● Ten years ago today Motherwell and Hibs produced a bonkers 6-6 draw in front of the TV cameras at Fir Park. Visiting boss John Hughes recalls one of the most thrilling and memorable games in Scottish football history
The Italian sports journalist Gianni Brera once wrote “the perfect match would end 0-0”. A cheerleader for the catenaccio style which defined Italian football for decades, he was a “devout difensivista”. Yet, if there was one game which was going to challenge the view of the legendary scribe, change his opinion even, it was at Fir Park ten years ago today.
In 90 or so madcap minutes, Motherwell and Hibs produced one of the greatest games Scottish football has ever seen. Perhaps the most entertaining of all time.
“The 6-6” is now synonymous with the two teams and a midweek May evening in North Lanarkshire.
The penultimate game of the 2009-2010 campaign, this wasn’t your nothing-toplay-for, head-already-onthe-beach type of encounter. There was only a point between the sides with a place in Europe at stake.
Originally meant to take place on Thursday, 6 May, the showdown had to be moved forward 24 hours because of the general election that day and the close proximity of a polling station to Fir Park.
The alteration meant it clashed with Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur on Sky Sports on the Wednesday evening. The Premier League duo were playing for a place in the Champions League. Few, when looking at their TV guide, would have envisaged Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Vincent Kompany and Carlos Tevez being upstaged by Giles Coke, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Colin Nish and Graeme Smith. But upstaged they were. While the game in Manchester was like a school disco, dance floor empty, kids scared to make a move and attract any attention, the encounter at Motherwell was akin to a wedding reception that had gotten out of hand, the free bar having been drunk dry.
Fir Park was bonkers and encapsulated the very best about Scottish football. An avalanche of goals, deluge of mistakes, booing fans, angry players, baffled managers, a dodgy pitch and perhaps one of the finest goals scored in Scottish football.
With the help of reduced ticket prices a crowd of 6,241 piled in to witness it all unfold, 1,200 more than the previous game at Fir Park between the sides on a Saturday.
A run of six consecutive defeats had put Hibs out of the running for third place – on Christmas Day they were only five points behind league leaders Rangers.
John Hughes and assistant manager Brian Rice had considered going to Fir Park with a more pragmatic approach, knowing a draw would keep them one point behind Craig Brown’s Motherwell going into the final day when Hibs’ hosted Dundee United and the Steelmen went to Ibrox.
“I was talking about it with Brian Rice the other day. We were going to go there and maybe play a three-man midfield, just with the two wingers and one striker,” Hughes told the The Scotsman. “We just said ‘that’s no us’.
“As soon as we said that to each
other, that made our mind up, go to Motherwell, albeit away from home, we were going to have a go. We went with a real attacking team. There was not much protection for the back four but we were going to have a right go. Thirty-five minutes in we were cruising.”
Hibs were an attacking team, and they were cruising.
The front four of David Wotherspoon, Derek Riordan, Anthony Stokes and Colin Nish ripped their way through the Motherwell defence time and again.
Nish opened the scoring after an incisive move involving Wotherspoon and Stokes. It offered a glimpse into the freedom bestowed on the forward players under Hughes.
When Nish completed his hattrick with an almost identical goal to numbers one and two, turning in a low cross, it was 4-1 going on 8-1, especially if Motherwell gifted more goals like the one Riordan netted when he pounced on a slack Coke back-pass.
It was easy to see why only the Old Firm scored more than Hibs that season. Conversely, it wasn’t so difficult to understand why only bottomplaced Falkirk and St Johnstone conceded more than the Hibees.
A 4-1 lead into half-time and there is little way back for Motherwell. 4-2? It’s an altogether different story, momentum and perception altered.
John Sutton was allowed to get on the end of a Jim O’brien cross with little resistance and head past Smith.
Despite the six goals, Willie Collum – who else was going to be the man in the middle for such an affair – added on a mere three seconds injury time.
The half-time whistle was met