Heart of Midlothian 1
Dundee 7
League (Division One)

Match Report

Hearts must have awaited their visitors that day with a certain amount of confidence. They were, after all, top of the league, in a wide open champion ship race which saw Dunfermline, Hibs, Kilmarnock and Rangers snapping at their heels.

Dundee, on the other hand had, only 10 days earlier reached the end of their most successful era when it was announced that Bob Shankley would be taking over as Hibs manager to replace Jock Stein who was moving on to Celtic.

Indeed, Shankley had only said his farewells at Dens a couple of days earlier. Around the same time it was confirmed that Bobby Ancell would move into the Dens Park 'hot seat'.

However, this was not to take effect until he completed his duties as Motherwell manager. So it was long serving trainer Sammy Kean (there were no 'coaches' in those days) who was in charge of the following Dundee team for Tynecastle.

DUNDEE: Donaldson, Hamilton, Cox, Cousin, Easton, Stuart. Murray, Penman, Cameron, Cooke, Robertson.

HEARTS: Cruickshank, Shevlane. Holt, Polland, Anderson, Wallace, Gorden, Hamilton, Jensen, Ferguson.

REFEREE: A. Webster (Falkirk).

The home side had most of the early pressure, and Hamilton missed an early chance from about 10 yards. Nonetheless, Dundee looked the more threatening side in front of goal and the Hearts defence appeared vulnerable.

Retaliated Dundee got the break they had been waiting for in 15 minutes. A 20-yard drive from Stuart took an unexpected bounce and struck Hearts centre-half Anderson on the arm. The referee was uninterested in Dundee's penalty claims until he spied his linesman's raised flag and gave the award. Andy Penman stepped up to slot the ball home for Dundee's first goal.

Hearts retaliated but poor finishing plus some resolute Dundee defending (including an Alex Hamilton goal-line clearance) prevented any equaliser. Once Dundee had weathered this mini storm they increased their lead.

With 25 minutes gone Alan Cousin gave the ball to Penman 30 yards out. He took everyone by surprise with a tremendous shot for goal number two.

Two minutes later Cousin gave Penman another pass but this time the latter crossed the ball for Cameron to score number three with a diving header.

Apart from a penalty claim at the other end Dundee continued to dominate the half, with moves which carved open the Hearts rearguard. The ball control of Penman and Cooke was outstanding.

Hearts could produce nothing to compare with it.

Meanwhile, Stewart's long range shooting caused problems, one being punched over by Cruickshank, another chipping the paint off the bar.

Dundee began the second half where they left off and in 50 minutes Penman got his hat-trick. He collected a ball from Murray 22 yards out and his fierce, dipping shot went over Cruickshank's head for number four.

Five minutes later Cousin charged through the middle past Anderson, drew Cruickshank and then side-footed the ball into the net for number five.

In 63 minutes, Cousin, Penman and Cooke were all involved in a move ending with a Cameron shot which the beleaguered Cruickshank got to but couldn't hold. The ball ran on to the post and into the net - number six!

Dundee appeared to ease off at this point but there was little invention and not surprisingly less spirit from Hearts in their efforts to reduce the leeway.

Consequently the visitors went further ahead in 76 minutes, when Cameron completed the SECOND HAT-TRICK of the day with a hook from a Robertson cross for number seven.

Hearts pulled one back in 85 minutes but the final irony was that this too came from a Dundee boot when Cousin put the ball past his own keeper.

Thus the match ended 7-1, a tremendous display and result for Dundee and caretaker manager Sammy Kean whose problems before the game had been added to by transfer requests from Penman and Hamilton.

The former had been one of the main architects of this brilliant Dundee performance the others being Cooke, Cousin and Stewart. Yet Dundee were infuriatingly inconsistent at the time.

The previous week they had gone down to Clyde and the week before that they had beaten another of the title challengers Kilmarnock 4-1 at Rugby Park.

What of Hearts? Without taking anything away from Dundee there was no doubt the Tynecastle men gave talented players such as Penman and Cooke too much space. When their defenders did challenge their efforts were not very determined.

However, their challenge for the title continued right up until the last day of the season when a 2-0 defeat by Kilmarnock at Tynecastle gave the Ayrshire men their first ever championship on goal average (0.04 of a goal to be exact).

If Dundee had won by a couple of goals less that February afternoon then the championship would've gone to Tynecastle.

Indeed, Hearts fans can indulge in further 'what might've beens' by considering that had goal difference and not goal average been in operation in 1965 the championship would have gone to their favourites.

Match report written by David Quinn (Matchday Programme)