Etims Review: AK 86 Two Shots In The Heart Of Scottish Football by Grant Hill

Garnt Hill has put together a book a book about what was possibly the greatest period on the field for Scottish football since the sixties. A period where probably because one particular club struggled, little has been recorded, and far less heralded about just how good we had it back then.

The mid eighties had it all.

European success, with Aberdeen and Dundee Utd ploughing a furrow on the continent, and genuine domestic competition, with those two, Celtic and, in 1986,  even Hearts as genuine championship contenders.

In fact, lets be honest. They should have won it.

If it wasn’t for those two shots, mentioned in the title, , in the last seven minutes of the season up at Dens Park, they would have.

Celtic , of course, won the title, and for Hearts it was , well, heartbreaking.

Albert Kidd, the man who scored twice for Dundee in those closong minutes, became a legend amongst Celtic fans, and quite popular with Hibernian fans, for whom a terrible season became a little bit more bearable.

That’s what football should be about, and for a time back then , it really was.

The book deals mainly with that epic season, and deals with it from a number of angles. Players, managers, supporters of all clubs get to relive the season in their own words, and importantly, there’s no favouritism shown by the author to any of the clubs involved.

Its one of those rare things in the world of Scottish football writing.

Its objective.

And the author is clearly enjoying every minute as he recalls the drama as the season unfolds, and that sense of enjoyment is infectious, because he adopts a style which connects superbly with the pace and tension that builds as the season goes on.

Short sentences , simple prose. There’s no need for him to wax lyrical, and he avoids the trap that so many fall into, where the reader is noticing the words instead of the story. There was enough going on in 86 and the author notes that, so he just tells it as it is, with no need to sensationalise it.

He allows the events to speak for themselves, and the narrative flows freely, allowing  the mind to wander back to a time when Scottish football was probably at its last great peak.

Theres a lot in the book that I had forgotten, and a lot I had overlooked at the time.

After all, for most of us, and for the history books, Celtic won the league, Aberdeen the cups, and Hearts were the nearly men.

But there was a lot more to it than that.

And its all in here.

It works on two levels, the first obviously being an enjoyable re run of a fantastic season, one which doesn’t get remembered as much as it should be, and secondly, as the author explains, how Scottish football changed forever after wards, a change that cannot now be reversed.

If you were around at the time, you’ll enjoy reminiscing, obviously if you are a Celtic fan, but mostly this is a book for those of us who love Scottish football, and who would love to see it return to the days when television wasn’t king, when games started at three o’clock on a Saturday, and midweek games were on a Wednesday.

If you are too young to remember it, then you should make this required reading, because it shows how much potential was in the game north of the border, and how it wasn’t realised.

Up to, and including that season, Aberdeen and Dundee United were among the strongest sides in Europe, never mind Scotland, and though its hard to imagine it now, were genuinely feared on the continent.

Aberdeen had already won the Cup Winners cup and the Super cup, Dundee Utd had been beaten on aggregate by the odd goal in five in a European cup semi final by Roma, who were pulling out the stops to make sure they were in the final, a home game for them , against a dominant Liverpool side, themselves influenced by Scots.

The following year, 86-87, United would make the UEFA Cup final, again losing on aggregate by the odd goal.

Yet it was Hearts and Celtic who battled for the title…

Rangers were nowhere near, and this prompted the massive investment which ultimately led to their downfall, the roots of which were firmly in the ground by the end of this season. One could argue, though the author neatly sidesteps this, choosing merely to report the facts, that the Ibrox mentality could no longer stomach being a mid table side, and would do whatever it took to re establish themselves ahead of the northern and eastern clubs.

Had they not done it the way they did, then maybe things would have been different.

Ask yourself this, if instead of hiring Souness, what if Rangers had gone instead for Alex MacDonald ? He had turned Hearts into a force, and  later would take Airdrie to a couple of cup finals. Certainly a much better manager than history credits him for, and one wonders what he would have done at Ibrox.

And would that have prevented the influx of foreign players into the game, allowing local talent to flourish ? The dominance of Rangers financially, through money that would later have to be accounted for, arguably took the game in a different direction, one that the infrastructure couldn’t handle.

Questions we will never know the answer to, but a hell of a conversation to have in the pub.

Thats the strength of this book. It poses this question, and many others, , and asks if it could all have been so different for the game after what was truly a momentous season on the pitch.

It took me over a week to read this book, not because i’m slow, not because I couldn’t find the time, but because quality books on Scottish football are hard to find.

And I wanted to take my time and enjoy this one.

It meant I could pause and reflect on what was in the pages. Reading it in one go, as easy as that would have been, would have lessened the effect of the book.

Often an  author tells a story from his own point of view. If this book had been written by a certain type of writer, it would have been all about Celtic, another author may  have emphasised the change at Ibrox, where Graeme Souness had taken over at the seasons end, and what the implication there were, especially with hindsight, for the remaining fifteen years or so of that clubs existence.

This book simply tells us what happened. How it happened and to an extent, investigates why it happened.

All from the point of view of those involved, and it tells it in a way that is fair, balanced and leaves the reader with plenty to think about.

The book is available from wholepoint.co.uk book shops and amazon.

Click on the link and treat yourself.

When you’ve read it, I guarantee you’ll tell your mates about it, and you’ll have an excuse to go for a beer with them.

Its been a long time since a decent book on Scottish football came out, and you should grab this one and savour it.