Hibernian 0 Celtic 3

By Roddy Forsyth, Hampden Park

Two tales were told at Hampden Park on Sunday as Celtic won the William Hill Scottish Cup final to bear the trophy off in triumph to the east end of Glasgow for the 36th time in their 125 years of existence. Hibs, who have existed longer on this earth, are starved of such fruits, particularly in this tournament.

Few clubs – if any – can rate themselves among the top five in their country yet also have a supporter aged 103 who has never seen them win the oldest trophy in the domestic fixture list. Mindful of last year’s 5-1 destruction by Hearts, Pat Fenlon’s side opened with purpose and skill only to be disabused swiftly of the notion that they were about to break out of purdah.

In that brief spell of ascendancy they contrived a fine chance with a build-up that flowed through Leigh Griffiths to Ryan McGivern, whose cross found Eoin Doyle leaping to connect eight yards out with a header that was on the mark. Fraser Forster, however, leapt to block and, although one could not guess as much at the time, it was to be a pivotal moment.

Had Doyle found the net Hibs would have had a base camp from which to assault the summit of the tournament. Instead, they were sent tumbling towards the precipice when Celtic scored with their first attack of the afternoon.

Neil Lennon, whose demeanour in the previous two weeks had belied a profound anxiety about the possibility of failure, chose to pair Gary Hooper with Anthony Stokes, a combination that proved lethally effective as Celtic led with a right before delivering a left cross. The move began with an incisive prompt from Scott Brown to Mikael Lustig, who swirled the ball into the Hibs box, where Alan Maybury was happy to watch it skip beyond him for what looked as though it would be a throw-in on the other side.

Instead, Stokes chased to gather possession, swivel and strike a deep cross towards the back post where Hooper – despite having McGivern and Paul Hanlon in attendance – was permitted to strike a full volley past Ben Williams, who had been left stranded by the flight of the ball. The horrible thought must have struck the Hibs fans behind Williams that this was very likely to be a case of first goal, the winner. If so, their fears were validated on the half-hour when Stokes provided almost identical supply for the Englishman to pop up on the same spot. Hanlon and McGivern might as well have pointed out the spot in the net where Hooper would plant his header, for all the difference their proximity made to him as he duly directed his finish between Williams and the far post, leaving the incandescent goalkeeper to berate Hanlon and McGivern for a second instance of unforgivable latitude.

The better team, playing the better football, had effectively ended the contest a third of the way through its course, this posing Fenlon the exquisite strategic problem of having to chart some way back into the match without inviting Celtic to rip his side apart. Hibs desperately needed to score the next goal and they came agonisingly close when Griffiths escaped the shackles of the Hoops’ back line with the aid of a loss of concentration by Charlie Mulgrew but found the angle just too tight to be able to squeeze his shot across the unguarded line. Beforehand, it had seemed likely that Fenlon would field a five-man midfield to deny Celtic space in that department while seeking opportunities to push up alongside Griffiths. In the event the Irishman went for a more ambitious middle four, a decision which backfired when the central pair of Tom Taiwo and Jorge Claros failed to deal with Brown, who controlled Celtic’s play from a deep lying position in front of his own back four.

Fenlon did change Hibs’ disposition at half-time, sending Doyle off to right midfield and switching Alex Harris to the left. This did have the effect of consolidating Hibs in the centre of the park but it also reduced the menace to Celtic in attack.

With what, in the circumstances, was the ample security of their two-goal lead, Celtic could afford to let Hibs play until they reached the edge of Forster’s box and the only time their back line was breached – when Claros and Kevin Thomson freed Harris for a dangerous cutback – the ball was scrambled off Griffiths’ boot as he drew back to shoot.

It wanted only another Celtic goal to end any vestigial hope Hibs might have nourished and McGivern’s uncertainty again invited the damage, this time when he was slow to confront Mikael Lustig on the edge of the box so that the Swede was able to produce a cutback which was meant for Hooper – who saw a Cup final hat-trick sweep across his line of vision – but arrived at the feet of Joe Ledley, who swept home an angled shot on the turn.

A few Hibs fans had set off on the traditional walk of shame back to the car parks at 2-0 and rather more did so when Ledley’s effort found the net, but the substantial majority creditably stayed the course, acknowledging that their team had been outclassed and sometimes outfought, but were not disgraced.

For Lennon, there was the distinction of having equalled the accomplishment of Jock Stein and Billy McNeill in winning the Scottish Cup as a Celtic player and manager. “Honestly, I was a bag of nerves beforehand,” he said. “I knew what it would have meant to Hibs to win the Cup and I didn’t want us to go down in history to let them do it. In the end we did what we were supposed to do and played very well.”

Elsewhere, 103-year-old Sam Fernandez, the oldest Hibs supporter, must wonder how long a man must wait before his favoured team yields the desired reward for such extraordinary devotion.

Match details

Hibernian (4-4-2): Williams; Maybury, Forster, Hanlon, McGivern; Harris, Taiwo, Claros, Thomson (Caldwell 76); Doyle (Handling 71), Griffiths (Stevenson 84).
Subs: Murdoch (g), Robertson.
Booked: Claros, Griffiths.
Celtic (4-4-2): Forster; Lustig, Wilson, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Forrest (McCourt 88), Brown (Ambrose 71), Ledley, Commons (Samaras 76); Stokes, Hooper.
Subs: Zaluska (g), Rogic.
Booked: Brown.
Referee: Willie Collum.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk