Remember when... Everything's coming up Rose

IT WAS a momentous occasion for everyone involved with Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic.

About 4,000 people jammed the main streets of the Midlothian town on the evening of Wednesday, 25 May, 1966 to welcome home the local football team following their victory in the Scottish Junior Cup final replay.

The players received a rapturous welcome following their 6-1 victory over Whitburn at Hampden Park.

The teams had drawn 1-1 on the previous Saturday in front of 19,430 fans, the biggest crowd in Bonnyrigg's history. Even the midweek replay drew 10,000 spectators.

Fans cheered and applauded, with toasts being made all along the route, as the team's open-top bus inched its way up Lothian Street and Polton Street, with the players and Scottish Junior Cup on board.

At one point the crowd was so dense that it took the bus 15 minutes to cover 100 yards.

Bonnyrigg captain John Cattanach and his team-mates held the Scottish Junior Cup high above their heads as the bus drove up Lothian Street.

It was the Bonnyrigg outfit's first Junior Cup win since the team was formed in 1897. Police even had to form a "scrum" to force a passage through a solid wall of jubilant supporters.

Robert Addison, who was the provost at the time, welcomed the team back and said arrangements would be made to give them an official honour.

He said: "This is a great night for Bonnyrigg. The boys did a marvellous job. No-one will forget it."

Prior to the first match, youngsters were photographed leaving the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh to head to Hampden Park for the final, where they cheered on their teams.

Following their triumph in the replay, the Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic players left Glasgow soon after 9:30pm and drove to Dalkeith, where they boarded the open-top victory bus for their arrival home.

The bus drove on a victory parade up Polton Street to the outskirts of the town, before returning to New Dundas Park for celebrations in the clubrooms.

Mr Cattanach said at the time: "I would never have thought so many would have turned out to welcome us.

"I am feeling very happy indeed."