Bobby’s Euro chance saw him offered horse meat!
HIBERNIAN signalled they’re really back in the big time by going toe-totoe with Rangers at Ibrox yesterday.
The Hibees had Israel international Ofir Marciano playing in goal.
He suffered knee and rib injuries last season, but bounced back to sign a new four-year deal with the Edinburgh club.
Forty-five years ago, Hibs gave new signing Bobby Robertson his first-team debut between the posts.
There followed two-and-half years where he battled for a place with some of the finest goalies to have played at Easter Road.
Ultimately, it was an international keeper who brought his career to an early end – when he was made to carry his colleague on his shoulders!
Bobby was a Scottish Junior internationalist when he arrived at Hibs after an unhappy spell on the books at Rangers.
He recalled: “I was down at Burnley for a week, but stupidly said no when the manager, Jimmy Adamson, made me an offer.
“Everton and Liverpool were also interested.
“Former Celtic goalie Ronnie Simpson then took me to Parkhead, and I was due to play in Jock Stein’s reserve team but I got injured in training.
“I used to go to the clubs who were interested in me with my father, but I then went to Rangers on my own and ended up signing for Willie Thornton, who was manager Willie Waddell’s assistant.
“I went on a tour of Portugal with them but I didn’t really enjoy it at the club.
“I was freed and joined Hibs a week later. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, an Edinburgh boy signing for a club in his hometown.
“My first match was against Queen’s Park in the League Cup when Jim Herriot was injured.
“Jim was a brilliant keeper and helped me a lot by giving me advice in training.
“We beat Queen’s Park 4-2. I then played in the League Cup quarter-final where we beat Airdrie 4-1.
“That came just after I’d come on as a substitute in a European Cup-Winners’ Cup tie against Besa Kavaje in Albania.
“We took our own chef over there and were told not to eat any of the food offered to us.
“They put on a banquet in the hotel and apparently tried to serve us horse-meat!
“We went for a walk where an armed guard stuck a gun into my pal Erich Schaedler’s chest when we got too close to a palace.
“The bus to the ground took about two hours to make a 15-mile journey and the dressing room had no roof.
“The game ended 1-1 and we beat them at home to go through.”
Bobby played home and away against Keflavik of Iceland the following season, but still couldn’t get an outing in the league.
He went on: “We went to Dumbarton and I was expecting to play after Jim McArthur had picked up an injury. But Eddie Turnbull bought Roddy MacKenzie from Airdrie, put him in the team and we lost 4-1.”
MacKenzie, who had been capped once by Northern Ireland, played 11 times for Hibs but his stay had a big impact on Bobby.
He said: “I suffered a bad back injury that ended my professional career.
“Some reports said it came from an accident outside football, but it happened in training when we had to pick a team-mate up on our shoulders.
“I had Roddy on top of me when I felt my back go. At first they treated me for a leg injury but I then had to have a disc removed from my back.”
Bobby admits being released by Hibs was a blow and he returned to the Junior ranks.
Now 65, he still works in sales for an international electronics company.