Celtic 1 Rangers 0, Scottish Cup Final, 1980 – “What is wrong with Scottish society?”

Celtic approached this Cup final in a bit of a mess, and it was by no means a confident support which made its way to Hampden Park this bright sunny May day. The supporters and the players themselves were in a state of shock after the way in which they had thrown away the Scottish League in the general direction of Aberdeen.

At the beginning of April, having defeated Rangers 1-0 at Celtic Park on Wednesday, 2 April, they then lost twice to Aberdeen at Celtic Park and compounded the felony by blowing up badly in the city of Dundee. Losing to Dundee United was bad enough, but then on 19 April at Dens Park in one of the worst Celtic performances many of us could remember for many years, the team lost 1-5 to a Dundee side that was heading for relegation – and that was after Celtic had scored first!

It was a spectacularly awful piece of self-destruction. The only possible excuse was a dry, bumpy pitch at Dens Park that day, but it was so bad that it hinted at a certain amount of disharmony behind the scenes. What caused it all, we cannot tell, but it might well have been Celtic’s age-old enemy of complacency.

Another possibility was the somewhat insular Celtic belief that as long as they beat Rangers, nothing else matters. The win on 2 April (narrow but decisive) over Rangers may have taken Celtic’s eye off the ball and prevented them from seeing Aberdeen as a major threat. However that may be, Aberdeen could not believe their luck and taking advantage of Celtic’s new lack of self-belief and general vulnerability beat Celtic 3-1 on 23 April at Parkhead before 48,000 incredulous spectators, some of them so traumatised by recent events that they could hardly even boo or shout their displeasure. It was a shockingly unprofessional performance.

All this had followed a 2-0 win at Parkhead over Real Madrid in the European Cup quarter final first leg, and then the heart break of seeing the lead disappear at the Bernabeu. Indeed with the exception of the signing of Frank McGarvey, which at least said something about the ambition of the club, spring 1980 was a dreadful time, and the approach of the Scottish Cup Final against Rangers was not helped by the news that Roddy MacDonald and Tom McAdam, both central defenders, were suspended, and that Mike Conroy, a fringe player for most of the season and not really a central defender, would have to partner Roy Aitken in the centre of the defence.

The saving grace was that Rangers were themselves struggling. They had clearly not yet recovered from the “Ten Men Won The League” night of May 1979, and Celtic had beaten them twice this season and drawn twice. They had not been in any way impressive in their Scottish Cup games, although they had done well to beat Aberdeen in the semi-final, and they had finished up 5th in the Premier League to the disappointment of their fans who sometimes gave the impression that they were now looking for something else to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Celtic had reached the final by beating Raith Rovers unimpressively 2-1, St Mirren 3-2 in a tense replay at Love Street , Morton 2-0 in the quarter final at Parkhead, and a poor Hibs side 5-0 (even with George Best in their ranks) in the semi-final at Hampden. 3 May saw Aberdeen clinch the League at Easter Road – a painful experience for us, however deserved it might have been by the eager and talented play of Alex Ferguson’s Dons, and 10 May was the Scottish Cup final, something that represented the only chance of a trophy for either set of Old Firm fans after what had been a disappointing season for both of them. The centre of power seemed to have travelled to the north east.

The Scottish Cup Final itself was actually a good game of football on a nice sunny day with both teams having chances to win the game before the end of 90 minutes. Derek Johnstone of Rangers failed once or twice to capitalise on the good work of Davie Cooper, and Frank McGarvey came close for Celtic on several occasions.

It would be fair to say that although Rangers possibly had the better chances, Celtic played the better, more controlled football, a factor that became more evident the longer the game went on. Celtic’s makeshift central defence of Aitken and Conroy performed heroics throughout the match, and the game went to extra time without either side having scored a goal.

Celtic were definitely the better team in extra time, and it was a shame that the game had to be settled by a rather unsatisfactory sort of goal. It came in the second half of extra time in the aftermath of a Celtic corner on the right hand side at the Mount Florida end of the ground.

The ball was only partially cleared (twice) and it came to Danny McGrain. Danny, never the greatest finisher in the world, shot for goal, and the ball was going harmlessly past the post when George McCluskey stuck out his foot more in hope than in anticipation, and diverted the ball past Peter McCloy. It all happened in front of the Rangers fans, and it seemed to take a long time for it to register at both ends of the ground that a goal had been scored.

The jumping about at the Celtic End caused a mini-sandstorm from the dust – the Scottish word “stoor” is a brilliant description – and there was still dust about a few minutes later when, with the ball safely in the arms of goalkeeper Peter Latchford, referee George Smith (who had done an excellent job in controlling the game) signalled that Celtic had won the Scottish Cup for the 26th time. It was one of Celtic’s better Cup finals, in spite of the narrow score-line and all the more welcome to the fans after such a catastrophic last month of the League season.

It would have been nice to end the story there, and move on, but unfortunately we can’t and we must talk about the distressing events afterwards. Although there is no point in saying that one crowd was better than the other – they were equally culpable – we can say that it was the Rangers crowd who started it. Some Celtic supporters had come on first but merely to congratulate their team. It was a foolish, but basically benevolent invasion. One could not say that about the Rangers invasion which was starkly hostile and aggressive.

The arrests and injuries were equally shocking, but at least three other bodies must take a share in the blame. The police were nowhere to be seen until the battle was raging. With more police on duty in the right place, neither invasion would have occurred.

The media and the TV commentator are also to blame for encouraging and highlighting things. Both Archie McPherson of the BBC and Alec Cameron of STV could be heard saying things like “Here comes another charge” and giving the impression that they were enjoying themselves or fancied promotion to the job of war correspondent. And finally, alcohol was definitely a factor – but how could the SFA wring their hypocritical hands in despair at that, when a well-known Scottish brewery firm was sponsoring the Scottish Cup?

We can also, of course, blame the educational system – a clear and obvious failure this day in spite of comprehensive education having been around for ten years. There were also the politicians who had done little to improve life for the educational under-achievers, and of course the parents who did not control their children. It being a very sensitive topic in this context, no-one dared mention Churches and religion, but they had not done enough to minimise sectarian divisions either. And of course across the water in Northern Ireland, permanent rioting and disorder had been going on for years.

The debate went on for months and years, and there were some good points – like alcohol being banned from football grounds, and the move towards all seated stadia was given a further impetus – but 10 May 1980 was a day that was shrouded in infamy, as the whole world on their TVs saw the unacceptable face of Scottish society.

It was a day that should have been a triumph for Celtic and nothing else, but as it was, Celtic had to share their moment of glory with everyone asking everyone else “What is wrong with Scottish society?”

It is important however to see the matter in perspective. The stone throwers were very much a minority. Most supporters of both teams watched the game, and then went home, the Celtic ones having had the extra bonus of seeing their team with the Scottish Cup as well.

David Potter

Photos – Thanks to the wonderful Celtic Wiki.

Scottish Cup Final – Hampden Park, Saturday 10 May 1980 

Celtic: Latchford, Sneddon, McGrain, Aitken, Conroy, MacLeod, Provan, Doyle (Lennox), McCluskey, Burns and McGarvey. 

Rangers: McCloy, Jardine, Dawson, Stevens, Jackson, Forsyth (Miller), Cooper, Russell, Johnstone, Smith, MacDonald (McLean).

Referee: Mr G Smith, Edinburgh

Attendance 70,303

David Potter’s latest Celtic book is a biography of Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle and it will be published shortly on Celtic Star Books. Pre-ordering will be available from next week. And after that Matt Corr – who has been quiet on The Star recently due to this – will publish the official Harry Hood story, again on Celtic Star Books.