Glory Days: Blitz has Hibs in seventh heaven

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 09:58

FANS have debated it for years – now it's your chance to help us decide once and for all.

Which is the greatest game your team has ever played?

It's day three in our quest to find Hearts and Hibs' most memorable 90 minutes as we look back at classic matches involving the Capital clubs, selected by the Evening News.

Once all five match choices have been revealed, we'll print details of how you can vote for your team's most greatest match. Did your proudest moment come during a glorious Cup final victory? Or did a thumping derby win bring you more joy?

The choice is yours.

Once all the votes are in, we'll reveal which two games are considered the greatest by you the fans.

And all readers who vote will enter a prize draw to win either a new Hearts or Hibs shirt signed by the current team.

Hearts 0, Hibs 7

Scottish First Division,

01 January, 1973

ALREADY dubbed the "greatest game in history" by some Hibs fans, this match produced the widest margin of victory between the two teams for over 50 years.

What made the outcome even more satisfying for Hibs – aside from the fact that the match was at Tynecastle –was that their bitter rivals had only conceded three goals in their previous 131 hours of league football at home.

That day though, Hearts lost three goals in the opening 26 minutes, were trailing 5-0 at half-time and could have lost even more heavily had it not been for a trio of outstanding saves by keeper Kenny Garland from Pat Stanton, Alan Gordon and Jimmy O'Rourke.

O'Rourke gave Hibs the lead in nine minutes when he turned the ball home from six yards and that was followed seven minutes later by another from Gordon, who converted an inch-perfect pass from Alex Edwards.

Hearts found themselves three goals down when Alex Cropley nodded on for Arthur Duncan to force a shot over the line. With ten minutes still to go before the break, Cropley volleyed a glorious left-footer past Garland from more than 20 yards to make it 4-0 and, two minutes later, a Cropley cross and a Duncan header brought Hibs' fifth.

After 56 minutes, O'Rourke slid the ball home to establish himself as No.1 goalscorer in the country at the time and the final goal arrived with 15 minutes left when Duncan squared for Gordon to head in.

Stanton admitted he was so taken aback by the margin of victory that he had just one pint in celebration after the match and the magnitude of what had just happened out on the pitch took several days to sink in.

He said: "We had been playing well and I think that, in the previous game, we had played Aberdeen and won 2-1 or 3-1 but it could have been a real doing.

"We were confident but we knew it was never easy to go to Tynecastle, no matter how you had been playing in the run-up to the game. I can remember early on in the game that Hearts had two chances – and two good chances at that – but they snapped at them. If they had gone in it could all have been so different. As it happened, we got our goals at the right time and we went on to win handsomely.

"Jimmy O'Rourke and I had just the one pint and went home because we were just too high from the result. For these kinds of games, you're expecting the sides will maybe be separated by just the odd goal here or there. I don't think anyone expected what actually happened. It was one of the best feelings I've had in football."

Hearts: Garland, Clunie, Jeffries, Thomson, Anderson, Wood, Park, Brown, Ford, Carruthers, Murray. Sub: Lynch

Hibs: Herriot, Brownlie, Schaedler, Stanton, Black, Blackley, Edwards, O'Rourke, Gordon, Cropley, Duncan. Sub: Hamilton