Twenty-two games. For 1,980 minutes of football, Heart of Midlothian reigned supreme in the capital. It was the longest unbeaten streak in the storied history of one of Scotland’s grandest fixtures and it is a record that stands to this day. No other team in Scotland – and possibly Britain – has ever enjoyed such a period of dominance in their derby. 

Between 1989 and 1993, Hearts were unquestionably and emphatically on top in the Edinburgh derby. The 22-game unbeaten streak started with Alex MacDonald at the helm before Joe Jordan and then Sandy Clark followed in their predecessors’ footsteps by maintaining derby dominance. Thirty-one goals were scored by Hearts during the record-breaking run, while Hibernian could only offer 11 in reply – the same number John Robertson alone provided for the men in maroon – and 11 of the matches ended with a clean sheet for Hearts. 

It started off with a 2-1 win at Tynecastle, with Robertson (who else?) popping up with a late winner in the final meeting of the two rivals in the 1988/89 season. The following campaign would be MacDonald’s last in charge but he still recorded wins in three of the four derbies, including a 2-1 success at Easter Road. Clark would then take the reins for one derby while he was interim manager, overseeing a memorable 3-0 victory in Leith where Craig Levein scored either side of a Robertson double. 

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Jordan’s spell in the dugout saw the scorelines in the derbies become narrower but still, more often than not, Hearts would find themselves on the winning side. The Scotland great’s second and third derbies in charge ended in convincing 3-1 and 4-1 wins but thereafter, most encounters between the two rivals were limited to a goal or two per game, usually in Hearts’ favour but with the occasional draw thrown in for good measure. When Jordan departed in the summer of 1993, Clark returned to Tynecastle Park – this time as permanent manager. He would record three wins in five meetings with Hibs during his season in charge, including a 2-1 triumph at Easter Road in the Scottish Cup.  

It was the stuff that dreams are made of. We may never see its like again but as Alastair Stupart, author of ‘Playing Football The Gorgie Way: 22 Derbies In A Row Unbeaten’, explains, the record-breaking run is unlikely to be bettered any time soon. 

“It’s not hugely talked about because it was quite a long time ago, but there are still songs sung about it,” said the lifelong Hearts supporter. “The tunes about ‘22 unbeaten’ still get sung at the derbies. It’s a Scottish record but I believe it’s a UK record as well. 

“I remember Gary Mackay talking about it but there was a feeling of utter invincibility. I normally approach derbies in a state of incredible dread but there was just no fear back then. There was a feeling of inevitability that we were going to win again. For a few years there was just no fear of losing the derby – from players or spectators. 

“As time goes by it gets less and less relevant, but to me it appears to be a UK record. Chelsea v Tottenham is apparently the longest unbeaten derby run in British football but I’ve suggested here that they are about 10 miles apart – and they have got other rivals, so I’m not sure if that counts. Tottenham’s rivals are Arsenal. Hearts’ 22 games is the Scottish record – and probably the British record, too. 

“I don’t think we’ll see it happen again – certainly not in Scotland. Neither Celtic nor Rangers get anywhere close to 22 games unbeaten, and if the Edinburgh derby gets to 12, that’s unusual. I don’t think the Dundee derby has ever gotten beyond 12 or 15 games. I don’t carry all the stats but that’s the sort of number that tends to be the limit. 

“Hearts have won more derbies at Tynecastle – and at Easter Road. Over the years, Hearts have overwhelmingly done better than Hibs in the derbies. I don’t know why that is.” 

Stupart isn’t wrong. In 660 meetings between the two rivals since that first fixture at the East Meadows back on Christmas Day 1875, Hearts have won 290 (43.9 per cent) of them and have lost 207 (31.4 per cent). There has never been another lengthy unbeaten run like the one that the Gorgie club enjoyed between 1989 and 1993, but that is not to say that unbroken periods of success are rare. 

“Hearts recently went 12 games unbeaten in the derby but it takes a long, long time to get back to a number like that,” Stupart observed. “That took place over three or four seasons. People might know about the 22 but not long before that – from 1983 to 1987 – Hearts had an unbeaten run of 17 games against Hibs.” 

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The game has certainly changed a fair bit since those halcyon days. The make-up of the squads has radically shifted, the stadiums – heck, even the positioning of away fans at Tynecastle – have all evolved over the years. But there are other aspects of the modern game that were already creeping in during that period. 

“There were huge numbers of homegrown players, on both sides of the city,” Stupart recalled. “I’ve listed which boys’ clubs they all came from. You’ll remember Steve Archibald, who briefly – and unbelievably – played for Hibs. His previous club before that was Barcelona – he was released and ended up at Easter Road.  

“Quite a lot of famous names are in there – Joe Jordan was the Hearts manager, there’s Steve Archibald, John Collins, Darren Jackson. People probably forget. There were journeymen players coming up from down south, but there was a distinct lack of foreign players. In the second game, the winning goal was scored by a Yugoslav, Husref Musemic. He went on to play for Yugoslavia and Bosnia – how did a player like that end up playing for Hearts in 1989/90? He didn’t stay long. 

“The crowds were a bit bigger than you get now, due to the terracing. Hibs fans used to get the opposite end of the ground at Tynecastle than they get now. People also used to watch the games from the flats at the back of Gorgie Road! 

“It's a bit of a bygone era. Sky TV was virtually nonexistent. The 21st game kicked off on a Sunday at 3:05pm – I don’t know if it was to do with Sky but it was definitely down to satellite television. It was probably the first time that had happened. Kicking off at 3:05pm for a cup game on a Sunday, it was unusual. Back then, if you weren’t at the game then you would have to keep up with it on Ceefax, waiting for the screen to refresh. And that was it – you couldn’t go back and watch it again.” 

It is a feeling that modern-day Hearts fans should be able to sympathise with, given that this weekend’s derby has not been chosen to be shown by Sky Sports. For Stupart, it became a stumbling block during the process of researching his book. 

He explained: “A lot of it comes from memory but a lot of it also comes from old copies of the Edinburgh Evening News, watching footage on YouTube – it’s amazing what you can pull together. There was the Pink News that used to be produced in Edinburgh and that was handy too.  

“The book is based around the rivalry and it has some Edinburgh derby facts. It starts with the Edinburgh derby and the whole rivalry around it, and then there is a chapter on each of the 22 games. At the end of each chapter there is a wee comment or an ‘on this day’ section. The first game was on the first of April 1989 and lo and behold, I looked it up and it was the day that the Poll Tax was introduced into Scotland. Madonna’s Like A Prayer was top of the charts.” 

Of course, Hearts’ remarkable record-breaking run couldn’t last forever. When Tommy McLean replaced Clark in the Tynecastle dugout, the unbeaten streak in the derbies would follow the former manager out the door. McLean’s first encounter with Hibs would end in a 1-0 defeat for Hearts on an afternoon where nothing went right for the men in maroon. The loss signalled a changing of the guard in more ways than one.

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“We had part of a new stand open, a new manager, new owners had come in after Wallace Mercer had left,” Stupart recalled. “There was probably a sense of, ‘ah well, it doesn’t really matter, we’d gone 22 games unbeaten’, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I was there and it was just all-round terrible. Gary Mackay got sent off and I think we hit the bar or something like that. If anything was going to go wrong, it would happen that day. And everything went wrong. It was inevitably going to end at some point.” 

Just as that run was destined to end though, so too is a new one bound to arise in the future. No one can say how or when it will arise, but another lengthy unbeaten streak will surely come along at some point. After the previous derby ended in a 1-1 draw in Gorgie at the tail end of last season, Steven Naismith’s men can make it two without defeat on Saturday. And counting. 

'Playing Football The Gorgie Way: 22 Derbies In A Row Unbeaten', featuring a foreword from Ian Murray MP, is a 140-page paperback available for purchase at the Football Programme Shop in Leith or via the author at A.Stupart@napier.ac.uk. All profits will go to the Foundation of Hearts.