Recreating the most famous Scottish goal in Irish football history

SOME years ago David Coughlan travelled to Edinburgh to meet Gary Mackay and recreate the most famous Scottish goal in Irish football history — the one that sent the Boys In Green to Euro 88 in West Germany.

With Scotland in Germany for Euro 2024, it seems like a good time to revisit it…

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CHECKING his stride ever so slightly Gary Mackay thumps another effort towards the away end at Tynecastle.

“They stuck that up there to really annoy the Hibs fans!” he says, pointing at a massive picture of himself celebrating a last-minute winner against Hibernian plastered all over the side of the stand.

Meet Gary Mackay, football agent, Hearts legend and depending on whom you listen to, the man responsible for the Celtic Tiger.

In November 1987 the Scottish midfielder became the toast of Ireland after he scored an 87th minute goal in Bulgaria that sent Jack Charlton’s side to Euro 88.

We’re in Edinburgh to recreate the most famous Scottish goal in Irish football history and I’m playing the role of Gordon Durie, passing the ball into space for Mackay to hammer into the net.

He is wearing a full Scotland kit, borrowed for the occasion.

“Just roll it there,” says Mackay, pointing to where he’s going to run.

The original goal launched an era of inflated bananas, shamrocks and bank balances as the Irish economy was swept along on newly found confidence. So the theory goes, anyway.

“Well if anybody wants to contribute to my economy they are more than welcome,” he laughs.

“In its own way it was a bit of a fairytale.

“On the Sunday before the game I was at a memorial service which Hearts have every year and Alex McDonald (then Hearts manager) came over and told Craig Levein and myself that Scotland would like us to go to Bulgaria.

“And looking at the call-ups Andy (Roxburgh – then Scotland boss) he said one of ye can make the bench and one of ye will be in the stand. So off we went.”

Mackay had been part of the Scotland team that won the 1982 European Under-18 Championship, scoring in the final against Czechoslovakia in Helsinki.

He had been called into the Scotland senior squad just once before the Bulgaria game by Alex Ferguson for a friendly in the Netherlands ahead of the Mexico 86 World Cup, but never made it off the bench.

18 months later Ferguson was the new Manchester United manager and Scotland were facing two meaningless qualifiers following a largely disappointing campaign under new boss Roxburgh.

For Mackay, the two qualifiers would represent his only competitive senior outings in the navy blue, but his contribution in that first game in Sofia after coming on as a 57th-minute substitute for Paul McStay would become legendary on this side of the Irish Sea.

“We knew if we got a result Ireland would qualify, but it was never spoken about. It was just a case of going over there and trying to restore a wee bit of pride,” he recalls.

“I remember the help I was given in the first ten minutes after going on. Roy Aitken, Alex McLeish and Gary Gillespie were so serious and focused, while Steve Nicol was the other way. He was mad as a brush — so it was a good balance.

“He was the whole time going to me: ‘Ah wait til you make your first mistake and we slaughter you, then you’ll know what it’s all about.”

Mackay is now pointing down the field towards the other end of Tynecastle. It’s a bright, crisp November morning in Edinburgh, different to the cold, dark night in the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia in 1987.

“I can still picture the goal,” he says.

“Jim Leighton kicked the ball down the right-hand side, Gordon Durie chased it down and came inside the full-back and as he got tackled released the ball across the box.

“It was quite a slippery surface and the ball came across my body and I’ve just hit it with my standing leg — my left — which was, is and forever will be my standing leg.

“I still can’t believe it was the 87th minute when the goal was scored because it felt like about 10 or fifteen minutes was still left.

“Soon after my goal Brian McClair had another opportunity to score. The way fate worked, if Brian had scored and made it two-nothing, I probably wouldn’t be talking about my goal 20 years later.”

On the way home he met Packie Bonner in Glasgow airport in the wee hours and the Donegal stopper presented Mackay with a bottle of champagne.

Years later Jack Charlton spoke at his testimonial dinner and in 2001 he was presented with an award for his strike before the Ireland v Scotland friendly at Lansdowne Road.

But while his Hearts career went from strength to strength in the years that followed, making a record 737 appearances, his international career ended as abruptly as it began.

Part of the Scotland side that captured the European U-18 Championships in 1982 under Roxburgh, Mackay scored in the 3-1 final victory over Czechoslovakia and played in the U-20 World Championships the following year in Mexico.

“Paul McStay, Brian McClair and myself had played together at youth level and Andy had brought a lot of the guys through from there,” he said.

“I got three more caps after that. One was against Luxembourg in that group. The other two were more like ‘B’ internationals.

“At the end of the season, Hearts played Celtic at Tynecastle and Billy Stark broke my jaw going for a ball. And the Monday after that game the squad was named for Wembley.

“Obviously it wasn’t meant to be.”

After a short stint as manager at Airdrie, Mackay went into the business of being an agent and in 2006 negotiated the move of Gary O’Connor from Hibs to Locomotiv Moscow.

During that time he was one of the most vocal members of the ‘Save Our Hearts’ campaign which was opposed to a move from Tynecastle into a ground rental at Murrayfield.

On this crisp morning, he’s relishing the opportunity to loosen the limbs and knock the ball around the ground he graced so often and fought so hard to save again.

A regular on the Masters circuit for Hearts, Mackay takes any opportunity to give his old teammate John Robertson some stick.

“I couldn’t play in last year’s tournament and I told Kenny Black and Henry Smith they were beaten 7-1 because I wasn’t playing,” he laughs as he cracks another shot into the left-hand corner.

“Wee Robbo couldn’t play either – he’d take up two strips now!”

And with that, he wheels away to recreate his celebration from Sofia all those years ago.

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WHERE WERE THEY WHEN MACKAY SCORED….

NIALL QUINN

“I was in the Orwell Snooker Club in Rathmines when Gary Mackay scored the winner. I had a day off and I didn’t fly back to England straight away. I went to play snooker with a pal of mine and we watched it on the telly in between frames.

“I remember Maurice Setters saying what a joke it was – that Scotland weren’t even trying. He was doing punditry. And then at the end of it, I saw Maurice Setters jumping up and down saying how brilliant Scotland were!

“I think we all were in a little bit of shock. I couldn’t believe it myself. We were off to a tournament. It was amazing.

“I don’t remember who won that game of snooker. In fact, I don’t think we finished it. I think we went straight to the pub, to be honest. But I just remember heading back out to the airport that night thinking – wow, this changes everything. And I was really focused from that point on making sure I was in the squad for the finals.”

RAY HOUGHTON

“I was in my hotel room in Liverpool, I’d only just moved there and I got a phone call from Aldo to say Scotland had beaten Bulgaria and I started laughing, saying ‘Good one’.

“I remember we’d played Israel the night before and David Kelly scored a hat-trick as we beat them 5-0.

“The Scotland game was such a long shot that I wasn’t even ringing anybody every two minutes to find out the score.

“But when the penny dropped I just remember jumping up and down in the bedroom like a lunatic.

“I went and met Aldo for a pint because we were in complete disbelief. We thought Scotland had no chance, but here we were going to Germany.

“We were saying to Steve Nicol and the Scottish boys at Liverpool to go out and do us a favour, but we couldn’t believe it.

“And then myself, Ronnie, John and Bego were all smiles at training. It was brilliant.”