Matches: 1988 – 1989 | 1981-90 | Match Pictures
Trivia
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Scottish Cup Final
- Celtic win the Scottish Cup for 29th time
- A disastrous year capped off with a nice win.
- Celtic prevent Rangers winning the treble!
- Celtic’s last major trophy until 1995!
- First cup winners medal for young sub Steve Fulton.
- Game played in unusually high temperatures. Some fans reported to have heat stroke.
- Joe Miller scores the only goal for the third successive game.
- Rangers manager Souness threw away his runners up medal in anger: “I told them I didn’t collect losers’ medals and threw it away.”
Review
A disastrous year for Celtic ended on a high note as Celtic cheekily won the Scottish Cup to deny Rangers a treble. Joe Miller stole a goal and sent the support into raptures.
A high point for Joe Miller after a high profile transfer.
The highlight:
“I told them I didn’t collect losers’ medals and threw it away. (Graeme Souness after losing the 1989 Scottish Cup final to Celtic)
Teams
Celtic:
Bonner, Morris, Rogan, Aitken, McCarthy, Whyte, Grant, McStay, Miller, McGhee, Burns Subs: Stark Fulton
Goals: Miller (42)
Rangers:
Woods, Stevens, Munro (Souness), Gough, Sterland (Cooper), Butcher, Drinkell, Ferguson, McCoist, Brown, Walters
Ref: R Valentine
Att: 72,069
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Articles
Glasgow Herald 22nd May 1989
The Observer report of the 1989 Scottish Cup Final
Interview with Joe Miller (with CelticView) 2011
A victory in the final for Rangers would have seen them clinch the treble. What was feeling among the players before the game?
Big Billy had taken us away and we were short on numbers as Andy Walker got injured up at Aberdeen and had damaged his eye after taking a kick. That opened up the space for me to play centre-forward as it just left Mark McGhee up front himself. So big Billy shifted things about and I went up front with Mark McGhee for the last three games of the season which was Hibernian and St Mirren and then the cup final. Going into the game we were confident anyway. There were a lot of other things happening in the background with the Maurice Johnston signing and everything – he was coming to the club at that time – so all the pressure was being taken off us regarding how we were going to play, it was all about who we were going to sign. We were all pretty relaxed and confident anyway. We were hitting a bit of form and I had scored in both games against St Mirren and Hibs too.
Were the players also keen to give the fans some silverware after what had been a disappointing campaign, overall?
We had a point to prove as Rangers had obviously done the double and wanted to get one over us. It was in our hands to stop them doing that. I think there was a determination as a squad and quite a lot of the players in the squad were Celtic fans as well, and we did everything we could to stop Rangers winning the treble.
The winning goal came from an unusual source – a perfect pass from Rangers right-back Gary Stevens! What do you remember about the build-up?
Was it a Celtic throw-in or not? Roy Aitken and John Brown were over at the touchline and Roy had the foresight and cheek to take the throw. I don’t think the referee had too much of a clue whose throw it was so he just played on. There was a long ball forward from Peter Grant but it wasn’t going to reach me.I think the ball went up in the air off Gough and then I read the back pass back from Stevens. I had no time to think about it. I just picked my spot. Prior to that he had a few short pass backs and was forcing Chris Woods to come and sprint out. I think there were three before that which were going short, so I managed to sprint on to it.
Where does that goal rank among your achievements at Celtic?
To this day you I’m still getting reminded of it by supporters. Throughout your career, it’s probably every boy’s dream to score for the team they support, and I was no different. There were a lot of other highlights in my career that I did enjoy. Being part of the double team the year before was immense and my debut, I enjoyed that. There were a lot of highlights but you are always remembered for that goal, which is sad in a way that they only pick out that goal. It wasn’t a particularly great game but we stopped Rangers doing the treble and it put me in the history books.
