St Bernard's Waltz into eternity

TWENTY-TWO players, one streak of luck, a controversial semi final venue and, for the victors, one glittering silver prize.

It might sound very familiar for today's fervent football supporters as they prepare to split the city in two come Scottish Cup semi-final day on April 2 - one half Hibs, one half Hearts.

But this was 111 years ago. And the proud players who paraded the Scottish Cup through the Capital to the cheers of thousands of delighted fans wore neither the green of Easter Road nor Tynecastle's maroon.

They were St Bernard's Football Club, Edinburgh's third team whose flame shone brightly for just a few glorious seasons that are now consigned to football history. And while their name remains etched on the surface of that famous Scottish Cup, history shows that coveted glittering prize came at an overwhelming price.

No sooner had the Capital's minnows notched up their famous 2-1 victory before a mainly West Coast crowd of Renton supporters at Rangers' Ibrox park on April 20, 1895, than the big clubs swooped.

Within weeks, St Bernard's had lost its key players, snapped up by the big guns of Scottish football, ripping out the club's heart and beginning its gradual descent into oblivion. St Bernard's glorious season in the sun was over.

It was a sad twist for a football club founded in February 1874 by young men fired with enthusiasm for a gripping new sport played for the first time in Edinburgh a few months earlier.

The venue was the Royal High School's playing fields in Bonnington, the teams were visitors from the west, Clydesdale and Queen's Park, both eager to show the Edinburgh crowds - among them members of the Third Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Corps - their new game of football.

The volunteers were so impressed that they quickly headed to Percival King's sports emporium in Lothian Street to purchase one leather football. Soon, they had chosen at strip of blue and white hoops for their matches at the Meadows against rival clubs Edinburgh Thistle, Swifts, Brunswick, Hanover, Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian.

The club soon evolved into St Bernard's FC, taking the name from the area around Stockbridge where they had made their base. St Bernard's Well beside the Water of Leith, became their club crest.

In 1878 the Saints transferred to the Royal Patent Gymnasium Grounds - known as the Gymmie - in Stockbridge, which was to be closely associated with the club for the next 60 years. The Gymnasium had been built in 1864 and catered for the Victorian passion for healthy recreation.

However, the Gymmie was deemed too cramped and, by 1895, St Bernard's moved to the new Logie Green Park.

At this time, the city was enjoying a spectacular run of football glory. Hearts had won the Scottish League flag, Hibs were the Second Division title holders earning them promotion and St Bernards were about to shatter expectations and make their own mark on history. They had already defeated Airdrie 4-2 and Kilmarnock 3-1 to earn themselves a tricky quarter-final trip to Clyde's Barrowfield Park.

St Bernard's defied the odds to win 6-2, only to find themselves embroiled in a replay three weeks later when Clyde, bizarrely, lodged an appeal based on the state of their own pitch. Again, Saints emerged victorious: their prize, an all-Edinburgh semi final clash against league leaders Hearts.

IT could have set the scene for a squabble over where the match should be played, but these were the days when there was no such thing as neutral venues. The first match at Tynecastle ended in a disappointing draw, giving the underdogs - still in mourning after the shock death of their full-back, who had lain in a coma for a fortnight after an accident at work - the chance to snatch victory on their home territory.

They didn't disappoint, the lone goal deflected into the net by their late colleague's replacement. All that stood between St Bernard's and the Scottish Cup was Second Division side Renton.

"It does seem that St Bernard's experienced 'the luck of the cup'," says Richard McBrearty, curator at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden, where the cup winner's medal of St Bernard's player James Cleland is on display.

"They weren't a bad side - they had just finished third in the League - but their run to the final was a bit unexpected. Hearts were the overwhelming favourites for their semi-final match at Tynecastle - for St Bernard's to get to the final must have been an upset."

Around 1000 fans from Edinburgh made the trek to the west, vastly outnumbered in the crowd of 12,000. But such was St Bernard's determination and skill that soon the Renton supporters were cheering on their rivals.

It was a game that may have earned itself pride of place in any football quiz. Explains McBrearty: "It's probably the only game that one of the players turned up in the wrong shorts. St Bernard's Tom Robertson didn't join the club for their pre-cup training in Burntisland, preferring to train at Hampden. So when the rest of the team turned up with white shorts, he turned up with blue ones - the colour Renton were playing in.

"He had to nip off at half time and change his shorts."

Saints were already two up thanks to goals in quick succession from Cleland, when Renton were awarded a controversial goal which Saints claimed had gone in via the side netting. In the end, it didn't matter. Despite a frenzied second half, there would be no more goals - St Bernard's had won the Scottish Cup.

"Winning the Scottish Cup really was a very big deal, even in those days," says Richard. "League football in Scotland was still in its youth and the Scottish Cup was the primary cup competition. It was very important to players and fans to win it and it was a very big occasion. For St Bernard's to win the trophy, to be champions of Scotland, it was a major event."

So much so that the victorious team were overwhelmed on their return to Waverley Station, with the players hoisted shoulder high. The celebrations continued at the Hotel Metropole in Hanover Street, where the cup was said to have been filled and re-filled well into the night.

It should have launched St Bernard's into, if nothing else, a stable future. But winning the Scottish Cup seems to have had the opposite effect. Soon, many of the club's leading players were snapped up by bigger rivals like Rangers, Celtic and Newcastle United. With two much bigger clubs on their doorstep, Saints couldn't compete.

Even though they made it to the semi-final of the Scottish Cup the following year, this time their opponents - Hearts again - would not be beaten. Saints' only taste of cup glory that year was when their Logie Green ground staged the Scottish Cup Final between Hearts and Hibs - the only time the match has been played outside Glasgow.

The years to come were little more than a downward spiral, devoid of success and struggling to attract players. Two world wars did not help. They enjoyed the occasional season of moderate success - even reaching the semi final of the Scottish Cup in 1938, when 35,000 people watched them narrowly lose to eventual winners East Fife.

It was to be their last taste of success. Play was already suspended during the Second World War when one of the club's directors died, prompting the executors of his will to demand the return of money he had loaned the club.

Broke, their ground swallowed up to pay their debts and stripped clean of their players, St Bernard's were no more.

Taken from the Scotsman