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It was Celtic's centenary year, the league was already
won and they were in the Scottish Cup final. The fans were singing
Happy Birthday Dear Celtic, another double beckoned and only Dundee
United stood in their way.
The match played at Hampden was a 74,000 sell-out. United
were no pushovers and were considered slight favourites to lift the
cup. Four previous attempts in the final had failed and they had also
been narrowly beaten in the UEFA cup final. They were determined to
take the cup north and got off to a great start in 48 minutes with
a fantastic volleyed goal from Kevin Gallacher. He was the great grandson
of Celtic's legendary Patsy Gallacher and it was a goal that Patsy
would have been proud of.
Billy McNeill, returning to manage the club that
season, made two crucial substitutions - Derek Whyte and Andy Walker
off, Mark McGhee and Billy Stark on. In the 74th minute, Anton Rogan
made a run up United's right wing and crossed a 'peach'. Thompson
failed to make it his and Frank McAvennie reacted to head the ball
into the net for the equaliser.
With only thirty seconds left to the final whistle, wee
Joe Miller took a corner, Billy Stark's shot rebounded off of a United
defender and McAvennie reacted fastest to score his and Celtic's second.
The cup was won.
One incident which spoiled this final was the attendance
of that old Tory butcher Maggie Thatcher. She was responsible for
many of the problems that Scotland (and England and Wales) and it's
people were suffering at the time and the general feeling that she
should never have been asked to attend this match. Unemployment,
public assets sold off, industry ended, hospitals closed, broken marriages,
bankruptcy and suicides is the Thatcher legacy for Scotland and she
was made most unwelcome by everyone except the SFA (shame on them).
To help the fans display their utter disgust at old
blue nose, the Greater Glasgow Health Joint Trade Union Committee published
a leaflet which was printed by Labour Communications Limited. The leaflet
was red on both sides and was distributed to the fans outside the stadium
so they could hold it up when the PM appeared. The fans took part without
persuasion and when she appeared, a sea of red cards were shown around
the entire stadium in a gesture of sending her off. She, off course,
ignored it in her usual arrogant manner.
Both sides of Maggie's
red card
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THE PROGRAMME
The programme for the 1988 Scottish Cup final
match contained 32 B5, full-colour pages. 12 of these pages
were for adverts. The mainly red front cover shows a large
photograph of the Scottish cup in front of two action photographs
- Joe Miller of Celtic and Kevin Gallacher of Dundee United.
All text is in yellow and the Scottish Cup sponsor - The Scottish
Health Education Group - is displayed in the top-right corner.
The original cost of the programme was £1 compared to
the 2001 price for a mint copy of around £7 - £10. |
MATCH
TICKET
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THE BUZZ BOMB
On facing pages 4 and 5, Bobby Lennox talks about
his memories of Scottish Cup finals. Bobby is Celtic's post-war
record scorer ...... he scored 318 goals in top-class football
and has a record EIGHT winners medals from the Scottish Cup.
Bobby's goals tally puts him second overall to the legendary
Jimmy McGrory with Stevie Chalmers in third place. He recalls
his memories from the first winners medal against Dunfermline
Athletic in April 1965 right through to his last against Rangers
in the riot final of 1980. Pages 6 and 7 are taken up by two
full-page adverts - the Scottish Health Education Group with
their slogan of the 80's "Be All You Can Be" and opposite
a message from the cup sponsors (SHEG).
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HAMISH MCALPINE
Pages 8 and 9 are used to allow the recently
retired ex-arabs goalie to talk about his Hampden memories.
Pages 10 and 11 were used for a two-page advert for a new daily
sports paper about to hit the streets on 23rd May for the first
time. I don't remember the paper ever being published. Do you?
It was to be called the Daily Winner.
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THE ROAD TO THE FINAL
"He's
fat, he's round
He's worth a million pound
Mark
McGee, Mark McGhee"
Page 12 had photographs of Mark
McGee and Eamonn Bannon (played for Celtic in Pat Stanton's
Testimonial at Easter Road) accompanying the story of how both
teams reached the final.
Celtic beat Stranraer 1-0, Hibs
(0-0) 1-0 after a replay, Partick Thistle 3-0 at Firhill and
Hearts 2-1 in an exciting semi-final. United had beaten Arbroath
7-0, Airdrie 2-0, Dundee (0-0) (2-2) 3-0 in a second replay
and Aberdeen (1-1) 1-0 in the semi-final. |
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UNITED PLAYER PROFILE
Page 13 (above right) tells the story of David
Narey who was the United Captain on the day. The classy central
defender had played in three previous finals but had failed
to win a any of them. |
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THE TEAMLISTS
The Centre pages (16 and 17) contained the teamlists
and other match details including photos of Derek Whyte of Celtic
and Dave Bowman of United. |
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Page 18 and 19 had an
article about Paul Sturrock (a great striker for United) and their
chances in the final.
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THE MAESTRO
Page 20 contained a profile on The Maestro Paul
McStay and on page 21 wee Joe Miller is advertising his choice
of football boots. Wee Joe's boots were tricky and could beat
a man but they didn't have the speed to get away from him after
that. Anyway, I liked him and will always remember him for his
goal against the unmentionables in a Scottish Cup final shortly
after this one. |
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Pages 22 profiled United Finnish international
striker Mixu Paatalainen and on the opposite page was an advert
for the city of Dundee disguised as a wee story. |
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CELTIC GOALIES
Pages 24 and 25 had an article about the Celtic
goalies Pat Bonner and Alan McKnight. The Celtic fans were very
surprised when Alan McKnight appeared as Celtic's goalie instead
of Pat Bonner. The big goalie had been injured in a training
accident and was unfit to play. |
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Pages 26 and 28 had full-page adverts for CR
SMITH glazing company and the Government's Enterprise Allowance
Scheme. Pages 27 and 29 contain various team facts about Celtic
and United (respectively).
Page 30 had information about previous cup finals,
a small advert from programme dealer Stephen Jacobs, a fans
competition and a space to fill in the half-time scores in the
English cup final between Liverpool and Wimbledon at Wembley
Stadium.
Page 31 is a full-page advert for bus hire company
Park's of Hamilton. |
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The Back Page
The Bear making a wee bit on the side. |
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Click here to
see all the 1987/88 programmes, match results, team, tickets, scorers
(and more) from Celtic's
Centenary season.
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