By Barry Anderson

Copyright scotsman

The old Tynecastle shed. The smell from the brewery wafting up the nostrils. Bukta kits and Mita Copiers sponsors. A team laced with local heroes like Gary Mackay and John Robertson. Hearts in the 1980s was a club that quickly got people hooked. Paul Sheerin was just an impressionable kid back then whose Gorgie upbringing became firmly ingrained in him. He is now one of Derek McInnes’ assistants preparing for Saturday’s Edinburgh derby against Hibs. It is fair to say Sheerin, now 51, is revelling in the role. He says he has “come full circle” since those days standing on Tynecastle’s heaving old concrete terraces watching games which shaped his childhood. He was one of 26,294 people who crammed into the famous old ground on the night Hearts beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in February, 1989. His father, a lifelong Jambo, stood by his side. Sheerin can lay claim to the kind of maroon heritage you just can’t recreate. You either lived it or you didn’t. He enjoys the chance to reminisce, although his main focus is on the current rejuvenation of a club he followed as a youngster. Hearts sit top of the Scottish Premiership again, just as they sometimes did in those sepia-tinted league tables from the 80s. Tynecastle is buzzing with anticipation as Tony Bloom generates excitement similar to that created by the late Wallace Mercer 40 years ago. With Hibs next on the fixture list, enthusiasm grows. Hearts have won only one of the last eight Edinburgh derby games. McInnes, assisted by Sheerin and Alan Archibald, aims to change the trend to maintain an unbeaten league start. Sheerin’s history means nobody need remind him of the occasion’s magnitude. Again, like many Hearts supporters, he has family on the other side of Edinburgh’s footballing divide. “I signed for Celtic as a schoolboy aged 13, so that kind of took me away from Hearts a wee bit,” he says, speaking exclusively to the Edinburgh News. “Certainly, when I was growing up, my Dad took me to the games. He was a Hearts fan. His two brothers were both Hibs fans so I think, to annoy them, he became a Hearts fan so there were divides. To be fair, all my family are from Edinburgh so there is a bit of a divide within the family. Nephews and brother-in-laws are Hearts fans. My opposite brother-in-law was a Hibs fan before we lost him. Uncles and cousins are Hibs fans, so there is a fair divide in the family. “I know all about the rivalry so I’m looking forward to it. We’ll be getting some abuse no doubt with the Hibs side. This is your job, but like I say, it is a little bit closer to your heart than probably any other club that I’ve been at. Going to Tynecastle as a young boy and coming full circle, it definitely adds to it. But you get all your work done. That’s what it’s all about once you’re in the training ground and everything. You do all you can just to get down to business and get going. “That was the biggest part when we were announced. The wait to just get into it was quite frustrating because you just want to get started. It was close season and we were all desperate to get in and announce it and get to see the players. The first couple of days was hard because we had medicals and testing. To get on the training pitch was good and the boys have been brilliant. They’ve been really responsive. They’ve worked really hard. It’s been a nice change from our time at Kilmarnock because it’s always nice to get a new and fresh challenge. There are probably different demands, with the greatest respect to Kilmarnock.” There are indeed. Expectations at Hearts centre around challenging in the Premiership’s upper echelons and qualifying for Europe every year. They managed that a couple of times during Sheerin’s spell on the terraces. Although, back then, any mention of gambling algorithms and sports analytics would have been laughed out of the Capital. Football has moved on but Hearts are still striving to recreate nights like the aforementioned UEFA Cup quarter-final. “Bayern Munich was the biggest one for me, Iain Ferguson’s free-kick,” recalls Sheerin. “That was always the biggest one I saw at Tynecastle. I loved going to Tynecastle and standing in the old shed and all that. Proper football, the smell of the brewery and everything. I did have that first taste of proper football in there and I’ve come full circle now. It was proper exciting for me. “It did make it more special coming here in the summer with the family connection as well. They were all nipping my head when it was mooted. Was it happening? Was it not? I was trying to contain their excitement and play it down a wee bit before it was confirmed. That was a big part of it. It’s definitely different from being at Aberdeen or Kilmarnock. I had opportunities [as manager] at Arbroath and Falkirk but getting ready to come here and get the tracksuit on and the training kit was a nice feeling.” Sheerin built a playing career as a cultured midfielder after many years sporting a maroon-and-white scarf. He was on the books at Southampton and Swedish side Ostersunds, but properly established himself at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He scored a penalty in Caley’s 3-1 Scottish Cup win over Celtic in Glasgow 25 years ago – another bit of Scottish football history he can lay claim to. The “Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious” headline is still famous to this day. He later played for Ayr United, Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Arbroath, and first began working with McInnes as Aberdeen’s Under-20 coach 11 years ago. Sheerin grew up just outside Edinburgh and is proud of his roots. “I was a Bonnyrigg boy,” he explains. “I played there. I started with Sherwood and ended up with Captain’s Cabin as it was at the time. I think they changed to Liberton. That was my upbringing out in Bonnyrigg. My Dad, he was a Gilmerton man so right in the thick of it as well.” Sheerin sees McInnes as a perfect fit for Hearts. When he talks, he details a warm environment at Riccarton where everyone is close and willing to back one another up. No-one doubts who is in charge but there is a level of support and togetherness serving the squad well. Cast your mind back to Alex MacDonald’s team in the 1980s and you will recall a similar mindset. “I think Derek just likes to bring a tight-knit group of players with a camaraderie between them which then translates into the pitch. He likes his teams to be close,” explains Sheerin. “He likes them to be on the training ground as long as possible. He wants them to stay around the place, stay around each other. That’s the first part – to try to build that spirit. To be fair, it seems to be there already. They seem to be a good group and they seem quite close. “Integrating new players is important as well. Derek’s record speaks for itself in terms of winning football matches. The most important thing is winning. The more games we win, the easier it will be. He is desperate to bring success here, absolutely desperate – for the players, for himself, for us. Most importantly, for the fans. We know that. He’s always stressing the importance of cup runs and top-six finishes. I think he’ll drum that message home as much as he can.” Sheerin and Archibald are the manager’s daily support network. “The three of us will have a discussion. Ultimately, the gaffer will tell us what he’s looking for,” says Sheerin. “We’ll sit with him together and have an idea between the three of us. We’ll tweak it however it needs to be tweaked. He gives us pretty much what we need to know in terms of what he’s looking for. He’ll come in and get the tactical stuff done when it needs to be. “When you come into your first week of sessions, you’ll see us build up into the tactical stuff. We’ll just organise that as best we can. He’ll tell us if it’s not right. We just try to give as much support as we can. It’s pretty even in terms of how we get our work out there. Myself and Archie are delighted he’s brought us here. You’re never sure when he’s first linked to the job but I’m really happy that he’s brought us in. It’s a brilliant challenge for all of us.” When Premiership fixtures were released, Sheerin’s eyes instinctively gravitated to Saturday, 4 October, and the first meeting with Hibs. The date of the derby is what everyone looks for. “It is, isn’t it? I think you sense that early. Being around the club, speaking to groundsmen, kitchen staff, everybody is looking forward to the derby. It just screams out of the whole place right away. There’s no getting away from that on your side [media] as well. I’m also friends with Liam Craig. That adds to it a wee bit, doesn’t it? You want to get one over on him and annoy him a wee bit.” READ MORE: Hearts injury news on Baningime, Borchgrevink, Ageu, Nieuwenhof