Nostalgia: Victory clothed in drama and tragedy

Published on Saturday 15 May 2010 11:29

HIBS won successive ties at Hampden, Ibrox and Parkhead to lay claim to the silverware, a remarkable sequence of victories which hardly begins to tell the tale of a dramatic and tragic campaign in Scottish football.

For the Leith club, a disappointing league campaign offered little to suggest they would emerge as such a deadly force on the road in the Scottish Cup. They finished sixth in the ten-team First Division, with just three away wins to their credit, and a prosaic 2-0 defeat over Second Division strugglers Clyde at Easter Road in the first round of the national tournament had no-one tipping them as potential cup winners.

The second round draw saw Hibs head west for the first time in the campaign, beyond Glasgow to Inverclyde where Second Division champions Port Glasgow Athletic sensed the possibility of a shock result. They were quickly disabused of the notion, Hibs romping to a 5-1 win with two-goal Andy McGeachan, who would emerge with a special place in the club's history, among the scorers.

It took Hibs to the quarter-finals and the first of their three consecutive assignments at the great citadels of Glaswegian football as they faced Queen's Park at Hampden. The pioneers of Scottish football were no longer the game's dominant force, the last of their ten Scottish Cup triumphs having come nine years earlier, but it was still regarded as a daunting tie for Hibs.

When the home team took an early lead, an upset of sorts appeared in prospect but Hibs responded in ruthless fashion with McGeachan grabbing a first-half hat-trick as they went on to cruise into the last four with a 7-1 win.

The semi-final draw was no kinder to the Edinburgh club, however, pairing them with reigning league champions Rangers at Ibrox. The Govan men were en route to a fourth successive title triumph, but found themselves comprehensively outplayed by Hibs on the day. The visitors took the lead through Johnny Divers and could even afford the luxury of a missed penalty from the same player before Willie McCartney wrapped up a 2-0 success. The only sour note for Hibs was a broken leg sustained by McCartney which ruled the Scotland international out of the final.

Celtic, who had knocked holders Hearts out in the quarter-finals, edged past St Mirren 3-2 in the other semi to book a showdown with Hibs which was originally scheduled to take place at Ibrox on 12 April. Sadly, events at the stadium a week earlier made that impossible. During the Scotland-England international, seven rows of wooden planking in the west terracing at Ibrox collapsed, sending hundreds of supporters tumbling 50 feet. The disaster claimed the lives of 25 people, with a further 587 injured.

The Scottish Cup final was postponed until 26 April and relocated to Parkhead. It was hardly ideal, effectively giving Celtic a home fixture but, in the circumstances, there were no protests from Hibs.

Under trainer Paddy Cannon, who had been a leading middle-distance runner, Hibs' preparations for the final were intense. In the days leading up to the match, the players were kept in a room under the main stand at Easter Road until 10pm each night where, according to John Mackay in 'The Hibees', they were sustained "by potted head sandwiches of the doorstep variety and huge mugs of cocoa".

It had the desired effect. In front of 15,000 spectators at Parkhead, Hibs shaded what The Scotsman described as "a dull and spiritless game". The only goal came 15 minutes from time, the talismanic McEachan backheeling the ball beyond Celtic goalkeeper Rab MacFarlane from a Paddy Callaghan corner. Hibs were also indebted to Harry Rennie, poached from Hearts two years earlier, for several outstanding saves.

As Hibs captain Bobby Atherton held the trophy aloft to a joyful reaction, he would never have imagined the long wait for another Hibs team to lift it.