Lambert is still soaking up Scottish Cup success

Mar 16 2013 by Jeff Holmes, Paisley Daily Express

These days, Paul Lambert is mixing it with the managerial big guns in the English Premiership as boss at Birmingham giants Aston Villa.

But the boy from Linwood had humble beginnings with his home-town club ... starring for St Mirren when he was just a kid.

As a precocious 17-year-old midfielder, Lambert proved to be a natural on the big stage as he helped the Buddies to Scottish Cup glory back in 1987.

Now he is hoping Saints can end their long wait for silverware by defeating Hearts in tomorrow’s League Cup Final showdown.

And, if the current crop of St Mirren stars are anything like Lambert, they’ll remember their Hampden date with destiny for decades to come.

He recalls: “I remember Alex Smith, who was our manager in 1987, telling us that, if we played well for five games, we could win the cup – and we did just that.

“To be fair, we got the breaks with the draw, although we still had a job to do.

“In the third round, we disposed of Inverness Caledonian, as they were then known.

“That set up a clash with Morton at Cappielow and it was an absolute cracker, played in front of a partisan crowd, which created a tremendous atmosphere.

“In the end, we squeezed through by 3-2 to set up another away tie in the quarters against Raith Rovers at Kirkcaldy.

“That match was won 2-0 and, all of a sudden, we were in the semis and only 90 minutes from the cup final.”

Lambert, who won 40 caps for Scotland and played nearly 250 times for Saints, remembers suddenly being the focus of intense media interest at a young age – but was able to take it all in his stride.

He said: “The local press was full of the build-up to that semi-final against Hearts at Hampden but I have to say that I didn’t get over-excited.

“The older lads knew what it meant because some of them hadn’t made it to a final in their long careers but for me, at 17, I was thinking there would be plenty of other opportunities.

“That wasn’t being big-headed, it was merely the uncomplicated thinking of a 17-year-old boy who had his entire career in front of him.”

Hearts provided Lambert and his Buddies with a tough test but goals from Ian Ferguson and Frank McGarvey saw the Paisley men run out 2-1 winners.

Dundee United lay in wait in the final but, before that game, there was the small matter of a league tie with Scottish champions Rangers to contend with.

Lambert said: “Rangers had already been crowned champions and I was desperate to play against them.

“I had played almost every game in the run-up to the final, so when Alex pulled me aside and told me I wasn’t playing against Rangers, I felt devastated.

“My first thought was that I wouldn’t be playing in the final either and I was crushed.

“Alex must have seen the look in my eyes and he immediately told me that I wasn’t being dropped. He said I was being rested because I would be playing in the final the following week.

“I left Ibrox walking on air that night because I knew I was in the team the following week.

“I even left a note for my dad, who was collecting tickets at Ibrox, explaining why his boy wasn’t playing that day!”

And if Lambert thought the media scrutiny was intense for the semi-final, it was cranked up even further ahead of the final showdown itself.

He said: “We tried to keep the build-up as normal as possible but a lot of the press attention was on the young lads such as myself, Fergie and Brian Hamilton.

“We got a fair bit of publicity but we took it in our stride. We were kids and didn’t have the foggiest about how big all this was.

“When Alex named the team, he was true to his word. I was in on the left side of midfield, with Billy Abercromby in the middle and Hammy on the right.

“The club captain, Tony Fitzpatrick, was left on the bench, which must have been hard for him to take, but he replaced me with a couple of minutes of normal time left and the score at 0-0. He was a great passer of the ball and for him to be left out of the starting line-up was a brave decision on the part of Alex Smith.

“As the scoreline suggests, it had not been a classic cup final and the match staggered into extra-time. In fact, my most vivid memory up until that point was the hammering Jimmy Bone gave Fergie during the break before extra-time because of his lacklustre performance.

“Fergie must have taken it to heart because the history books show he scored the extra-time winner – and what a beautiful strike it was – to send Paisley into orbit for the best part of a week.”