Hearts 2012 Scottish Cup winners: New book detailing the triumph and tragedy

Hearts fans looking for a distraction in the build up to this year’s Scottish Cup final could do worse than to pick up a soon-to-be-released book detailing their last triumph in a Hampden showpiece.

Triumph and Tragedy of 19-05-12 is the second book in two years by Edinburgh-based football journalist and author Anthony Brown. Packed with interviews involving players, coaches, managers and club employees, it chronicles the Hearts triumph when Paulo Sergio’s side hammered local rivals Hibs 5-1 in the first major final between the two sides in over 100 years.

It is the follow up to 2020’s Reminiscing With Legends, which covered the 1998 Scottish Cup final win when Hearts defeated Rangers 2-1 to lift their first piece of silverware in 36 years. It was the first of three Scottish Cup conquests by Hearts across a 14-year period, though the 2006 victory over Gretna is curiously absent from what could have been a potential trilogy.

"2012 was the one I always wanted to do initially,” revealed Brown when talking to the Evening News. “I wanted to write a book before the '98 one and I thought, '2012, that's the stand-out moment from my career in terms of things I've worked at'.

“But the way my thinking evolved, the 1998 one started to feel like the right one to tackle first.

“And, to be honest, because in 2006 they beat Gretna in the final it didn't have the same magnitude. Obviously it's not just about the final itself, it's about the whole run and story behind winning the cup, but at the end of the day the two big results in my lifetime for Hearts were the 1998 cup win and the 2012 cup win.

“The 2006 one, without being disrespectful, didn't appeal to me on the same level.”

Triumph and Tragedy of 19-05-12 – which will have it’s launch at The Brunton in Musselburgh on Friday, May 13, before being released the week of this year’s final – follows a similar structure to Brown’s first book where he sets out the events before concentrating on the characters which made it happen.

Captain Marius Zaliukas, right, holds up the Scottish Cup trophy after Hearts defeated Hibs in the 2012 final. Picture: SNS

“There was a really strong squad spirit that was evident in both of them,” said Brown. “I know it's easy to say now because they won a cup, but you do get the feeling they were great dressing rooms to be a part of at Hearts.

"There were a lot of similarities between the squads. Two that stood out were Steve Fulton and Ian Black. Both were at the heart of the midfield. Both were seen as lovable rogues. And interviewing them was quite similar. They're not the most conventional of speakers but they come out with some absolutely brilliant quotes because they just speak from the heart.

“Fundamentally, both sets of players were really easy to deal with. A bunch of great guys and no bad eggs.”

Sadly, one aspect both the 1998 and 2012 squads have in common is a feeling of heartache. Stefano Salvatori, the classy Italian midfielder, passed away on Halloween 2017 after a battle with cancer. Exactly three years later the club was once again mourning the loss of a legend as Marius Zaliukas, who captained the 2012 side, succumbed to motor neurone disease.

Tributes to Marius Zaliukas are left in front of Tynecastle Park after the cup-winning captain's death in 2020. Picture: SNS

“It was tough. With the '98 book I knew Stefano's wife previously from doing a couple of interviews with her. So that was slightly less daunting in the sense that I didn't have to go approach somebody I didn't know to get more background information," said Brown.

“With Marius I didn't have that. Also it was just so recent as well. With Stefano a few years had passed. That doesn't make it any easier but it does give people time to grieve before they start talking. It's not just about him as a footballer. It's about him as a person and to cover that you need to speak to the people who knew him best. And that's quite difficult when they've just lost him six months or a year previously.

"I went to team-mates first: like Andrius Velicka, Saulius Mikoliunas and Arvydas Novikovas. You could tell they were all genuine friends, not just team-mates who happen to be Lithuanian.

“I eventually got in touch with his sister. There was a bit of a language barrier but she stressed how much he appreciated his time at Hearts. She was grateful to the way the Hearts supporters had remembered him.

Author Anthony Brown with a copy of his soon-to-be-released book. Picture: Contributed

“It's hard because, while you want to do every chapter justice, it's almost like a big tribute to a guy who might not have another chapter written like that.”

And what about part three if Hearts again beat Rangers in the Scottish Cup final on May 21?

“I'll need ten years to recover! I would compare writing a second book to having a second child. You forget how hard it was until you go back into it,” he said.

"You get your first book done and out of the way, then you get the feedback: the reviews, the sales, the positivity, you're in the spotlight a wee bit. Then you start to think, 'I enjoyed that'. Then you do your first couple of interviews and get back into the rhythm of speaking to the guys, which is the most fun part.

"It's a longer book than the last one. I knew before Christmas I needed to have it with the publishers by March. And even in that period I still had 15 chapters to write. That was really tough. It was all consuming.

"I probably will take a break from book-writing for a few years. For all the enjoyable bits, there are days when you think 'I could just stop here'. The extra motivation is that you're also doing it for the players. There are all these people who've taken time out to talk to you. I felt like I was writing on behalf of the team.”

To pre-order a copy of the book, go to https://legends98.bigcartel.com/product/triumph-and-tragedy-of-19-05-12

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