I don’t know whether you’ve heard, but there’s three pretty big football matches this Bank Holiday Weekend. I am going to take some time now to talk about by far the biggest, that being The Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Hibs!
Okay, in all honesty I think the Champions League Final and the Playoff Final may be just slightly more important to folks on here, but I still think this particular contest on Sunday will be a worthy way to spend 90 minutes of your time. And hey, say what you want about the Scots, but at least they are smart enough to have their Cup Final on the last day of the season, and at a reasonable time no less! For those with a vested interest, such as myself, we’ve been waiting with great anticipation for this one since the Semi Finals.
And what a pair of Semi Finals they were! Both Hibs/Falkirk and Celtic/Dundee United went to extra time and both matches ended up finishing 4-3 to the victors. A ridiculous one-two punch of Semi Final insanity began with Hibs coming from 3-0 down against Falkirk to force extra time. Leigh Griffiths has been Hibs key goal scorer this season and he’s got some real beauties at times. Amazingly, Griffiths can’t find his way into the Wolves first team. Any success that Hibs have today or in the future will rely on whether they can retain Griffiths services for next season.
The Celtic and DundeeUnited Semi Final was equally as crazy, with Celtic also coming from behind to pick up the win, upsetting resident GOT Dundee United fan Blue Jock.
Celtic would have to be favourites going into this one. Despite not winning the title by Christmas, as some had actually predicted, they did win the SPL Title without much of a struggle. They even managed to get a run to The Champions League Knockout stages in to boot. As some may be aware, Neil Lennon has even be voiced as a possibility for the Everton job, but he’s seemingly dropped out of the running now.
Hibs started the season quite brightly but ended up collapsing in classic Hibee fashion and ended up down in the bottom half of the table. If Dundee’s (The other Dundee) season hadn’t been such a wash out, there might have been the possibility of relegation. As it was, it ended up being a battle with Hearts to see who had the least rubbish league position. This final is Hibs last chance to salvage something from a pretty rubbish reason.
There is added incentive for Hibs in the sense that this Final offers them a great chance at redemption for last years Final, which saw Hearts slot 5 past them in one of the darkest days in the clubs history. Hibs did go some way to redeeming themselves by knocking Hearts out on route to the Final. In fact, Hibs have been on top for most of the Edinburgh Derbies this season and have finally managed to beat The Jambo’s in both league and cup. Positive sign for the Final perhaps?
So, what will the score be? My heart says that Hibs manage to knick it with the odd goal, but my head tells me that Celtic end up winning 2-0 or 3-1. I hope my head is wrong. This is by no means a vintage Celtic team, but they have a great goalkeeper in Fraser Forster and are always a threat on attack with players like Hooper and Samaras in the squad.
I’m sure all the Hibees who arrive at Hampden will do their absolute best to will the team on to victory. It’s been over 100 years since Hibs won the Scottish Cup, could this finally be the year that the curse is lifted? I’m not holding breath, but I’ll be rooting for Hibs will all my might regardless
GLORY GLORY, UP THE HIBEES!
GLORY, GLORY UP THE HIBEES!
GLORY, GLORY, UP THE HIBEES!
AND HIBS GO MARCHING ON, ON, ON!
(I’m aware how silly it is that a man from Stockport chooses to root for Hibs. What can I say, I like the city of Edinburgh and I have an Irish surname. When you look at it from that angle, it kind of makes sense)
