In the last issue I asked you to name the 2nd ground in Britain to stage an official European competition game, the answer is Partick Thistle’s ground, Firhill.

 In 1956, Aberdeen was Scottish champions, but like English counterparts Chelsea, they ignored the offer. So the forward thinking Hibs were in by default. In the first round they met West German champions Rot Weiss Essen. Hibs won 4-0 in Essen and the return tie in Scotland ended in a 1-1 draw.  Eddie Turnbull, later to manage one of the best Hibs sides of all time recalls: “That’s where I became the first British player to score in Europe. We gassed Rot-Weiss 4-0 although they were not a bad team, with quite a few of the World-Cup winning team of 1954 on their side.” In the quarterfinals Hibs met Djurgaarden, winning 3–1 at home and scoring the only goal ‘away’. The Scandinavian team’s pitch was frozen so they played their home match at Firhill in Glasgow. The night of Hibs’ win Celtic was playing across the city and the Parkhead programme notes stated: “Already interest in these floodlit evening games is on the wane.” 

45,000 spectators attended the second leg against Reims at Easter Road. Sadly a Reims side inspired by the great French footballer Raymond Kopa defeated Hibs. Kopa in fact, known as ‘the Little General’, was recently voted the third greatest French player behind Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, dictated both games. Reims was then beaten by Real Madrid in the final. For the full article use this link  http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/asportingnation/article/0043/page01.shtml 

I was lucky enough to be at the 3 games at ER and 2 years later when I lived in Glasgow took great delight in showing my pals Raymond Kopa’s autograph. (Where do these things go? Didn’t know about ebay coming 4 decades later!) The early days of European Competition were exciting occasions. Rangers were knocked out in 56/57 against Nice, having to play a third game at a neutral venue to get a result. No away goals or penalties in these days. The next season I was at Tynecastle to watch Hearts get put out in the first round against Standard Liege. And yes, I cheered on Hearts that night as I did with Rangers the previous year, that’s what you did then. We also changed ends at half time to get behind the foreigner’s goals!  It was the 62/63 season that Gordon Smith played in the semi final for Dundee, winning 1-0 at home, but losing out on aggregate to AC Milan.    

From The Harbour City

The season has just ground to a shuddering halt with a no-nonsense loss to Motherwell at home but (maybe I’m incurable) I have a sense of optimism for next season (all of about 4 weeks away!) 

(I’m with you I can’t wait for next season I always live in hope for the Hibees ED) 

Putting this season into perspective I think you have to say we did well challenging for third place right until the last couple of weeks. Especially when you think of what that blaggard (a word you don’t see much of these days huh?) Collins did to us at the crucial mid-season stage. Had we failed to make the top 6 I’m sure we’d all be blaming it on Collins and feeling justified for doing so. The fact that Mixu took over a despondent, disconsolate, dysfunctional and disappointing side (just felt like a bit of alliteration) and managed to instil a sense of pride and a competitive spirit was nothing short of a miracle. Especially when you look at some of the players he had to work with – eg Kerr? Why is he there? Just – why? 

The intertattie cup is a great way to warm up to the season, especially with a UEFA cup spot as a bonus. The game against Barca will be huge – even if it is just a friendly and some of the big names missing. Watching Barca this year in the CL I was always amazed at their level of fitness. Against Celtic they were still running at full speed in the 90^th minute – even when they were winning. Truly awesome stuff and a great benchmark for young Hibs players to measure themselves against. 

All up I’m looking forward to next season and to see what Mixu can do over a full season. As I’ve said before – being a Hibee is more about anticipation than celebration – I just love the start to a new season (thinking about it I probably am an incurable optimist….) 

GGTTH 

Brendan Rogan