Dear
HHHT,
Over the last few years
I’ve watched with interest your campaign to try and ensure Hibs’ home games
don’t automatically clash with Scotland rugby home games. (A legacy of FTB convincing
the Scottish League that the Edinburgh polis couldn’t possibly cope with a mammoth
crowd at Tynie on the same day as a game at Murrayfield) After London Hibs talked with
Dougie Cromb we had 2 seasons of the fixture alternating between Hibs & Hearts. I
notice however that this season we reverted to type and Scotland’s 2 home games
against Wales & Ireland both clashed with Hibs’ home games. Incidentally did you
notice last season that when Hearts were at home on the same day as Scotland –
France, the pieman kicked up all sorts of fuss claiming it had cost Hearts about �30,000
in lost income, not counting unsold pies! As usual not a word from Hibs this season, did
anyone even notice ?
Next season we will have
World Cup games at Murrayfield as well as the newly extended 6 Nations championship. Is it
too much to hope that someone at Easter Road will be aware of this situation and will
either ensure we share the burden equally with Hearts or show some imagination and switch
our fixture to the Sunday. In the last fanzine you talked about marketing Hibs in Ireland.
Didn’t we miss a great opportunity recently when 15,000 Irish were in town for the
rugby to hold our game on the Sunday & try & encourage some Irish support ? Keep
up the good work !
Ryan Organ
Essex
Dear HHHT,
I noticed recently that a letter in Mass
Hibsteria suggested that in recognition of our lifelong debt to Dundee, Hibs fans should
no longer sing "We are Hibernian FC, we hate JamTarts and we hate Dundee",
rather we should sing Airdrie rather than Dundee. I would go further and suggest we change
the words to " we hate JamTarts but we love Dundee."
Given that we have beaten
Airdrie now on our last 6 meetings scoring 16 goals and conceding 4, it looks like that
bogey team has bit the dust.
The Dundee saga however keeps
getting better. Everyone of course looks back to 1986 with gratitude to Dundee and
laughter at Hearts but in a previous issue of HHHT we pointed out that in 1965,
Hearts lost the league on goal difference having conceded 7 goals to Dundee at Tynecastle
only a couple of months earlier. Come to think of it, Hearts must be about the only team
to have difficulty in scoring 7 at Tynecastle! Anyway to return to the present, in 1998/99
season our Friends From the North are at it again. As I write, Dundee have the magnificent
total of 30 points and no fewer than 12 of those (an amazing 40%) have been won against
Hearts ! Without those points Dundee would already be virtually relegated. If the Jambos
are relegated instead however (and lets not have any of this mealy mouthed crap about us
wanting them in the Premier) then the boys from Dens will be largely responsible.
Which brings me to Radio
Scotland – On The Ball, on the way to Somerset for yet another victory. Have you
heard Hearts are taking up night training to avoid relegation? yes they’re taking the
night train to Dundee each night and wrecking Dens Park !! – Brilliant !
Altogether now – We
are Hibernian FC, We hate Jam Tarts but we love Dundee !!
Simon James
Bradford
Dear HHHT,
The last time I was at Easter
Road, the Hibees recovered from going a goal down to beat Raith Rovers. Just my luck that
they should embark on a 22 game unbeaten run as soon as I move to Spain where Barcelona
are looking favourites for another title after putting together a Hibs style sequence of 8
wins on the trot, which is a poor second to he Hibees 13 of course.
Rivaldo has arguably been the
player of the season. Scoring well into double figures by March is something most
midfielders can only dream of, with the obvious exception of course of our Paddy.
One of the highlights of the
season was February’s Cup-League triple bill between Barca and Valencia. The first
leg of the cup encounter ended in a 3-2 victory for the visitors in the Nou Camp. Valencia
then won the second leg 4-3 to record a 7-5 aggregate victory. If anyone was still in
doubt about their attacking credentials, they returned to the Nou Camp a week later for
the league game and won 4-2. Were Barcelona wearing clogs instead of boots? Quite possibly
when you consider their team includes the De Boer twins, Zenden, Cocu and Kleivert to name
a few. "If there are too many Dutch players in the squad, then I’m a
Dutchman" said Coach Luis Van Gaal, or at least he should have said that. Argentinean
striker, Claudio Lopez scored a total of 6 goals in the 3 matches as the Barca defence
failed to cope with his pace. It would be great to see him in a Hibs jersey next season as
SPL defenders would need motorbikes to get near him. Well you can always dream!
On the minus side Vallencia
have former Gers ‘sloth’, Jocky Bjorkland featuring regularly in their side.
Even more to their credit than that they are currently second in the table and into the
cup semi-finals.
However, the real laughing
stock of the Spanish season has been Brazilian winger Denilson, whose form has dipped even
faster than the Jambos. Signed by Seville club, Real Betis, last summer for around �17
million, the Brazilian is capable of some amazing tricks.
You may recall his series of
dummies in the world cup, which Ron Atkinson referred to as ‘lollipops’ for
reasons only Atko can explain. Anyway, Denlison himself is the biggest dummy in Spanish
football right now. Scorer of only one goal so far, I’ve seen him miss a penalty and
trip over the ball with amazing regularity. He has become so bad that in a recent game
against Celta Vigo he was replaced in the second half by a player called, wait for
it….. Oli. With Oli in attack it’s little wonder that Betis are failing to live
up to the form of the previous season when they qualified for the UEFA cup. The
team’s saving grace though is surely the attractive green and white strips. If they
got rid of the vertical white lines up the middle of the shirt, in their replica kits,
Real Betis might start emulating the famous Edinburgh Hibees.
Steve Porter
Cadiz, Spain
Dear HHHT,
In your article in fanzine issue 21, you
asked for other candidates for a London Hibs XI.
I could be mistaken but I thought that both
Kevin McAllister (now Falkirk) and Joe McLaughlin (now Clydebank) had spells at Chelsea. I
believe also that Eddie May spent some time at Brentford and that Andy Dow had a spell at
Chelsea.
Also, Paul Wright went to QPR from Aberdeen
for a few brief months before he realised that the horizontal stripes accentuated his
bulging waist-line and clashed with his plooks!
Jim Leighton had a loan spell at Arsenal
after his Manchester United Cup Final debacle led to his exit from Old Trafford. .
Randy Lleb
Kent
Dear HHHT,
I read my first copy of "Hibees Here
Hibees There" just recently - the winter 99 issue; this despite being a member of a
devoted Hibee family. My brothers travel from Bute, Watford and Deal to the matches
whenever possible. One such match was the New Year game when the Hibees were well on form.
I know this as it was my first visit to Easter Road. (A shocking admission to make due to
my advancing years.) My husband, a Motherwell supporter, (close to a contradiction in
terms!) has been to Easter Road more often....not too difficult under the circumstances.
Having been to other football matches I was amazed at the atmosphere in the ground. Hibs
supporters are, I think, unsurpassed in their devotion to their team.
Phoning home on a Saturday afternoon is not
as easy as it sounds especially when the Hibees have scored and when someone scores
against the Jambos. (The phonelines have been red-hot this season on both counts!) I don't
know if the boys have advanced to BT's three-way calling yet but surely it's only a matter
of time.
My dad maintains none of us were coerced into
following the Hibees but that it was our own choice........ why then was I not too
surprised when my 3 year old daughter announced the other day she was a Hibee the same as
grandpa.
A new generation of supporters looking
forward to experiencing that which is uniquely Hibee.
Carole-Marie Watney
Duns
Dear HHHT,
The problems of bringing
a son up a Hibs fan in London are numerous. However one amusing incident recently was when
my four year old son, who of course has all the Hibs gear, was asked by his granny who was
visiting from Edinburgh " So do you support Hibs like daddy?" He replied
"No I support Hibees". I obviously need to work harder on his education.
Dear HHHT,
Now that the euphoria of May
98 has disappeared , I thought an unbiased, objective and impartial assessment of the
Jambo’s achievement would be in order. For those of you who have put the whole thing
out of your mind or have just forgotten the gory details, here’s how they did it:
3rd round: A home draw
against Clydebank with Paul Lovering and Joe McLaughlin. Bankies at that time were in the
middle of the 2nd Division. 2-0 to the Jambos.
4th round: An easier tie this
time – home to the mighty Albion Rovers, starring no one you’ve ever heard of.
3-0 to the Jambos.
5th round: Another home tie
but this time against one of the bigger boys, Ayr United. But remember, this was a
completely different team from today’s with players like Billy Findlay, Andy Walker
and Andy Millen – then, they had Finnbogason, D’Jaffo and Dick and were to avoid
relegation only by winning on the last day of the season.
So that’s the Jambos in
the Semis along with Rangers, Celtic and Falkirk. That’s right, they drew Falkirk.
Surprisingly, the tie was held at Ibrox rather than Tynecastle and, with the Bairns
fielding donkey’s like Berry, Crabbe and Hagen, it was no surprise when our city
rivals marched into the final.
There, they met patently the
worst Rangers team in a decade; so bad that, within a few months, 10 of the team had
retired, gone into showbusiness or moved on a free transfer.
Yes, a magnificent triumph for the Jambos.
Sour grapes? No, honestly not. In fact, I feel sorry for the Jambos. Imagine if Hibs had
won the cup, bought new players and ended up having a season like Hearts are having –
Roll on the next Derby!
Hibs 7
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