Paul Hegarty

Hamilton Academical

Hegarty's senior career began as a striker with Hamilton Accies in 1972.

Dundee United

In November 1974, Dundee United manager Jim McLean signed him for a fee of £27,500. Two years later, McLean transformed Hegarty's career when he experimented by pairing him with Dave Narey in United's central defence. The partnership they forged would be integral to United's successes for over a decade and Hegarty would develop into a top class central defender. As club captain, Hegarty led United to their first ever major trophy, the Scottish League Cup in 1979, which they retained the following year. In 1982–83, Hegarty was an ever-present as United captured the Scottish League title. Hegarty temporarily played as a goalkeeper during a match against Morton that season, after Hamish McAlpine was injured. He also featured in many notable victories in European competition, albeit injury restricted his participation in United's run to the 1987 UEFA Cup Final. In recognition of his contribution to Dundee United, the club allowed him to leave on a free transfer in January 1990.

St Johnstone

He briefly played for St. Johnstone, helping them to promotion.

Scotland

Hegarty represented his country between 1979 and 1983, captaining the side against Northern Ireland in his eighth and final appearance for Scotland. He is widely regarded as one of the best central halves to have never been a regular for Scotland. He also turned out for the…

Hegarty's first coaching role was with Forfar Athletic as player/manager. The team were relegated in 1992 and Hegarty left shortly afterwards. He then had coaching roles with Dundee United (leaving Tannadice in 1995), Hearts and Aberdeen. Following the dismissal of Alex Miller in January 1999, he was appointed Aberdeen manager on an interim basis. However, despite saving the club from relegation, Aberdeen elected at the end of the season not to continue with Hegarty in the job on a long-term basis. Once again, Dundee United offered Hegarty a coaching role. This became a manager role in October 2002 after chairman Eddie Thompson was unable to prise first-choice Ian McCall from Falkirk. Initially appointed as caretaker, Hegarty's role was to be extended until the end of the season before he was sacked in January 2003 – and subsequently replaced with McCall. Hegarty continued to work in coaching, having been on the staff of both Livingston and then Dunfermline. While at Dunfermline, Hegarty was approached by Inverness CT to be part of the management with former Dundee United colleague Maurice Malpas, although the move never materialised. He was eventually appointed as assistant to Malpas at Motherwell on 25 May 2006, although later replaced by Scott Leitch when Malpas was sacked in June 2007. In March 2008, Hegarty became one of new Scotland manager George Burley's scouts for the World Cup qualifying group. In December 2008 he was appointed as the manager of Livingston after…

Hegarty's elder brother Kevin played for Dunfermline Athletic as did his nephew (Kevin's son), Ryan. His son Chris came through the Dundee academy and had a 13-year playing career with teams across the north-east of Scotland, including Peterhead, Arbroath, Forfar Athletic and two spells with Montrose, the latter of which saw Chris end his career having been signed by his father.

Player

Dundee United Scottish Premier Division: 1982–83 Scottish League Cup: 1978–79, 1979–80 Runner-up 1980–81, 1984–85 UEFA Cup: Runner-up 1986–87 Scottish Cup: Runner-up 1980–81, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88 St Johnstone Scottish First Division (second tier): 1989–90

Individual

PFA Scotland Players' Player of the Year: 1979