Hearts U21

Craig Gordon learned his trade on Hearts' own training pitches before Scotland ever picked him in goal, one name on a list that also runs through Christophe Berra, Gary Naysmith, Lee Wallace, Jamie Walker, Robbie Neilson and Jason Cummings. The pathway that produced them kept changing shape: a reserve side ran from 1998 to 2009, then lapsed, before Hearts entered a new B team in the Lowland League for the 2022-23 season, opening away at Berwick Rangers on 23 July 2022.

Alongside the first team the city knows as the Jam Tarts, the young side carried its own tag, The Wee Jambos, and wore the same maroon and white. It played its home fixtures at Ainslie Park, a ground it shared with Spartans, holding around 3,500.

The one trophy that generation reached for was the Scottish Youth Cup, and in 2025-26 it got there — Hearts' first win in the competition since 1999-2000. Neither the Lowland League nor the Challenge Cup ever produced a title to go with it.

The cup did not save the side. In January 2026 Hearts announced it was disbanding the B team and withdrawing from the Lowland League, shifting instead to loan-based club co-operation agreements for its young players. Ainslie Park stays as it was, still Spartans' ground on the northern edge of Edinburgh, its stands built for a community club rather than for the crowds Hearts draw at Tynecastle.