My defining Celtic moment – the Scottish Cup final of 1988

My Centenary season started with a home win over Hearts in a midweek fixture under the lights at Celtic Park. Even though it was August, the floodlights were required on a dull, wet night in Glasgow. It took a late winner from Mark McGhee to seal a 1-0 victory for the Bhoys.

This particular game is clear in my mind for two reasons, firstly that I went to the match with my Uncle Alex, which was not common practise at that time, and secondly due to ‘the old fella’ next to me who clearly had some hearing difficulties. As the crowd chanted the name of the goal scorer, “Mark McGhee, Mark McGhee, Mark McGhee,” the old boy asked me why the fans were singing, “Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeen!”

Another popular if not ‘pc’ chant celebrating the scorer that night was, “He’s fat, he’s round, he’s worth a million pounds, Mark McGhee, Mark McGhee!” That certainly added to the feeling of euphoria following McGhee’s late winner, not to mention much hilarity amongst the fans around me in the Jungle. Fittingly, I attended my first match of the season with my Uncle Alex and, not known to me at the time, I would attend my final match of the season with him also, the 1988 Scottish Cup Final.

Celtic’s journey to the final was not quite as straightforward as I would have liked, the Hoops struggling to overcome Second Division strugglers Stranraer in the Third Round in a 1-0 home victory on Saturday, 30 January 1988, thanks to Frank McAvennie’s early goal.

Indeed, Stranraer almost grabbed a late equaliser when Bruce Cleland’s shot struck the bar with an open Celtic goal at his mercy, his last action as a senior footballer. Poor Cleland had earlier seen his penalty kick saved by Pat Bonner. A case of ‘what might have been’ for him but at least we were through.

Our Fourth-Round opponents were Hibernian at home on Sunday, 21 February 1988, a match which would be shown live on the BBC. I went along to this match with my dad and for some reason he wanted to take a seat in the Main Stand, so despite my appeals to go to one of our usual spots in the Jungle or the Celtic End, he was insistent and the Main Stand it was.

To soften the blow, quite literally, he hired some padded cushions that you could place on your seat that day. I’ve honestly never seen those before or since but despite the comfortable seat, the match wasn’t the greatest with a ‘huff and puff’ 0-0 draw being the outcome.