Scottish Cup winner Hughes’ history lesson on Inverness halting Celtic treble
He may present himself as a big daftie at times, but John Hughes is nobody’s fool. The man who led Inverness Caledonian Thistle to the Scottish Cup only 20 months ago knows his former club have barely an earthly of doing anything on Saturday to derail Celtic’s treble bid.
Yet, tomorrow’s fifth round tie in Scotland’s oldest trophy inevitably stirs in him memories of the upset that paved the way for Hughes’ team to deliver a major football honour to the Highlands. And it is one from which parallels can be drawn. Ronny Deila’s time in charge of Celtic may now have been discredited, but in April 2015 his side were considered shoo-ins for a domestic clean sweep. Then, as under Brendan Rodgers now, the League Cup had been banked and the championship was a formality.
But, on a dramatic afternoon at Hampden, Inverness torpedoed treble hopes with a 3-2 victory achieved in controversial circumstances after referee Steven Mclean and his goal-line assistant Alan Muir failed to spot a handball in the area by Josh Meekings a minute from halftime with Celtic leading 1-0.
Had a red card and penalty been given, the semi-final would surely have been settled but that lucky break doesn’t explain away a comeback requiring Inverness to score three times.
They did so because Hughes set them up to get at Celtic and deployed psychology to do so – as he believes successor Richie Foran must do with the side Hughes is “miffed” to see currently stuck at the foot of the Premiership after leaving last summer over boardroom interference.
“We did carry a bit of
luck, but we had a right go at them; we were [always] going to press them,” said the 52-year-old, who left the Highland club after two-anda-half years with no bitterness despite the parting coming because he was told by chairman Kenny Cameron last summer he couldn’t move on players as he wanted.
“There is a great saying: if you want me to make the dinner, I buy the groceries,” said Hughes.
Rodgers has been cooking up a storm at Celtic – “they are playing wonderful stuff”, Hughes said – but the Leither believes he “always gave them a game.” “We would take anyone on and were not intimidated by Celtic,” Hughes said, his Inverness side only losing a League Cup final on penalties in 2014 before finishing third in the league in their cup-claiming campaign. “I wouldn’t have that at my club. It has to inspire you when you take on the best. There won’t be two better centre-halves as there were in Ronny’s team. [Virgil] van Dijk and [Jason] Denayer. Celtic will be hard pushed to get two better. Van Dik was a Rolls Royce, the better of them it has proved, but what a partnership.
“I went to watch them against Kilmarnock on the Tuesday with a former teammate of mine, Neil Oliver. He asked if I’d seen anything and I said I was going to press them right from the start. I had Edward Ofere who was built like a tank and I wanted him to bully Denayer.
“That was his job. I did a bit of psychology, saying Denayer was in the paper saying he was easy to play against. Of course there wasn’t any newspaper article but Edward turned to me and said he would take care of him.
“Marley Watkins’s job was to play against Van Dijk. He was the fittest player I’ve ever worked with. He was a freak of nature. He is 6ft 2ins and exceptionally quick. He was told to be a nuisance and not to give him a minute’s peace. We carried a lot of luck as you need against Celtic, but the rest is history.” l John Hughes was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.