“Every time our rivals picked up the papers they would see us with a gap at the top of the table. Then, on the run-in, we saw Dundee United at Tannadice, Aberdeen and Clydebank at Tynecastle and Dundee away to finish. And Aberdeen and United were big in Europe then.
“We worked out that if Celtic won all their games we could drop a point and still be champions. To keep everything normal we never varied our preparation.
“When we won 3-0 at Tannadice with three games left, we thought: ‘Well, maybe – maybe – it’s our year’. Of course, you don’t go out and say it. Your family, your friends, people in the street say it – but not you.
“You can stay nice and steady with a settled team, like Leicester, even if you have a blip like they did against Arsenal.
“What you can’t help is what happened to us in the week leading up to our last game at Dundee. There was a virus running about – Craig Levein didn’t make the match and four or five other first-team lads were in their beds beforehand.
“I didn’t have a save to make in the first half but then the season caught up with us. We hadn’t lost a goal at a corner kick all season but this time somebody let Albert Kidd slip away. He scored – and the rest is history.”
News of Kidd’s goal in the 83rd minute was greeted rapturously in Paisley, where Celtic were overtaking Hearts’ superior goal difference en route to a 5-0 victory against St Mirren. Hibs fans also celebrated in Edinburgh, although they were losing at home to Dundee United.
Kidd plunged the dagger with a second goal four minutes later.
Commentating for BBC Radio Sport, I saw Dens Park strewn with inconsolable Hearts fans, many weeping unashamedly. An elderly man held his wife close as she sobbed in the stand behind us. The sense of desolation extended to Hearts’ 3-0 defeat by Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final a week later.
The events of May 3, 1986 remain painful for the Hearts faithful but Leicester can draw a more encouraging lesson from that date. Gordon Milne’s players needed to win at home against Newcastle to avoid relegation – and the Foxes delivered, with a 2‑0 victory to send Ipswich over the brink.
- Telegraph