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ALEX IN WONDERLAND

Rangers and Hearts legend MacDonald is relishing top of the table thriller at Ibrox

By Mark Wilson

Saturday will be great. At the end of the day, I cannae get beat, can I?

seeing someone else walking their greyhound at 6am and whether they were still p***ed. Plus, there was this radio blaring music in the background.

‘I had to phone Sandy. “You’ll not believe this place, by the way”. I went down to training and big Tony Ford (assistant manager) says: “Right Alex, you just cross the ball to the goalie”. It’s pouring with rain. I’m just standing there. Me and this other guy.

‘He turns to me and says: “What are you thinking about, wee man? Spending your signing-on fee?” But I’m saying to myself: “What the f*** am I doing here?”’

It got better. MacDonald was surprised to be offered the role of player-manager in 1981, but it became a masterstroke.

Recruiting Jardine as playerassistant manager the following year, Hearts returned to the top flight, became an established force and embarked on the brutally agonising near-thing of their 1985-86 league campaign.

The story of the final-day collapse to two late goals from Dundee substitute Albert Kidd is well worn. A flu bug had hit MacDonald’s squad in the build-up. Craig Levein was ruled out altogether, while Brian Whittaker and Kenny Black were only able to each play part of the match at Dens Park.

‘The only thing that goes through my mind all the time is that I could have put myself on the bench,’ says MacDonald, who was by then 38 and not featuring in his own team.

‘Because two of the players were under pressure. And Craig was still in the hoose. I felt so sorry for the players and the supporters, all the real Hearts fans. Everybody was greetin’.

‘You let people make up their mind about how to think back on it. I just think: Could I have done any better? Could I have come on and stopped the other boy who came on as a sub? But that’s history now, you can’t change it.’

Hearts won 2-0 at Ibrox midway through that season. In the ebook Heartbreakers: Celtic, Albert Kidd and 1986 by Sportsmail colleague Stephen McGowan, John Robertson recalled it as the point belief blossomed and claimed MacDonald entered the dressing room afterwards to tell his players they were going all the way.

‘Nah, I don’t think I would say that,’ he disputes. ‘It was always about the next game. You can’t go too quickly up the ladder because you can fall and break your neck. You need to stay on the next rung, whether you play for Rangers, Hearts or Real Madrid.’

But what about this season? Could he see Hearts maintaining a lasting challenge near the summit? MacDonald says: ‘I’d hope so. They have obviously done really well.

‘I suppose the thing is you look at what Steven Gerrard has built at Rangers and he basically has two teams he could play.

‘But Hearts have had a great start. If they get some bad luck with injuries, then they’ve got a good number of points in.’

Eight years at Airdrie — including two Scottish Cup finals and European football — followed McDonald’s decade with Hearts. He has no regrets about then turning his back on management.

‘I didn’t want any more pressure or anything,’ he says.

The game has changed a lot in the 22 years since he cut those ties — in Scotland, England and Europe. Not all of it for the better in MacDonald’s eyes.

‘I can get bored watching some of the football you see on television now,’ he admits. ‘There’s just not enough action for me around the penalty box in a lot of the big games involving certain teams.

‘So, basically, all I like to watch is Rangers and Hearts. Saturday will be good. Because at the end of the day, I cannae get beat, can I?’

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2021-10-15T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-15T07:00:00.0000000Z

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