Dundee holds special place for Rangers and Scotland hero – but Hearts fans will shudder at his links
Even though he didn’t have many Scottish Cup experiences with Dundee—he won the competition after moving back to Scotland to play for Rangers—Hendry is just as competitive on the field as ever. Regarding his first senior club, he says he has many other reasons to be thankful. In Dundee, Hendry soon met his late wife Denise, who had given birth to his four children.
That alone makes the decision to go south from Banffshire to join Donald Mackay’s team justified. The same manager, who was now at Blackburn Rovers, enticed him even further south to begin a career that would eventually lead to Hendry captaining Scotland in the World Cup opening match against Brazil.
“Dundee holds a unique place in my professional life,” he remembers. Not everything was simple. Because they were unable to cope with the demands of being a professional football player, many players—possibly even better players than I am—were let go.
Though it’s often overlooked, he participated in what was possibly the biggest match between the Dens Park team and Hearts ever. He may not have many Scottish Cup memories with Dundee.
With a 31-game winning streak and the knowledge that they needed only a draw to win the Premier Division, Hearts arrived at Dens on the last day of the 1985–86 regular season. A moustachioed stand-in named Albert Kidd arrived and began to bug the management.
“I always play well against Hearts,” Archie Knox said, allowing him to continue. The rest is history. Kidd scored twice in the last eight minutes while Celtic were doing what they needed to accomplish by stacking up goals against St Mirren.
Sarah, Hendry’s recent partner, is an Edinburgh native. He claims that although she is a Hibby, many of her pals are Hearts fans. “They ask, ‘Did you actually play that game?’ whenever I ever mention that fateful day. “Yeah, I played with Jim Duffy,” I reply.
Dundee suffered the same injuries as Hearts that day. They shared Hearts’ desperation to get something valuable. For them, it’s a European location, with Motherwell’s Rangers. The teams’ positions would have been switched if Dundee had won and the Ibrox team had fallen points.
Ultimately, Hearts and Dundee were left in ruins, but even Knox later acknowledged that Hearts’ desperation was more profound. “Wee Albert scores the brace after coming off the bench,” Hendry recalls. Naturally, Celtic needed to defeat St. Mirren at Love Street. It still amazes Frank McAvennie that I participated in the game. I did what I was supposed to do.
He could have had a crucial role. Many Hearts supporters are still upset today about the penalty they believe should have been given for Hendry’s challenge on Sandy Clark early in the game.
Perhaps Dundee was still undecided between playing Hendry up forward or at center-half because of this seeming haste. Ultimately, they stopped arguing and sold a player who was effectively still a project player to Blackburn Rovers for the upcoming campaign. Mackay showed up for signing negotiations during a Rangers reserve game. Immediately substituted, Hendry had consented to leave for England by the end of the match.
“As a free spirit, I traveled to England,” he claims. “As a center-half-turned-striker and striker-turned-centre-half.” Not at all concerned.
He was signed to take the position of injured center-half Glen Keeley, but three weeks later, he made an impression while wearing the No. 9 jersey when he scored the game-winning goal against Charlton Athletic in the Full Members’ Cup final at Wembley. That was enough to earn him a spot in Blackburn history. He spent two and a half seasons at Manchester City before rejoining a completely different team. Owner-fortified Blackburn
Under Kenny Dalglish, Jack Walker’s Millions won the Premiership in 1995. Hendry was already on his way to becoming known as a Braveheart, a courageous opponent, by this point, content to remain in his defensive lane.
He attended last weekend’s Alzheimer Scotland charity game between a Scotland XI and the Rest of the World at the Falkirk stadium because, despite being on the verge of turning 60, he still can’t resist a game.
He was controversially playing for the Rest of the World. Dundee manager Tony Docherty was in the Scottish team and had the opportunity to score a penalty kick to make it 2-0. He sneered in his ear, “You miss the pen, Dundee stay up or score and Dundee are relegated – which one do you take?” Perhaps he made a covert alternative deal about Dundee winning the Scottish Cup, something they haven’t done since 1910.
Hendry had his own moment of crisis right away, as a shootout was necessary to divide the teams. He missed his team’s second penalty, and the skill that had got him a Wembley victory left him. He grimaces. Later, my companion asked, ‘You missed a penalty?’ “Yeah, do you really think I could score against Scotland?” I asked.
On Premier Sports 1, Colin Hendry advertised the live and exclusive coverage of Hearts vs. Dundee on Friday starting at 7:15 p.m. Watch Premier Sports on your TV provider’s streaming service, as well as on Sky, Virgin TV, STV Player, and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.
