Highs and lows of yesteryear rekindled in song as hardcore bring down curtain on the 'East'

Published on Sunday 28 February 2010 23:01

"JOE JOE super Joe, super Tort-o-lano". The chant rang out loud and proud, another surreal day on Hibernian's East Terrace. Not just any day though, this was the last hurrah for the hulking steel structure, made from girders, that has provided the pulse of Easter Road's atmosphere for 25 years.

To the uninitiated, it is unfathomable why grown men would get sentimental about the loss of a mish-mash of green bucket seats covered by an ungainly shed roof propped up by too many pillars to make watching a football match practical. But ask anyone who has stood in the "East" over the years and they will tell you they wouldn't trade the raucous atmosphere for all the noise in the Nou Camp.

There have been some heady moments experienced there and some truly awful ones too. For the electrifying 2-1 win over Graeme Souness' Rangers in 1986 and the swashbuckling 6-2 demolition of Hearts in October 2000, there has been the bitter flipside of relegation in 1998 and the ultimate humiliation of defeat months later to Stranraer, whose "lowly" status The Proclaimers had questioned in song.

It was the Reid twins' Easter Road anthem of Sunshine on Leith that opened proceedings for the final match fans would see from their East Terrace cavern on Saturday against St Johnstone. The public address system has never fully managed to penetrate the noisy hubbub of the East, but the 3,000 or so packed in there on Saturday heard the first strains of Sunshine on Leith and let rip with all they could muster. A minute's applause to mark the sad passing of former favourites Alan Gordon and Bobby Smith added further to an emotionally charged afternoon.

The Hibs players – including Derek Riordan, Ian Murray and Colin Nish, who, like manager John Hughes, must have spent freezing afternoons themselves on the East – initially looked well up for the occasion and when Nish was felled for an early penalty, Anthony Stokes brought the atmosphere to boiling point by slotting Hibs into an early lead.

The East Terracing Tams, conscious this was their day in the spotlight, ratcheted up the decibel level further, and for a portion of the first half paid homage to their Hibee heroes of yesteryear including Franck Sauze, Mickey Weir and, yes...even Joe Tortolano. It got to the stage where you half suspected chairman Rod Petrie would be cheered to the condemned rafters by the Easter Road hardcore, most of whom flout the right to sit and defiantly choose to stand and watch the action. Such a public declaration of affection for Petrie has yet to be heard, but there is no doubting the role the man known as "The Tache" has played in the transformation of this famous old stadium in EH7. Kenny Waugh may have set the wrecking ball rolling when he replaced the towering but crumbling two-tier terrace with the East in 1985, but in the same role Petrie – with the backing of Sir Tom Farmer – has helped to build a stadium more than worthy of the 21st century.

The East is the final piece of the jigsaw for Hibs, and even its most ardent devotees would find difficulty in arguing a case for its preservation. It has had its day and the new 6,400-seater replacement will be tangible evidence of the ground's evolution.

Sadly, the early promise shown by Hibs also turned to rubble. As the residents from the East disappeared up the back at half-time for their interval smoke and to brave the toilet "facilities" for the last time, they did so with a nervousness that comes with the territory for a Hibs supporter. They suspected St Johnstone were not going to leave Easter Road empty-handed and they were right. It was a disappointment, sure, but it did not stop them applauding their side off the park before helping themselves to seats as souvenirs.