| Match Pictures | Matches: 1972 – 1973 | 1972-73 Pictures |
Trivia
- The Final played at Hampden
- Celtic signed Roddy MacDonald, a 17-year old unattached player who has played Highland League football with Brora Rangers. Sammy Wilson, the former Celtic player now playing in the Highland League told Jock Stein about MacDonald. In turn, the big centre half played successful trials for Celtic against Queen's Park and Alloa.
Review
Celtic made a roaring comeback after being 3-0 down to a fine Hibs side who left out their fine winger Alex Edwrds from their ream..
Goals by McNeill and Johnstone 2, took the final to extra time. However Jim O'Rourke scored with a magnificent long range shot, a goal to win any final and Arthur Duncan rounded things off with a fifth goal at the death.
Celtic deserved great credit for making a real game of it in the second half but Hibs were deserving winners.
Sadly, the game was stopped when crowd trouble broke out in the Mount Florida end of the ground leading to calls for segregation in future.
The Drybroughs tournament was deemed a success after many fine high scoring matches.
Teams
Celtic:
Williams; McGrain, Brogan, Murdoch, McNeill, Connelly, Johnstone, Deans (Wilson 57), Macari, Dalglish, Callaghan.
Goals: McNeill (65), Johnstone 2 (77, 81)
Hibernian:
Herriot, Brownlie, Schaedler, Stanton, Black, Blackley, Cropley, Hamilton (O'Rourke 88), Gordon, Hazel, Duncan.
Goals: Gordon 2 (4, 21), O'Rourke2 (56, 95), Duncan (118)
Referee: W J Mullen (Dalkeith)
Attendance: 50,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
The Scotsman, Monday 7th August 1972
Summer Cup is worth another run
JOHN RAFFERTY REPORTING
There was much pleasure to be found outside Hampden Park on Saturday watching enchanted Hibs supporters waiting to cheer their team at last as they look away a cup. It was satisfying and encouraging to hear so many talk enthusiastically of the game and wish that always they could see footballers play the ball and concentrate on the skills as Hibs and Celtic, to their credit, had done.
Perhaps it would have made a better story if Celtic, after being three goals down, had eventually won, but it was better for the game that the result went as it did. And it was even better that Hibs should have produced football of such quality and method as made them worthy winners of the Drybrough Cup.
Eddie Turnbull was a little hard on those who last season called Hibs challengers for the League championship, and he pointed out how long it had taken him to build the Aberdeen team which did challenge sternly. But after Saturday he cannot stop anybody claiming Hibs among the few real challengers to Celtic this season.
His work is shown clearly in the method of the team and especially in defence. Black, who when he joined Hibs from Airdrie looked for some months to be an indifferent player, is dependable now that he known what he is doing and what everybody around him is doing.
Schaedler is another who was not popular not so long ago, but on Saturday you would have gone a long way to find a steadier and more intelligent and willing left back. The defence in front of that so-professional goalkeeper Herriot —with Brownlie of International class and Blackley a great competitor—were such a well—drilled unit as must he found in any team of championship class.
SYSTEM
In the midfield, Cropley, until he damaged an arm and a thigh muscle, showed the flair that Hibs needed. He played with composure, and with the whole filed in his view, switched the play with well struck long passes and coordinated it with short neat ones.
If Stanton was not as affective and spectacular at least he was willing and moving around and covering space. But the danger of becoming involved with personalities must be resisted for above all Hibs were a team playing to a system and maintaining it even when harassed to the point when all might have broken down. Not so long ago they would not have survived losing a three-goal lead. Hibs are not there yet but they are well on the way.
It should be noted, too, that that the system was directed towards winning, and with Celtic in like mind and both shunning destructiveness, it was little wonder that the game was so satisfying. One wished afterwards that all managers and referees had been there so that they could see how attractive football can be when the ball rather than the man demands the players' concentration.
CONCENTRATION
Hibs got the break on Saturday which Celtic got early in the Scottish Cup Final. Williams blundered to give Gordon a goal in the fourth minute — but that is the way luck evens itself out. As had been expected, Murdoch was not as sharp as he was in the Cup Final, and so Hibs faced a different situation and took advantage of it.
The dramatic fluctuation of the game had to do with the changing of authority in the midfield. When Cropley was fresh everything was going for Hibs, and helped by such poor goalkeeping by Williams—which has him dropped for the match against Spurs tonight— they went three goals up.
Eddie Turnbull's theory about Celtic scoring three is that the trouble on the terracing broke Hib’s concentration. He may have a point there, but my own theory is that when Cropley became less effective and Hamilton and Hazel tired, Dalglish began to find a bit of form. Celtic had control of the midfield and Macari-—who was maybe the man of the match—and Johnstone began to infiltrate Hibs positions and Connelly broke from the back to help Dalglish in supplying them.
Hibs were under awesome pressure and they lost three goals, but there was another change to the situation when Dalglish was injured and the midfield dominance passed back to Hibs, who had strengthened that section by the substitution of O'Rourke for Hamilton. Celtic's substitution of the disappointing Wilson for Deans was not so effective.
Nearing the end of regulation tune, with Hibs after the winner, it was Williams, previously so uninspiring, who saved Celtic with three superb saves. There were many tired players during the extra half hour, but then their training is geared to the start of the season which is not here yet.
There was another factor which added to the fatigue of the players. The new adaptation of the offside law being experimented with in this tournament did keep play moving, but with offside only in force 18 yards from the bye-line the playing area was bigger, and stretched from penalty area to penalty area instead of near halfway to penalty area as the defenders move up under the present law.
There is more space for the midfield players to fill and that would have been hard enough on match-fit players. On Saturday with players just approaching fitness the conditions were cruel, and little wonder the Celtic players latterly struggled for they had an extra half hour on Wednesday against Aberdeen and then another against Hibs. With the new adaptation extending the field and making the play more open and sustained that would have been onerous enough at any time.
While the players may not be in favour of the present offside law being changed to the experimental adaptation and while it would be better to have another look at it, the first impression was that it would be better for spectating in that the play moves better and an advantage is given to the forwards. They are the favourites of the crowds.
All things considered it was a good day for football. A club who work at the game as Hibs have been doing cannot be grudged any success they might earn. They deserved the encouragement of a cup. Celtic, when they analyse the chances missed and the goals conceded, will not be shaken in their conviction that they can extend their Championship run to eight successive wins.
