Celtic have had some memorable encounters with Dundee United in the Scottish Cup, the come from behind victory in the 1985 final and the late goals from Thom and Van Hooijdonk two of the most exciting, but surely none as memorable as the 1988 Centenary Cup Final.
Celtic’s cententary season of 1987-88 has to go down as one of the club’s greatest ever. The odds were stacked against the club at the start of the season, and in the summer previous manager Davie Hay and top players Mo Johnstone, Brian McClair, Murdo McLeod, Alan McInally and Danny McGrain had all left the club, and we were facing a Rangers side who were in another world financially compared to Celtic. However, new manager Billy McNeill and new signings like Andy Walker, Frank McAvennie, Billy Stark and Chris Morris provided to be resounding successes, and after winning 3 games out of 4 against Rangers Celtic clinched the title in front of a massive crowd at Parkhead, beatimg Dundee 3-0.
With the title clinched, the focus turned to adding the Scottish Cup to complete the double. After defeating Stranraer, Hibs and Partick Thistle, Celtic won an epic semi-final against Hearts by 2 goals to 1, with the equaliser from Mark McGhee and the winner froom Andy Walker both coming in the last three minutes. That was just one of a number of late goals scored by the team that season, indeed the winning goal against Hibs in the earlier round had been scored late on. Surely it was fated that in the Centenary season the cup would come home to Parkhead?
Our opponents, Dundee United, were coming off a history of never having beaten Celtic in the Scottish Cup, and indeed they had never won the Scottish Cup, the previous season losing 1-0 to St. Mirren in the final. However, they had also reached the UEFA cup final that season which proved how good a team they were.
Celtic’s line up was disrupted by injury to regular goalkeeper Pat Bonner, regular deputy Allen McKnight replaced him. Other wise it was the same team as usual, with the midfield duo of Roy Aitken and player of the year Paul McStay providing both graft and guile, the defensive duo of Derk Whyte and Mick McCarthy providing stabilty and the prolific duo of Walker and McAvennie up front. The United side contained the likes of Hegarty, Narey, Malpas, Bannon, McKinlay, Gallacher and Paatelainen, all good players and managed by the wily Jim McLean a great game of football was assured, right?
Sadly in the first half that was not to be, as the game developed into a stale midfield battle. The best chance of the first half came to Celtic winger Joe Miller, but his free header was weak and saved by Billy Thomson. So the first half ended 0-0 in a match of few chances.
The second half began with United on top, and Roy Aitken was booked for a foul on Kevin Gallacher. Moments, a long ball put Gallacher in a foot race with Aitken, Aitken couldn’t foul him and Gallacher smashed the ball into the top corner past McKnight. Fifty mnutes gone, and Celtic a goal down. Manager Billy McNeill knew things had to change, and he made two substitutions which altered the course of the game. He took off Andy Walker and Derek Whyte, put Roy Aitken into defence and brought on Billy Stark and McGhee to add an attacking threat.
The move began to pay dividends as Celtic began to dominate the game, and Celtic equalised in the 76th minute, an Anton Rogan cross was misjudged by Billy Thomson and Frank McAvennie headed into the empty net. Celtic then almost took the lead immediately from kick off but Thomson managed to save Miller’s shot. The game then headed into it’s closing stages with tension beginning to take over. The clock ticked to the 90th minute when Celtic got a corner. Miller’s low corner was met by Billy Stark whose blocked shot was diverted into the path of McAvennie who slammed the ball into the net for both his and Celtic’s second, to spark scenes of wild celebration. The final whistle went shortly after and the team celebrated in style, with the great Tommy Burns at the centre of things as he often was. Interestingly enough, the cup was presented to captain Roy Aitken by ‘guest of honour’ Margaret Thatcher, who was met by a storm of boos and red cards when she met the players on the pitch before the game started. In a post-match interview Billy McNeill has claimed that ‘there is something of a fairytale about this club’ and whilst that is still true – see the win against Barcelona for example – our recent Hampden results have seemed more like a bad dream than a fairytale. Let’s hope this weekend’s game against, ironically enough Dundee United begins the tale of an league and cup double 25 years on.
POSTSCRIPT: This game is particularly memorably for your correspondent, as after it had ended a very young Thecomicsnob went out to play football with his pals, ended up cutting his leg on a broken bottle and spent the night in hospital with two big scars on his leg. Still, at least they will always be associated with one of Celtic’s greatest Hampden triumphs.