Celtic will play championship side Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday in the Scottish cup final, the fifth time the sides have faced each other at the final stage in the 152 year history of the famous old competition…
Celtic versus Dunfermline in Scottish Cup finals
The first time the sides met was way back in the 1961 final, and the Pars under the management of Jock Stein emerged victorious as they won the Scottish Cup for the first ever time thanks to a 2-0 replay win at Hampden, in front of a bumper crowd of 87,866.
That was still a bit of a drop on the 113,618 who attended the goalless stalemate between the two sides at the national stadium four days previously.
Jimmy McGrory’s Celtic team who had future Lisbon lions in the side such as Billy McNeill, John Clark, John Hughes, and Stevie Chalmers, with other well known names such as Paddy Crerand, and Willie Fernie also among the starting XI were defeated by a Pars side who won thanks to goals from Dave Thomson and Charlie Dickson.
The Celtic Rising
Four years later the two clubs would meet again in the 1965 final in front of 108,800 spectators.
Although this time Jock Stein was in charge of Celtic, and he led his side to a 3-2 win, with skipper Billy McNeill scoring the winner, adding to a Bertie Auld brace as the hoops lifted the cup, in what was the start of a golden period in the clubs illustrious history. Our sadly missed colleague David Potter described this perfectly as The Celtic Rising.
Farewell to The King of Kings
39 years later, Celtic and Dunfermline Athletic met in the 2004 final with Martin O’Neill’s side coming from a goal down at Hampden to beat Jimmy Calderwoods Pars 3-1 thanks to a Henrik Larsson brace, with Stan Petrov scoring the other Celtic goal.
It was Henrik’s last competitive appearance as a Celtic player, and in true fashion he stole the show by scoring the goals that hauled the club in front, with the King of Kings proving to be main driving force in winning the cup which clinched a domestic double.
Neil Lennon’s bows out with a Hampden high
Three years later we faced the Pars yet again in the final, and with Stephen Kenny’s side having just suffered relegation from the top flight, it was widely assumed that Gordon Strachan’s title winning side would win the game a canter.
However, in football nothing is a certainty, and so it proved as one of the worst finals in living memory was settled by an 84th minute goal by Celtic on loan full back Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t impressive, but it was a victory that clinched us another domestic double.
Incidentally that was Neil Lennon’s last game as a Celtic player, and his last act was to lift the cup as Celtic captain. Lenny of course will be in the opposite dugout on Saturday as manager of Dunfermline Athletic as he faces his old mentor Martin O’Neill.
Celtic can put on a show at Hampden on Saturday
Celtic have won three of the four final meetings between the sides, let’s hope we make it four out of five come Saturday evening. The eyes of world football will be on this match after the media frenzy in recent days since the league was won on Saturday against bad-losers Hearts. Let’s put in a show on and off the park, Celtic.
COYBIG!
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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