I’m still meeting people who haven’t noticed. Hibernian are on an outstanding run of form, having won their last three games and undefeated in six. The last reversal they had was at Celtic Park the first weekend in April. On Sunday we’re playing the team with the best recent form in Scotland; the warning signs are painted in large green font.
They are dangerous up front, Leigh Griffiths has scored four goals more than any Celtic player, including several stunners.
The weight of the world rested on Hibs’ shoulders at last season’s Scottish Cup final, when the stage was set for a century of pain to be wiped away by defeating their greatest rivals. It was too much. Now they take the field unburdened and vastly more dangerous than St Mirren, Hearts or Kilmarnock were when they overcame Celtic at Hampden recently.
Odds on Hibs are very generous.
I caught some chat online last night. “Blackmail”, “extortion”, “imprisonment”, “getting rid of the problem”, “a catastrophe of an intensity that you…. clearly do not appear to understand”, “fraudulent”, “once the genie is out it will have a life of its own”.
What an unimaginable mess.
I think “Been an admirer of your recent work” is bound to become a euphemism in years to come for when something that should never have been said or written slips out. This is a small glimpse into how the whole thing happened.
Fantastic Q&A with Willie Wallace this morning, thanks to Willie and Winning Captains. Willie’s recollections of our great times are irresistible. Reading the book as it came together was a joy. You’ll love it.
Remember you can start Cup Final weekend by meeting Willie at a book signing at Waterstons’ on Sauchiehall St, tomorrow – 25th May, 46 years on from the day – from 2pm until 4pm. If you can’t make it you can order a signed copy below.
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Summa –
Dixie scored a hat-trick in the Scottish Cup final of 1971 6-1 v Hibernian.
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Samaras & Commons both 33/1 to Score a Hat-Trick..(PeoplePower)..
You heard it here First..
Summa of HampdenHerosCSC
1969 League Cup Final – Celtic 6-2 Hibernian
1971 Scottish Cup Final – Celtic 6-1 Hibernian
1975 League Cup Final – Celtic 6-3 Hibernian
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Aye..Aw-Rite..
Summa
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A career which was spent in green and white still a colourful memory
I have known older Hibernian fans to near-weep at the mere mention of Pat Stanton.
What a player he was at Easter Road in the 1960s and 1970s; the very phrase “a cultured footballer” might have been invented for Stanton. And what Pat Fenlon’s current side would do for a magical reinvention of their former captain among their ranks at Hampden Park tomorrow.
Stanton is still a well-known figure around the club, and whenever a certain vintage of Hibs supporter sees him, their minds are taken back to a time when their club played a brand of football often the equal of Jock Stein’s Celtic. Everyone knows about Hibs’ Famous Five of the 1950s. Many fans, though, with their eyes welling up, recall equally the great side of the 1970s under Eddie Turnbull, the team of Stanton, John Blackley, John Brownlie, Erich Schaedler, Alex Cropley, Alex Edwards, etc. One phrase suffices: “Seven-nil”.
Stanton, still an unassuming man, was everything in a Hibs shirt: skill, intelligence, roaming power, sophistication. It is no coincidence that two of the greatest managers ever produced by Scotland – Eddie Turnbull and Stein – both prized him highly.
One of five boys from a poor family in Craigmillar in Edinburgh, Stanton, now 68, refers to himself as “the last of the romantics” from a fine football age. It took Stanton until the age of 32 and Stein until 1976 to prise him away from Hibs.
“I grew up a Hibs fan and my dad, of whom I’ll tell you a great story, was a big Hibee,” he says. “When I was a young player they sent me out to Bonnyrigg Rose for a season to ‘toughen me up’ and there was talk then of Chelsea and others wanting me. But I was a Hibs fan. My heart was set on Easter Road.
“Over these years at Hibs quite a few teams were said to be in for me, but I guess I just wanted to stay put. Tom McNiven, the old Hibs trainer, used to say to me, ‘aye, Pat, you’re a home bird, this is where you want to be.’ He probably knew me better than I knew myself.”
Stanton became the brains, the heartbeat, of a memorable Hibs team. The odd thing is, most of us recall him as a midfielder, which he usually was for Hibs. But he always viewed himself as a defender, which caused him some ructions throughout his career. “In the end the issue caused a wee bit of friction between me and [former Hibs manager] Eddie Turnbull,” he says. “Eddie always played me in midfield and I had a few wee gripes with him about it. I always felt I was a defender. I was reluctant to play in midfield. Looking back now, maybe I was wrong about it. Maybe I was a midfielder.
“Funnily enough, Jock Stein, first time around when he managed me at Hibs [in 1965], played me in defence. But then Bob Shankly came in and played me in midfield, as did Eddie Turnbull after that. It was only very late on in my career, when big Jock took me to Celtic, that I was back in defence. ‘We’re losing too many silly goals,’ Jock told me. ‘That’s why I’ve brought you here.'”
Turnbull, who died two years ago, was a memorable manager, and a fine player before that. It is quite a thought: the blunt, fiery Turnbull and the quiet, stoical Stanton at odds with each other. Each knew that the other was supremely gifted in his craft.
“It’s an open secret we didn’t see eye to eye,” says Stanton. “But I’ll be the first to stand up and say Eddie Turnbull’s knowledge of football was first-class, it was exceptional. He was a great manager who got that wee bit extra out of you.
“Eddie had a gruff exterior, but he was actually a funny man, he had quite a sense of humour. And he was very determined. Although he had been one of the Famous Five I think he sometimes felt overlooked, as if he was the mere workhorse of that group. Maybe he lived in the shadow of the other four: Lawrie Reilly, Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone and Willie Ormond. But Eddie was a damn fine player, who respected players, and who gained respect from his players.”
There was also a professional “edge” between Turnbull and Stein. Stein was openly lauded, but those in the game also rated Turnbull, who had already defeated the Celtic manager in the 1970 Scottish Cup final with Aberdeen, but had then come a terrible cropper in the infamous Celtic-Hibs Scottish Cup final of 1972, which Celtic won 6-1.
The 1972 Scottish League Cup final, just months after that hammering, remains the perfect evidence of the quality of Hibs and Celtic at the time. If you watch that game today, it looks like something out of the modern era, rather than a period piece of 40-plus years ago.
“That was a great game,” acknowledges Stanton, who scored that day for Hibs. “We were 2-1 up and it was like an eternity until the final whistle. It was pay-back for our supporters after the terrible drubbing we’d got off Celtic. That Hibs team was terrific, but Celtic had players like Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Bobby Lennox, George Connelly and others. What a time that was at the Hibs. We were the last of the romantics.”
Stanton, late in his career, was finally lured away from Easter Road to Glasgow by Stein, and won league-and-cup double medals with Celtic, though injury would soon finish him. But Hibs remained the team of his heart, and certainly that of his father, Michael, a worker in an Edinburgh brewery.
“When I was a lad aged 14, I went to train with Hibs,” Pat recalls. “They were keen to sign me and after training one evening I was sent up to the boardroom to see the manager, Hugh Shaw, who had managed the Famous Five team. Mr Shaw said to me, ‘did you enjoy training, Pat?’ and I said, ‘yes, I did.’ He then said ‘here’ and handed me a 10 shilling note. I got the bus back home to Craigmillar and handed that note to my mother, who showed it to my dad, a proud Hibee. I thought nothing more of it.
“Many years later, when my father passed away, my mum handed me a folder of some of his collections – letters, football cards, other wee items – and then she said to me, ‘do you know what this is?’ Tucked away at the back was an old 10 shilling note. ‘This is the same 10 shilling note you handed to us after you first trained with Hibs,’ she said. ‘That’s what it meant to your dad.'”
Stanton will be at Hampden tomorrow, hoping the spirit of Hibs can somehow prevail. “I’d like to say to the players, ‘be brave, go out there and enjoy it,’ but that’s a bit rich coming from me. I was part of a great Hibs team which froze a couple of times on the big stage. I just hope it is a great occasion for the supporters.
Summa
Tom,
I was only drunk at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOPNa753e1E
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Scottish Cup final: History beckons for Lennon
Neil Lennon: ‘No matter what happens on Sunday, I think its been a great season’.
HISTORY beckons for Neil Lennon at Hampden tomorrow. If his Celtic team lift the Scottish Cup, he will become only the third man ever to win the domestic double in Scotland as both a player and manager for the same club.
The prospect of joining truly iconic Celtic figures Jock Stein and Billy McNeill in that very select group is unquestionably a motivation for Lennon but it is also a subject he does not care to dwell upon ahead of the showdown with Hibs.
“You can ask me that question on Sunday if we win,” said Lennon. “I don’t want to tempt fate or be disrespectful to anyone.
“The players have a game to play and we are really well prepared, but Hibs have their own incentives for winning the cup. Huge incentives.”
While Celtic go into the match as overwhelming favourites, Lennon’s wariness ahead of any Hampden assignment is understandable. Since becoming Celtic manager, he has taken his team to the national stadium on 10 occasions and has lost half of those fixtures.
The five defeats – against Ross County (2010 Scottish Cup semi-final), Rangers (2011 League Cup final), Kilmarnock (2012 League Cup final), Hearts (2012 Scottish Cup semi-final) and St Mirren (2013 League Cup semi-final) –have seen Celtic lumbered with a reputation that they struggle to perform at Scottish football’s most prestigious venue.
It is a problem Lennon has taken time to try and address and one he feels was only partially solved in their dramatic 4-3 extra-time victory over Dundee United in the Scottish Cup semi-final last month.
“We had a look at what had been happening at Hampden before the United game,” added Lennon, “and we noticed we seemed to get a little bit stretched. We played well against United but we still conceded poor goals from our point of view.
“That can happen on the day. You’ve got to give other teams respect as well. The focus is often on how we perform rather than how other teams perform. It’s a one-off game between two very motivated teams and anything can happen.”
As keen as he is to add another silver lining to a memorable campaign for Celtic, Lennon does not subscribe to the view that they have to win the Scottish Cup for it to be regarded as a truly outstanding season. “No matter what happens on Sunday, I think it’s been a great season,” he said. “Our main focus was winning the league and our next priority was, could we progress in Europe. We did both.
“The team have done that fantastically well. We wanted to win the treble as well, we’d our eye on that, but we’ve made another cup final and I’m delighted about that. I just want us to finish off the season the way we’ve played for the majority of it.
“My players don’t owe me anything. Not a thing. They’ve already won the league, they’ve performed brilliantly in Europe and exceeded expectations.
“This game is a huge bonus coming into this stage of the season. There’s a trophy at the end of it for us and it is one we would dearly love to win.”
There is a general expectation that Celtic are certain to win tomorrow if they produce their optimum form. Again, however, Lennon is reluctant to embrace that school of thought.
“It would be a bit blase to say that,” he added. “You have to remember there are up to 14 other players on the day trying to stop you from playing. I know all the expectation is on us to win the game. We’ve had our faux pas here in the past but, looking at the players in the last few weeks, they seem very focused and very driven on winning this game.
“I watched Hibs last week and they are playing well. Everyone will talk about Leigh Griffiths and he has had a fantastic season and is a real threat. He’s got great movement and hits the ball well with both feet and is impressive at set-pieces.
“The young lad Alex Harris has come in and looked really bright. He’s a bit of an eliminator. They do pose a threat. They are scoring goals and have picked up recently. The young lad Ross Caldwell has come in and got the winner against Hearts, so they have plenty of attacking options – as do we.
“You are always hoping it is a great game but you are always hoping you win. Our last two performances in the league have been really powerful and there has been a real intensity to our play. And quality.
“I hope we bring that on Sunday, but we were playing very well going into the League Cup semi-final here against St Mirren and we didn’t perform anywhere near the capability we could have that day. That is something we should be mindful of.”
As he conducted his pre-match media duties at Hampden yesterday, Lennon was gratified by the magnificent condition of the often-criticised playing surface. “I’m delighted with the pitch,” he said. “When you see it in the sunshine it’s very impressive. Sometimes it can be a bit dry and it’s a slower pitch, but Sunday looks like it’s going to be a good day weather-wise. But there can be no complaints about the pitch looking at it today. It looks like it’s never been played on before so credit to the people at Hampden for that.”
Lennon will assess the fitness of defender Charlie Mulgrew and winger James Forrest this morning but is hopeful both will fully recover from hamstring injuries in time to be involved. But Welsh full-back Adam Matthews has been ruled out by a similar problem, joining the suspended midfield duo of Victor Wanyama and Beram Kayal on the sidelines.
While the return to action of captain Scott Brown has “softened the blow” for Lennon, he has sympathy for Wanyama and feels the regulations surrounding suspensions in cup football should be re-assessed.
“I’d like to see a change to the rule which can see you miss a cup final if you get two bookings in a competition,” said Lennon. “I think that is really harsh. I’m not just talking about the Scottish Cup, I’d like to see it changed in the Champions League and even the World Cup. It’s a travesty that you can play so many games in the Champions League, for example, and then a minor booking costs you a place in the final. Wanyama has had a fantastic season for us and it’s a sore one for the kid to miss out on a showpiece game like this.”
But Lennon is relieved that his own involvement tomorrow will not be restricted, having received only a suspended one-match touchline ban from an SFA Judicial Panel on Thursday after being found guilty of breaching the terms of his recent three-match suspension.
“I’m delighted with the outcome,” he said. “It will be a great feeling walking out there on Sunday. Part of me at the time thought I could get a rap on the knuckles but thankfully common sense has prevailed.
“It makes a huge difference to me. When you are up there in the stand it feels like your right arm’s cut off as you are powerless to do things.
You can’t get in at half-time to affect the players as well as you’d like to. I’ve done one League Cup Final from the stand a few years ago and that wasn’t much fun. I was nearly on the roof that day.
Summa
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Weak at the knees . . . but not because Hibs are in a final
AT the age of 60 and with dodgy, creaking knees, Jackie McNamara recently played some of the best football of his life.
He was making tackles and hitting passes with his eyes shut. Okay, okay, he was drugged up to the eyeballs at the time and asleep, but even so. In his own head the class act they called Jackie The Red didn’t put a foot wrong.
The doctor had given him a few Tramadol pills to ease the pain and help him rest after knee replacement surgery. Being pumped full of cortisone injections when he was a Celtic player in the 1970s eventually contributed to the onset of chronic arthritis and years of discomfort. One knee was replaced a few weeks ago and the other will go later in the year. “It’s bloody sore. After the operation you’ve got to sleep with a pillow between your legs, like a pregnant woman. You have to lie on your back and I can’t sleep that way. But then you take a Tramadol and you have these dreams. What a player I was once I’ve taken a Tramadol-”
McNamara does not reach quite the same playing level once he is awake and the drugs have worn off, but in every other way he is as entertaining and impressive now as he ever was in a fine playing career for Celtic and, particularly, Hibs. Drugs, politics, sex, cup finals: it all tumbles out of him over a couple of lattes in a coffee house he likes on Musselburgh High Street.
Only a couple of minutes’ walk away is the boozer where he puts in a couple of days a week behind the bar, watching the racing channel with the old boys, swapping stories and having a laugh. It is the same pub, The Sportsman, he ran for 20 years with former team-mate Ralph Callachan but there are different owners now and he only helps out because he enjoys the craic. Then there are the days when he tends to his grandchildren, seven of them between 16 and seven, and others when he plays golf or even goes on holiday with his mates.
Around all of this he fits in two of his great pursuits: football and politics. It is about 35 years since Scottish newspapers reported as a “sensation” the fact that McNamara was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. Heaven forbid that a footballer could be opinionated, forthright and bolshie, and McNamara was all three, to the extent Eddie Turnbull called him “Jackie The Red”. Is he still into politics now? “Oh aye, of course. Every breath you take is political. I like to watch the political programmes although not Question Time, that’s too contrived. I liked the banner when [Iain] Duncan Smith came here: ‘We’ve got more pandas than Tory MPs in Scotland’. I love that humour.”
It would be safe to say he did not exactly well up at the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death. “It was Elvis Costello’s lyrics, wasn’t it? ‘I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down’.”
He was active in the Scottish Professional Footballers’ Association long after his retirement in the mid-80s. Had he ever considered a proper career in politics? “Nah. Tommy Sheridan was wanting to get me involved. When Tommy was all over the tabloid headlines my youngest boy was listening to it on the radio. He phoned me and says ‘da, they’re saying at Tommy’s trial there’s a footballer involved-tell me it’s no’ you.’ I said ‘nah son, yer dad disnae share his birds with anyone-”
His political loyalties have been founded on a life-long conviction. With football it has been different. Originally he is from Possil and was first a Partick Thistle fan before developing a deep affinity with Hibs, not to mention gratitude to them for saving his career. Between 1976 and 1985 he was a cornerstone of Hibs’ defence. He played only 43 times for Celtic between 1970 and ’76, unable to properly establish himself in the era of Parkhead’s Quality Street Kids. He took the hint when Jock Stein signed Ronnie Glavin to replace Davie Hay, having thought he would be the one to do so. The wit is razor sharp when it is put to him that tomorrow’s William Hill Scottish Cup final is between two of his former clubs. “No, that would need to be Hibs against Celtic reserves.
“Actually Celtic was a great period for me. I played with half of the Lisbon Lions – that was when they dropped into the reserves – so that’s bound to leave a mark on you. The frustration at Celtic was that I was getting pumped with cortisone. I’ve had massive problems with my knees. Most players from that era do. It’s something that happened, I’ve got on with it, and I managed to have a career with Hibs. Thankfully Eddie Turnbull saw something in me. I failed a medical. I didn’t know I was being swapped for the best player Hibs ever had, Pat Stanton.” His wage increased from £40-a-week to £70.
People didn’t bang on about Hibs’ depressing Scottish Cup record back then but it has become a matter of slowly growing pain for them and comedy for Hearts. When he and Callaghan ran The Sportsman they had a picture of the 1902 cup-winning team in the bar. McNamara played when Hibs came closer to winning the cup than they have in 110 years; in the 1979 final they drew 0-0 with Rangers, then 0-0 in a replay, before losing the second replay 3-2 to an own goal. “We should have won it. We should have had a penalty. Big Peter McCloy pushed Colin Campbell as he tried to lob it over him and Colin wasn’t clever – or was too honest – and he stayed up.
“I’ve converted the video to DVD and every time I see it I keep shouting ‘penalty’.” How did McNamara play? “I was man of the match.” In which game? “I should have had it in all three-”
He is a Hibee although at various points in his life he has followed Dunfermline Athletic, Celtic, Wolves, Aberdeen, Falkirk and Partick, and now he goes to watch Dundee United. His allegiances are dictated by wherever his boy, Jackie, has played or managed. Jackie, now the manager at Tannadice, is the only one of his three sons to go into football, contrary to what his dad expected.
“I was surprised he got into it because he saw younger boys who hadnae even played a youth or reserve game being disrespectful when legends like Danny McGrain were coaching them. He saw that first hand. Maybe Danny didnae see or hear it but Jackie did and he thought ‘Christ, if they can be like that to a legend-‘ Back then I remember him telling me he didn’t fancy coaching. I’m proud of him.”
On Sunday, Hibs will play their 10th final since last winning the cup. Last season’s Hibs team jarred with him – too many players on loan – and he could not bring himself to go against Hearts. Through the cracks in his fingers he watched it in the living room of his holiday home in Spain. “I said ‘I’m no’ going back to watch six or seven loan players, I just cannae do that’. I wasn’t confident. It was a derby final but I was closer to Ian Black than our midfield was, and that was me 1500 miles away. My big mate George Stewart, my captain in the ’79 final, his boy came over from Australia, flew back for it. Ralph flew back from Cyprus. It was hellish. Oh My God. I did think ‘I should be going’. But I said to Ralph ‘nah, I’m not flying back’.”
He was at Hampden 11 months later when they flirted with another cup shambles, 3-0 down at half-time in a semi-final with Falkirk. “If a fourth goal had gone in that would have been it, curtains. But I stayed for it. I wasn’t one of the fans who left early. I wish they had them on CCTV, the ones who left shouldnae get a cup final ticket. If the players had downed tools – and thankfully they didn’t – they wouldn’t be in the cup and wouldn’t be in the final.”
His former Hibs team-mate, Paul Kane, is running a supporters’ bus on Sunday – “any way Kano can make a shilling-” – and McNamara has booked his seat. It didn’t cross my mind to ask if he had kept a Tramadol in reserve, just to guarantee he will see the sort of cup final Hibees dream about.
Summa
Summa.
Sweet Sublime posts, very apt at this moment.
Pat Stanton. A player that as a wee kid of eight I had enough respect (and fear of) that when the 6 1 result trickled through to the game I was playing in in the Drum… I knew it was a big, historic and important result.
AwaytoListenToDinoMemoriesAreMadeOfThis CSC
WithoutAcid…
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Champions League failure disastrous – Umberto Gandini
Failure to qualify for the Champions League could be a “financial disaster” for clubs, according to AC Milan director Umberto Gandini.
By finishing fifth, Tottenham missed out on a possible £4.5m from the group stages, with Chelsea receiving a total of £51m for their winning run in 2012.
“Had we not qualified it would have been a financial disaster,” Gandini told BBC Sport.
“Such a disaster could affect most clubs.”
AC Milan took the third, and last, Champions League berth afforded to Serie A sides on the final day of the season thanks to Philippe Mexes’s goal three minutes from time that gave the Rossoneri a 2-1 over Siena.
Champions League qualification 2013-14 (top five leagues)
England: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea (all automatic), Arsenal (qualifying)
Spain: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid (all automatic), Real Sociedad (qualifying)
Germany: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen automatic, Schalke qualifying
Italy: Juventus, Napoli (both automatic), AC Milan (qualifying)
France: PSG, Marseille (both automatic), Lyon (qualifying)
“We still have to navigate the play-offs,” continued Gandini, who was in London at the Uefa Congress.
“Winning that tie is the difference between having an extra 30m euros or not. There’s so much at stake – a fifth of our budget.”
The winners of this year’s Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will pocket just over £9m plus all the money accumulated from the previous rounds. The 2012 Europa League champions Atletico Madrid collected only £9m in total for their entire efforts during that season’s competition.
Gandini, who is also vice-chairman of the European Club Association – a body that represents European clubs’ interests, says he is hopeful that the disparity of the possible earnings from both competitions can be reduced in the future.
“This is something that will be mentioned at the next European Club Association meeting when we start to talk about new financial distribution models for the 2015-18 Uefa cycle,” added the Italian.
“We will look to reduce the financial gap in various ways with perhaps a more even distribution of monies between both competitions so that it lessens the impact on the Europa League teams who fail to qualify for the Champions League.”
Uefa has already made one major change to their competitions with the announcement that from 2015 onwards the winner of the Europa League will qualify for the Champions League.
Meanwhile, Gandini said that the position of AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri was still being discussed.
Allegri’s role has been under scrutiny during the season by both the Italian media and fans, especially during the early part of the season when the side were stuttering in mid-table.
“It is a complex situation,” the Milan director said.
“Both Adriano Galliani (chief-executive) and Silvio Berlusconi (president) are discussing all aspects at the moment. But a decision will be made very quickly if one needs to be made.”
Summa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9PSkNkUfs
A Big HAIL HAIL to the Lisbon LIons….
And Happy Birthday Paul67…..
it is Memorial Day here in the US…. A long weekend.
People are out of town. It is a full moon….
One for those who made us……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4M_0Bvk10Q
G’Night.
Post Script
& one for those who may lead us….
wherever that may be…?/a>
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“We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football.”
Jings,crivvens,etc….
Was it really 46 years ago?
I might be a tad late in offering my congratulations to
THE LISBON LIONS
Legends,every one of them!
Hail,hail.
This might not be great news for Celtic….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10079966/Co-op-could-shut-bank-over-1.8bn-black-hole.html
Roll On The Future (Tough as it will be..)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hub_gUmkEHU
Every city in the world has a 110th street…. Fact.
Even Planet SFA much as the Citizens of that fine Forum delude themselves.
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PJBhoyNYC..
Yea some Nice reading for the Sensible Crew to Wake up too..(Excluding BT)..;-)
Hope Yir Guid and the Wee Fella..
SydneyTim..
Gotcha..
Kit..
Just seen Your response Cheers *Paranoia Eases*..;-)))
Summa of SamarasHat-TrickCSC
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Courtesy The Scotsman..
Reasons to fear for both supporters
Dixie Deans celebrates scoring during Celtic’s 6-1 demolition of Hibs in the 1972 Scottish Cup Final.
Hibernian fans of a certain age are likely to tremble at the recollection of previous, immeasurably better equipped Easter Road sides than the present who have tried and failed to win Scottish Cup finals.
They should, however, draw at least mild encouragement from the realisation that their counterparts at Celtic share similar memories.
Of course, that is the point at which legitimate comparisons screech to a halt. By way of contrast, the 2013 renewal of the climactic match of the oldest trophy of all at Hampden tomorrow features the winning-most team in the history of the tournament and the winning-least of those generally acknowledged to have been the top five clubs – the Old Firm, the Edinburgh neighbours and Aberdeen –through 120 years of the professional game.
But the mere fact that supporters of both sides have access to reminders of the kind of results that may still induce a shudder decades after the event should be sufficient to infuse each with an appropriate ration of optimism and apprehension.
No Celtic follower who was in attendance at the great stadium in 1970, for example, can possibly have forgotten the earth-moving impact of the 3-1 defeat of their team by Aberdeen. Jock Stein’s marauding champions had, after all, just outplayed and beaten the reputedly invincible Leeds United at Elland Road to make themselves odds-on favourites to reach their second European Cup final.
They had also secured their fifth successive league championship five days before, while the League Cup had been captured earlier in the season. This meeting with the supposed lightweights from Pittodrie was the type of mismatch over which bookmakers, in order to attract any meaningful business, are forced to bet on the margin of victory.
Celtic proved to be so uninspired and bland that Eddie Turnbull’s Aberdeen side did not allow them to score until the 89th minute, by which time they themselves were 2-0 ahead. They even managed to deliver a third in the short time that remained.
A mere two years later, Turnbull would once again be threatening Celtic in the Scottish Cup final, this time in charge of his beloved Hibs, with whom he had achieved such a distinguished, 13-year playing career. The idea of a hoodoo hovering over the Easter Road side’s endeavours in the cup had taken root, and not only because 70 years had passed since their previous triumph.
There was, in addition to the simple fact of the seven-decade famine, the detail that even the most formidable Hibs team in history – indeed, the one that was indisputably among the most accomplished that had played anywhere – did not merely fail to win the trophy, but even to reach the final.
This improbable vacuum occurred during the years of the Famous Five, the frequently irresistible force who won three league championships between 1948 and 1952, and were runners-up on three other occasions, beaten on goal difference, by one point and by two points.
The reputation established by the brilliance of Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull and Ormond was such that, when the European Cup was launched in 1955, it was Hibs, rather than champions Aberdeen, who were invited to represent Scotland.
Before the celebrated quintet became an item, Hibs contested the cup final in the first season after the second world war and made their own contribution to the momentum of the “curse” theory by taking the lead against Aberdeen in the first minute and still managing to lose 2-1.
It would be another 13 years before they would appear in the final, with Turnbull, by then a 35-year-old right-half, and Ormond the only survivors. But, with Joe Baker the new Lawrie Reilly, they were still short-priced favourites to lift the cup.
Then a mesmerised 13-year-old observer from the schoolboys’ enclosure at Hampden, this rapidly maturing columnist’s outstanding memory of the day (apart from John Coyle’s winning goal) was of Baker rising to a cross and scoring the “equaliser” by palming the ball over the line. By now, the hex was no longer just a fanciful excuse for regular under-achievement in the cup, but, to many, an unassailable fact.
But, by 1972, Turnbull was back as manager and in the process of creating what would become arguably the most talented team never to win a championship. Even the emergent XI who contested the cup final against Celtic contained six internationals, including the exceptional captain, Pat Stanton. By now five years into an apprenticeship which seems still to be ongoing, my participation in the build-up to the great occasion included features on some of the players and the understated, but solid conviction coming out of Edinburgh was unmistakable.
There was another omen to which supporters attached their hopes (no cup final would be complete without some statistical portent which reinforces faith) and which, in some cases, made Hibs, in certain minds, unopposable certainties.
It was that Celtic, since the very beginning of the Stein era, had won the cup in 1965, 67, 69 and 71, never once retaining the trophy. This theory, that the Parkhead side were doomed not to win back-to-back, gained almost as much currency as Hibs’ 70-year deprivation.
Given the pre-match debate, it is not difficult to imagine the effect on the Hibs supporters when Celtic won 6-1, a scoreline that featured a hat-trick from striker Dixie Deans. The shock would be the more stunning for the fact that five of the losers’ internationals – Jim Herriot, John Brownlie, Erich Schaedler, John Blackley and Stanton – were defenders.
Even on this blackest day, it is unlikely that any of the defeated leaving Hampden would have swallowed a prediction that, 41 years on, the old grail would still be giving Easter Road a body-swerve.
Summa
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Beuzelin relishes duel between Thomson and Brown
Guillaume Beuzelin was once the ‘gem’ to adorn a Tony Mowbray-led Hibernian team sprinkled with rough diamonds.
However, the Frenchman firmly believes tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final against Celtic provides one of those previously unpolished stones with the perfect moment to shine again.
Beuzelin arrived as an unknown from Le Havre but quickly became a fans’ favourite down Easter Road way, thanks to his composure on the ball and a passing range that helped bring out the best in a clutch of youngsters plucked from the club’s much-vaunted youth system. Steven Whittaker, Garry O’Connor, Derek Riordan and Steven Fletcher all contributed to an exciting mixture of swashbuckling attacking play and, at-times, youthful naivety during Mowbray’s celebrated two and a bit seasons at the helm. Two others whose friendship blossomed as they shared the midfield beat with Beuzelin subsequently left to face each other across the Old Firm divide. Scott Brown remains with Celtic and retains the captaincy he was handed in 2010 after teaming up again with Mowbray at Parkhead, but things have not been as plain sailing for Brown’s best pal, Kevin Thomson.
A success at Rangers, who bought him for £2 million, his time at Ibrox was nonetheless blighted by a cruciate knee ligament injury before he moved on to Middlesbrough, again for £2m, after returning to peak fitness. However, injury problems proved a major issue on Teesside and the Scotland cap finally cut his losses in January, paving the way for a return to Hibs. That move back to his first club, and first love, where he agreed to see out the season for free, means Thomson will renew his on-field rivalry with his long-time friend on the hallowed turf of Hampden tomorrow.
For Beuzelin, the fact Brown – who attended Hibs’ cup final defeat to Hearts as a supporter a year ago – now stands between Thomson and Hibs lifting the trophy for the first time in 111 years is one of the intriguing sideshows of the season’s showpiece. “I was lucky to play at the club when there were great young players,” he said. “Not just Scott and Thommo, but there was also Steven Whittaker, Steven Fletcher, who was 16 at the time, David Murphy as well. It was great to work with such good young talent. I knew in time they would progress to bigger things and they have done so well. I remember Brown and Thomson were always together – at the warm-up, after training – and it was no surprise that they both went on to become international players and to bigger clubs.
“It will be an interesting battle between them. Obviously Scott has been injured for quite a long time this season but I heard he played well last week, so he will be on form. But this will be a great day for Thommo to shine after coming back. If he can come back to Hibs to win the cup for us that would be a great achievement.”
Now back at Hibs himself as coach of the under-14 side, Beuzelin has never hidden his love for the Easter Road outfit he spent four years with before joining Coventry City in 2008. He ranks the CIS Cup win of 2007 as the best moment of a career that began at his native Le Havre and fizzled out disappointingly early because of injury. But, such is the club’s history in the competition, he pinpoints the defeat to Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup semi-final replay that same season as a low point.
Pat Fenlon’s side had an opportunity to end the drought in last season’s final against Hearts, only to lose 5-1. Hibs supporters have had to endure constant reminders of that haunting day and Beuzelin has revealed he is no different.
“I’m still getting stick from last year,” added the 34-year-old. “Some of my wife’s family are Jambos and I have a friend who got a 5-1 tattoo on his arm. He shows it to me all the time – it’s not nice I have to say. I felt like punching him the first time he showed me it! But that’s all part of the rivalry of both clubs.
“I would not get a tattoo myself if Hibs win the cup on Sunday, but hopefully it would stop my friend from showing his off to me all the time. I think there is no pressure on them compared to last year. I think there is less expectation and that might be a good thing for Hibs.”
Summa
Morning 001 bhoy ✊
Nice sunny day beckons along the Fylde coast, highs of 15c and not a cloud to be seen, it’s time for a wee stint on the bike then some fence painting for me.
25th May, so a big Hail Hail to our heroes of the day in 1967, God bless ye all for bringing the big cup home.
67 in the heat of Lisbon,
Fans came in their thousands
to see the bhoys become champions
V
Offski
V
Good Morning Green fingered troops,
Big Weekend beckons……..
Hope the Hoops take care of business Sunday.
HH.
TheRoddyDendron “Evergreen” CSC
Morning CQN.
Glorious sunny morning in Shropshire.
Are these the men , who 46 years ago today , not only created history, but who ultimately caused the death of the club formerly known as Rangers FC.?
Ronnie Simpson
Jim Craig
Tommy Gemmell
Bobby Murdoch
Billy McNeill
John Clark
Jimmy Johnstone
Willie Wallace
Stevie Chalmers
Bertie Auld
Bobby Lennox
John Fallon
Jock Stein
Sean Fallon
Neil Mochan
One thing is for sure. They are the men who ensured that we will always retain the bragging rights in Scottish football.
Recreation time for the Celtic fans @ National Stadium, Lisbon
Benfica vs Celtic (2-1) 20 NOV 2012 – Class Eagle
What’s in a word?
A blow for many of the follow followers this morning as they ponder the headline
Rangers signing target John Daly has been ……….”confirmed”
Good morning friends and Happy Lisbon Anniversary on Cup Final Eve from a gloriously bright, blue skied, sunny, warm and windless East Kilbride.
Think that just about covered it…
The wisdom of Shunsuke Nakamura:
He said so in this wee movie:
Funny! Celtic Fans
Wee warning… there is a wee bit of naughty language so if you don’t want to hear it – watch it with your fingers in your ears when Naka scores against Manchester United.
Same in g72… 0))
A Stor Mo Chroi
I found an old newspaper from the day before the Lisbon final.
Jock Stein was asked how Celtic would play against Inter who were the current European and world clup champions.
Jock says “We’re going to attack ,keep attacking and the attack some more”
And thats what they did.
BT
Can you send me OHITS e mail please. Thanks in advance.
Tnt.
Sent him your work email .
I’ll pm you on fb with his email.
Morning,
I take it Ogilvie and Regan will state Sevco have been cleared by an independent investigation. The establishment continuing to prop up that rotten club.
Charlotte Fakeover has published a letter from the Nat West confirming that the £25,000 chequemade out to Green was cashed- and didn’t bounce as the former Ibrox chief claimed.
Ah…thanks BT.
bamboo:
His team proved to the world his word and his faith. The world sat back and shook their heads in wonder and the football minded amongst them were grinning!
Then Real Madrid thought they’d set the record straight in Alfredo Di Stefano’s Testimonial.
Celtic players wondered why Mr. Stein would gamble their short lived glory. Mr. Stein’s faith was again proved. He told the bewildered press “watch and learn ye mob of no faith and even less courage”
Real Madrid v Celtic
Nice to see Pope Francis releasing a cup final message.
Francis @Pontifex
We all have in our hearts some areas of unbelief. Let us say to the Lord: I believe! Help my unbelief.