Brownlie

Dejected Hibs’ fans leaving Hampden Park on 6 May 1972 didn’t know it at the time, but that game sparked the emergence of one of the greatest teams in the club’s history which would be forever known as Turnbull’s Tornadoes.

Hibs started their Scottish Cup campaign in style with a 2-0 victory over Partick Thistle at Firhill then followed that up with a 2-0 home win over Airdrieonians.

In the quarter finals, Hibs took care of Aberdeen in front of what was described as a poor crowd of ‘only’ 25,736. A goal from Jimmy O’Rourke after 17 seconds was followed by a Joe Baker strike just after half time and a semi-final place against Rangers beckoned.

The game took place at Hampden Park and Hibs trailed to an Alex McDonald goal at half time but O’Rourke equalised shortly after the restart and the tie went to a replay.

That night Hibs produced what many consider to be their best performance in Glasgow, running out comfortable  2-0 winners thanks to goals from Pat Stanton and Alex Edwards. The scoreline didn’t reflect the play however  and Hibs could easily have won by a much larger margin.

That performance inspired great confidence amongst the supporters and probably Hibs’ largest ever travelling support headed west along the M8 to watch the final against Jock Stein’s Celtic.

Among the fans were the remaining members of the Famous Five including Lawrie Reilly who withdrew from the qualifying stages of the Lothian Golf Tournament to make the trip.

Hibs’ manager Eddie Turnbull’s final instruction before the players left the dressing room was to remind Alan Gordon to pick up Billy McNeil at corners and free kicks,

Two minutes after the start John Hazel was harshly penalised for a foul on Jimmy Johnstone on the right hand side of the pitch and the resultant free kick was met by an unmarked McNeil with Gordon ball watching.

‘Tosh’ made amends in the 12th minute when he equalised after a through ball from Blackley found Duncan on the left wing and his powerful cross was fumbled by Williams.

Dixie Deans made the score 2-1 midway through the first half when Deans headed home from a Bobby Murdoch free kick.

Celtic ran riot in the second half and ended the game as a contest in the 54th minute when deans collected a mis-headed clearance by the normally reliable John Brownlie before dribbling past Jim Heriot and John Blackley before dispatching the ball into the empty net. Unfortunately for Hibs the referee failed to spot a clear handball by Macari in the build up.

Eight minutes later Duncan was forced to leave the field with a head injury and he was replaced by former Celtic legend Bertie Auld.

Deans completed his hat trick in the 74th minute after latching onto a through ball from Tommy Callaghan.

This led to fighting on the terraces at the Mount Florida end and thousands of fans invaded the track behind the goals as fans of both sides threw beer cans at each other.

Lou Macari made it 5- 1 in the 84th minute and completed the scoring three minutes later.

The Hibs team that day was Herriot, Brownlie Schaedler, Stanton, Black, Blackley, Edwards, Hazel, Gordon, O’Rourke, Duncan. Substitute Bertie Auld

The Celtic team was Williams, Craig, Brogan, Murdoch, McNeil, Connelly, Johnstone, Deans, Macari, Dalglish, Callaghan. Substitute Lennox

The attendance was 106,102

Referee A MacKenzie from Larbert.

Police made 170 arrests including 50 inside the ground. That figure was not considered to be particularly large in those days.

After the game  Turnbull admitted that the final had come too soon for his team but he insisted that they would soon be back at the National Stadium and this time they would win.

He was as good as his word and a couple of months later Hibs beat Celtic 5-3 in the final of the Drybrough Cup and in December they won the League Cup beating Celtic 2-1.

The team also had a great run in Europe, beating Sporting Lisbon 6-1 and FC Besa 7-1 before narrowly losing out in the quarter final of the European Cup Winners Cup. There was also the matter of a certain game at Tynecastle on New Years Day 1973.

Tomorrow we look back at yet another narrow defeat.

 

 

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.