Albert Kidd

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Albert Kidd is a retired former professional Scottish football player who now lives in Australia^[1]. He is most famous in Scottish football for scoring two goals for Dundee against Hearts on the final day of the 1985-86 season to deny Hearts the championship^[2].

Going into the final day of the 1985-86 season on May 3, 1986, Hearts were in a very strong position. They were two points clear of second-placed Celtic and had a goal difference that was four goals better. With only two points available for a win in Scottish football at this time (three points for a win was not introduced until 1994), Hearts only needed to avoid defeat in the match at Dens Park to win the championship. Hearts had not lost any match since September 28, 1985^[3]. It was also possible that Hearts could win the championship even if they lost the match, so long as Celtic did not overturn the goal difference advantage by winning heavily against St Mirren at Love Street.

At half-time, with the scoreline at Dens Park still 0–0, it was announced over the public address system that Celtic were winning 4–0. Although Hearts were on course to win the point they needed to win the championship, the score at Love Street meant that Hearts had lost their goal difference advantage over Celtic. Hearts knew that they would have to avoid defeat in their match to win the championship.

Midway through the second half, with the score at Dens Park still locked at 0–0, the Dundee manager Archie Knox brought on Kidd (a forward) as a substitute for left full-back Tosh McKinlay in an effort to win the game. Dundee needed to win the game to stand a chance of qualifying for the UEFA Cup^[4].

Albert Kidd (dark blue shirt, left) celebrates after scoring his first goal against Hearts. Sandy Clark (#9) appeals for offside in vain.

In the 83rd minute, with Hearts less than 10 minutes away from winning their first championship since 1960, Kidd scored the opening goal with a close-range finish from a corner kick. Six minutes later, Kidd effectively ended Hearts' chances by scoring a sublime second goal to make the final score a 2–0 win for Dundee. Remarkably, Kidd had not scored all season^[2] before scoring two goals in the last 10 minutes of the season. Celtic won their game 5–0^[5] to win the championship on goal difference by three goals.

Kidd also played for Motherwell^[6] during his career.

Kidd left Scottish football in 1987 to play for Australian side West Adelaide SC, and he has lived in Australia ever since. Despite living far from Scotland, he is still fondly remembered by Celtic fans^[7] and particularly by fans of Hibs^[1]^[8], who are Hearts' rivals in Edinburgh. This is despite the fact that Kidd never played for either Celtic or Hibs. There are anecdotes that Hibs effectively stopped playing during their match against Dundee United on May 3, 1986, allowing United to score a winning goal in the meaningless match, due to the reaction of the Hibs support to the news from Dens Park^[9].

Kidd himself has told an anecdote that Billy Connolly (a Celtic fan^[10]^[11]) was star-struck when he accidentally met Kidd in an Adelaide hotel. As Connolly is famous around the English-speaking world, Kidd naturally recognised him, but Connolly didn't initially recognise Kidd. As the pair went through some good-natured small talk, Connolly eventually realised who he was talking to^[1].