By Clive Lindsay BBC Sport Online

One of the Scottish Premier League club's most lauded defenders, he has mainly happy memories of his playing days during the club's glory years of the 1980s.

But it is his time as Aberdeen's caretaker manager that will now conjure up a few unwanted ghosts.

Hegarty, who had been assistant, was thrust into the Pittodrie hot-seat in December 1998 after the sacking of Alex Miller.

He kept a struggling Aberdeen side in the Scottish Premier League, but with only a further four wins - and 11 defeats - in the final 16 games.

The constant speculation about whether he would be given the job permanently, especially the perceived reluctance to allow him to sign new players, at times made his time there a nightmare.

There was a suspicion that it was a holding operation until Aberdeen could get the man they really wanted.

Hegarty still thought he had done enough by the end of the season to prove his worth.

The Aberdeen board thought otherwise and called in Ebbe Skovdahl from Denmark.

Now Hegarty, a coach at the club he led to a league championship, two league cups and a Uefa Cup final, has been appointed caretaker manager after the sacking of Alex Smith.

After four games under Hegarty - the last two being victories - United have apparently abandoned their search beyond Tayside for a permanent replacement.

But, after failed attempts by chairman Eddie Thompson to tempt Ian McCall from Falkirk and possibly Steve Paterson from Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hegarty has only been given a contract until the end of the season.

Sound familiar? Those parallels could haunt Hegarty - Morning, Noon and Night.