Bayern v Dortmund? Pah! It’s all about Celtic v Hibs
In a new talkSPORT column, Stewart Weir tackles the world of Scottish football. Follow him on Twitter
I really don’t know what people are prattling on about this week, saying the Bundesliga must be the best league competition in the world, all because two of their representatives, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, have made it through to the Champions League Final on Saturday.
Doesn’t anyone appreciate that the SPL’s stock is riding equally high having managed to get two of their sides through to Sunday’s Scottish Cup Final?
The fact the showpiece of the Scottish season, when Hibs take on Celtic at Hampden, is scheduled for the Sabbath perhaps shows the confidence levels currently in the game North of the Border.
The match is being played on a Sunday for the first time so as not to clash with the all-German Champions League finale in London, a potentially embarrassing decision taken last summer by the Scottish Football Association who obviously believed that there was no chance of Motherwell or Celtic getting anywhere near Wembley.
I can imagine one or two office bearers at the SFA having a few sleepless nights when Celtic came through the group stages, beating Barcelona on the way, and the subsequent relief in certain quarters when Juventus eventually knocked Neil Lennon’s side out of Europe.
On Sunday, Lennon will be trackside (having successfully avoided an SFA touchline ban) as his side attempt to make it a double-winning campaign, and collect this particular pot for the 35th time.
It was, before a ball was kicked this campaign, hinted that a treble was in the offing for the Parkhead men, especially with biggest rivals Rangers entirely depleted after their pre-season evacuation. St Mirren, though, had other ideas in that now famous (well it is in Paisley) League Cup semi-final.
Winning the SPL title has made this a successful season for Neil Lennon. But the difference between a good and a really good campaign will be dependent on the outcome of the Cup Final against a Hibs side appearing in a second-successive Final.
Not that they’d want to recall 12 months ago.
Many Hibees supporters had arrived back in the capital long before the final whistle called a halt on their 5-1 drubbing at the hands of arch-rivals and city neighbours Hearts. A day, and an occasion, best forgotten.
Not that anyone can remember the last time Hibs had a good day in the Scottish Cup Final.
A mere 111 years have passed since Hibs last lifted the Scottish Cup, although in that time, one of their players did score the winning goal in the final. Unfortunately, Arthur Duncan netted past his own ‘keeper for Rangers in the second-replay of the 1979 Final.
The build-up to Sunday’s Final has featured players of both clubs from that same decade, or more accurately, the 1972 Final. And guess what? Another day, and another occasion, that falls firmly in to the ‘best forgotten’ category for any Hibs follower.
In that all-green and white battle, Celtic hammered Hibs 6-1 that afternoon. This week, Hibs legend Pat Stanton reminisced about that game, although he did appear to recall the team’s 2-1 League Cup win against the Hoops that same year far more willingly.
A Cup Final against Celtic that Hibs don't mind remembering…
Ironically, Stanton did win the Scottish Cup – but only after joining Celtic.
Dixie Deans was also chatting in the press. He was the Celtic hero of that ’72 Final, bagging a hat-trick, the last player to do so in a Scottish Cup Final.
Of course, he wasn’t. Gordon Durie of Rangers (and an ex-Hibee) achieved the feat in 1996, the answer my team gave in a pub sports quiz we attended a few years ago, only to be marked incorrect.
When the error was pointed out to the adjudicator, we were informed our answer was still wrong, because we were in a Celtic pub. We were not going to argue…
Any argument put up in favour of Hibs winning this Final will almost certainly be centred around their talisman striker Leigh Griffiths, who this week collected the Scottish Football Writers Association’s ‘Player of the Year’ award in Glasgow.
It isn’t too far wide of the mark to think that he would have to score, for Pat Fenlon’s team to have any chance of upsetting a settled Celtic outfit. What is upsetting to the Hibs faithful, is that this could be the last game Griffiths plays for the club.
He is headed back to Wolves in the summer, the newly-relegated League One team having triggered a clause in his contract to keep him for an additional year.
Griffiths wants to remain in Leith. Finding the money to do so, though, is the biggest problem that faces Hibs.
But a Hibs win, coupled with a Griffiths goal or two on Sunday, may help find a solution. Just stand at the exits around Hampden with a collection bucket.
There isn’t a Hibees fan that wouldn’t happily part with their last penny to have ended that 111-year jinx, and keep their star turn for next season.