Bayern Munich was the only round in which he didn’t find the net

His death earlier this year at the age of just 60 was mourned both at Tynecastle and Celtic Park where he would play for five years after moving from Hearts in a £500,000 transfer in 1989.

“Poor Mike, he's no longer with us. He scored that goal and scored against Velez Mostar as well,” recalled Bannon.

“He was a big strong guy. He was kind of wild. Really good in the air, excellent in the air, and had a great right foot shot. He wasn't the fittest guy in the world. When we played him at centre half or sitting in midfield, he found his niche.

“But he was a good goal scorer. As I say, outstanding in the air. He managed to score a few goals from corners and the like, and he got a big move to Celtic.”

The versatile Galloway was pushed up front in Vienna, a role he performed a handful of times in Europe. With Sandy Clark having succumbed to injury and John Robertson having been sold to Newcastle, Hearts found themselves short of attacking options and Galloway took his opportunity.

“Initially it was about trying to find where to play him,” said Bannon. “Obviously, if he's great in the air and a big strong guy, then stick him up front. In midfield there was maybe too much running about required. So either have him sit in midfield or centre half. You can see how the manager was thinking. He wanted to play him but didn't know where to play him initially. He was a very good goal scorer.”

Bannon was no slouch in that department either and found the net against Velez Mostar in the third round, first leg tie at Tynecastle later that month as Hearts won 3-0. They survived a hairy trip to the former Yugoslavia for the second leg where the country was on the brink of civil war. Bannon recalls marbles being aimed at his head amid a febrile atmosphere as Galloway scored again in a 2-1 defeat which saw Hearts progress 4-2 on aggregate.

The maroon European bandwagon continued to roll and MacDonald’s side stunned Bayern Munich next, beating the German giants 1-0 at Tynecastle in the first leg of the quarter-final. A 2-0 defeat at the Olympic Stadium a fortnight later ended the run and denied Hearts a semi-final against Diego Maradona’s Napoli but what an adventure it had been.

Bannon, Galloway, Sandison and co had flown the flag for Scotland in Europe and painted some memorable pictures for their supporters. Borthwick’s opposition photo-gallery seems almost quaint when viewed through a modern-day lens but it certainly worked for Hearts in Vienna.

Bannon does not, however, recall whose portrait pic he was given. “No, I've not got a clue,” he said. “Not a Scooby!”