Shutout fear for big bow
Looking back on the incident 10 years later, Dalziel recalled how Hogg was the init ial aggressor before being floored with a punch “Mike Tyson would have been proud of”.
He jokingly gave Hogg a count as he walked past, not realising the severity of his injuries that soon became obvious to Jambos physio Alan Rae.
The startled stopper, drenched in blood, was placed on a stretcher but ref Bill Crombie showed little sympathy, walking over to flash a red card at him after sending Levein packing.
Nine-man Hearts kept the score down to 2-0 after the break but they suffered far heavier punishment from the SFA.
As Rae recalled in a book about his days at the club, “some sad freak in the crowd” had captured the assault on video and sold it to the media. The ensuing uproar saw Levein hit with a 14-game ban while Hogg was suspended for 10, with boss Tommy McLean placing both of them on the transfer list and stripping Levein of the captaincy.
Despi t e spend ing h i s formative years with infamously short-fused brother Jim, even McLean admitted he had never encountered such an explosive in-house scrap. Yet Levein would outlast both his gaffer and Hogg at Tynecastle, eventual ly reclaiming the armband before a knee injury forced him to retire in 1997.
The punch even helped secure him a place in team-mate Gar y Mack ay ’ s J ambos Dr e am Team, with the midfielder claiming: “The fact he gave Graeme Hogg a dunt put him up in my estimation.”
Hogg, known as Spender by the Hearts fans due to his likeness to actor Jimmy Nail, said Auf Wiedersehen at the end of that season as his Crocodile Shoes took him on the road south to Notts County.
But he remained remarkably free of bitterness, later revealing he even enjoyed a pint with his assailant after the pair had buried the hatchet.
And they were almost reunited when L e v e i n became boss at Cowdenbeath, only for the fledgling manager to be beaten to the punch by Junior side Linlithgow Rose when he tried to sign his old sparring partner.
Junior clubs entering the pyramid at long last have been told it is “impossible” to say whether fans will get to see their big debut.
All 63 outfits in the west of the country saw their applications to form a West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) accepted this week.
It came a full two years after the junior game voted to join the pyramid at tier six, sitting under the Lowland and Highland Leagues.
The Lowland board will manage the league in the interim until a permanent one can be created.
Lowland League chairman George Fraser said: “We intend to make the South Region Challenge Cup a mandatory competition. We feel that this is the premier trophy for teams in the pyramid at tier five and below.
“I would imagine there will be a League Cup competition, which is usually mandatory.
“Other competitions will be discussed with clubs and a decision taken after that.
“It’s impossible to tell at the moment when the season will start and if it will be behind closed doors or open to spectators. We will be guided by government guidelines on that.
“My gut feeling is there will still be some restrictions in place regarding football and we will adapt to them as needed.”
Glasgow Uni, Bonnyton Thistle, St Cadocs Youth Club and Drumchapel United will complete a 67-team set-up.
Fraser said the process of how to sort conferences within the new WoSFL will be looked at over the next week to 10 days.
He added: “We want the clubs to be involved in discussions and that will happen.
“As far as administration of the league goes, this is going to be an ongoing process. It would be unfair for us to throw in a new management committee and expect them to hit the ground running.
“We want to ensure the league is up and running and we are happy that we will be handing it over in such a way that any new board can pick it up with the minimum of fuss.”