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NAME: Tynecastle Stadium
ADDRESS: Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, EH11 2NL
CAPACITY: Approx. 18,000.
CELTIC ALLOCATION: Approx 3,600 -Roseburn Stand. Access from McLeod Street (North).
RECORD VICTORY: Celtic 6, Hearts 0, 20 April 1908
RECORD DEFEAT: Celtic 0, Hearts 5, 14 September 1895
DIRECTIONS
BY CAR: From Glasgow, follow the M8 to the end then follow signs for the A71. Follow this and you'll get all the way to Gorgie Road itself. Alternatively follow the A8 into Edinburgh (past the airport) and at Haymarket take the Dalry Road fork and follow that to Gorgie Road – although that's a long way for a short cut its the official way apparently!
BY BUS: Line 1, 2, 3, 21, 25, 33 & 34 (Lothian) or line 25, 27, 28 & 427 (First Bus) (from Haymarket/Dalry)
BY TRAIN: Most trains bound for Edinburgh from the west stop at Haymarket as well as Waverley. Haymarket is just a short walk from Tynecastle. Just follow Dalry Road to Gorgie Road.
PARKING: Dreadful. Edinburgh hates cars, and this is getting too close to the city centre. You'll end up parking miles away. If you do, hide your colours. Supporters buses park the opposite side of the railway line on Russell Road.
WHAT TO EXPECT
A lovely big stadium – the biggest one in Scotland. Aye, but go past that to the skanky wee one on the other side of the railway line. Yes, its that close to Murrayfield. Indeed, depending on the line you take from Glasgow, you might see one out of the left window and one out of the right at the same time!
Scum. Hearts fans are as bad as Rangers fans. And this time you'll get no help from the police – indeed they're often just as bad themselves for causing trouble rather than breaking it up.
Salt 'n' Sauce on your chips, obviously.
Every once in a while, Hearts are suddenly slightly more successful than they usually are, and take part of the Roseburn. We get the whole stand currently, and that will, presumably, remain the case until hearts finish 2nd again.
A smaller stadium than Edinburgh's other team, Hibs, however, it is 10 times more hostile an atmosphere.
A stadium not fit for the task. It is not UEFA compliant, so Hearts play their European home games at Murrayfield as the pitch is too small. This does, however, make the atmosphere one of the most intense in Scotland, as alluded to before.
SAD TRIVIA
Hearts were founded in 1874, although some reports state 1873, and played at several different locations including the Meadows, Powburn and Powderhall before they settled in the Gorgie area in 1881. The current stadium started life in 1886.
Hearts badge is based on the Heart of Midlothian, a mosaic on the Royal Mile. Incidently, its tradition to spit at the Heart of Midlothian as it marks the spot where they used to hang people!
Hearts fans take great pride in calling themselves "The Third Force". This recognises the Old Firm stranglehold on Scottish Football with Hearts seeing themselves as the best of the rest. Many would argue this case – Aberdeen having a European trophy probably have one of the strongest cases. However, Hearts do have the unique distinction of not only being the only team outside the Old Firm to have won the Scottish Cup in nearly ten years (both in 1998 and in 2006) and the only team outside the Old Firm to have been in the top six of the SPL split every season, but they also became the first team to split the Old Firm in 12 years when they finished runners up to Celtic in 2005-06. This means they're only the third Scottish team to attempt qualification for the group stages of the Champions League. Indeed, Hearts fans now see themselves not only a third force, but genuine title contenders in Scotland.
In season 2002/03, Hearts also had a huge say on who won the league title. Celtic and Rangers matched each other result for result, dropping points in exactly the same games. The old firm matches were 2-1 in Celtic's favour (with the other being a draw) but this advantage was cancelled out as Rangers won twice at Tynecastle where Celtic won once and lost once. The result was that Celtic and Rangers finished level on points, and Rangers won the league on goal difference. Had it been head to head as with leagues such as in Spain, Celtic would of course have won the league.
Hearts last won the Scottish League in 1959-60. They did of course come extremely close to winning the league in 1985-86, but a combination of Celtic winning 5-0 at Love Street and Hearts losing to two goals from Dundee's Albert Kidd meant the title went to Celtic on the final day of the season. This has made Albert Kidd a Celtic legend without ever having played for the bhoys.
TIM FRIENDLY PUBS
The bowling club on Russell Road has been known to allow supporters buses in as long as they have arranged it before hand. Speak to your bus convenor about it.
International Bar– 15 Brougham street. This pub has been used by the HWEUCSC for the last 20 years. Well known as a celtic pub throughout edinburgh, so little/reduced chance of any agro.
Malones Irish Bar- 14 Forrest Road. A new pub established last year. It is tim friendly, however their policy on football colours isn't exactly uniform -so be sure to have something over it just incase.
PUBS TO AVOID
Anything on Gorgie Road/ Dalry road ( robertsons, stratfords, tynecastle arms etc.)
Dickenson's bar @ haymarket
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