THE CURSE

EVERYBODY calls it a curse. Purely for the sake of variety, words like jinx and hoodoo will occasionally be tossed into the mix. To be honest, after the first hundred years, people started running out of ways to describe Hibernian’s hate-hate relationship with the Scottish Cup.

Yet this year, the fans promise themselves as they cross fingers and clutch at lucky amulets, it will all be different. This year, the hex will be broken. Now, pass over that number for the local witch doctor and remember to buy some fresh bat blood at the wholefood store...

If such mickey-taking abounds even among long-suffering Hibs supporters, it is because gallows humour has always been a necessary part of any football fan’s self-defence. Maybe believing in some of the crackpot theories espoused for this case of enduring — and selective — misfortune even makes it a little easier to bear.

From rumours of a local gypsy woman being irked into action way back when, to talk of nuns who washed the first-team strips exerting some divine influence back in the Year of our Lord 1902, there has never been a shortage of ‘explanations’ for how this tournament has treated Hibs since that magical summer.

Whispers and roars about some unblinking evil eye looking down upon the Easter Road club should hardly be completely shocking, given the superstitions abounding in our national game; there has to be a reason why otherwise rational individuals believe that their choice of pants or route taken to the stadium will have some bearing on the outcome.

Be honest. If you thought it would help tickle the sporting Gods into giving your boys a helping hand, you would roller skate behind the team bus draped in chicken entrails and reciting lines from The Hobbit.

Consider that the official defence, then, for Sportsmail actually reaching out to famed spoon bender and paranormal gun-for-hire Uri Geller, he of the famous telekinetic ‘nudge’ to upset Gary McAllister’s penalty attempt against England at Euro ’96, in search of advice.

For what it’s worth, Geller would have been pleased to have helped Hibs out on this occasion. The former darling of the talk-show circuit — citing well-documented past intervention on behalf of Newcastle United, while unnameddropping the fact that he is currently working with one ‘worldrenowned footballer’ — makes a predictably lively argument for bringing some psychic healing to the situation.

Anything may be worth a shout after 114 years, a period made all the more baffling for the other successes achieved during that stretch of time.

Since last lifting the trophy, Hibs have been crowned champions of Scotland four times, won the League Cup on three occasions and reached another 10 Scottish Cup Finals, as well as blazing a trail to two European semi-finals and another three quarter-finals, all while providing the nation with some of its finest internationalists.

Yet they have endured only agonising near misses and humbling humiliations on those end-of-season outings to Hampden, leaving many of the men involved believing that kismet has most definitely played a part in their ultimate downfall.

Hibs arguably never came closer than in 1979, when it took Rangers three games — and an extra-time own goal — to put down an Easter Road side managed by the great Eddie Turnbull.

Jim McArthur, the goalie whose contribution to that near miss included saving a penalty with 104 minutes of the second replay gone, recalls Hibs doing more than enough to win.

And he remembers, only too well, how unlucky Arthur Duncan headed a cross past him to become — infamously — the last Hibs player to score the winner in a Scottish Cup Final.

McArthur, who says players were aware of the lengthy list of Scottish Cup disappointments without being fixated on what he calls ‘this curse or whatever’, told Sportsmail: ‘We did begin to think luck was against us when we played three games in losing the 1979 Final, with Arthur scoring the winner — an own goal.

‘We played 330 minutes of football against Rangers and lost to an own goal. Our luck was definitely against us in ’79, no doubt about that.

‘I saved a penalty in extra-time. When that happens, you obviously get a lift. You think: “This is our day, this is our year — our name is on the Cup”. Then Arthur scored the own goal. I keep telling people, though, that Derek Johnstone and Gordon Smith were standing right behind him, so he had to get a touch on it.

‘He just caught it too well with his head — right in the top corner. So, famously, he scored the winner in the Scottish Cup Final. He was just really, really unlucky.

‘Eddie Turnbull was really good about the whole thing. Normally, he would go nuts if we lost a game. But he thought we did well, we all knew we’d played quite well over the three games. What else could we have done?

‘And everybody just really felt for Arthur. Nobody had a go at him because it wasn’t one of those daft own goals where you can blame the guy. It was just bad luck.’

If there is one thing that still rankles McArthur, it goes right back to the first instalment of that three-legged Final at Hampden, as he explained: ‘In the first game, I’m adamant that we should have had a penalty right in the last minute.

‘Colin Campbell went around Peter McCloy and was taken down. But he actually fell down after he’d gone past him, so the referee waved play on. These days, it would definitely be a penalty. It should have been then, too. We were just unlucky again.

‘You need luck, of course you do. There aren’t many teams who can win a Scottish Cup without carrying some luck with them. Inverness last year were a case in point, with what happened in the semi-final against Celtic.

‘Rangers were favourites back in ’79 and they’re slight favourites now. With a bit better luck, though, Hibs definitely stand a chance.’

A bit of better luck. Since when have Hibernian ever been able to count on that in these showpiece occasions? Even opponents swatted aside in other competitions seemed to be unbeatable when it came to the Scottish Cup.

John Brownlie, part of a Hibs team turned over 6-1 by Celtic in the 1972 Final, also played when they then turned the tables on the Hoops in the League Cup the following year.

In conversation with Sportsmail a while back, he admitted: ‘With us, it was just fate. I played in a great side and we reached a Scottish Cup Final — but we couldn’t do it on the day.

‘We won the League Cup but, when it came to the Scottish Cup, we all felt that we never did ourselves justice.

‘As for why no Hibs team had won it for so long, well, that was beyond us. I don’t think anyone can explain it fully.

‘Football is daft like that, though. And it rewards teams who take the opportunity. Whoever gets that monkey off the club’s back, they would deserve to be legends.’

Many thought Pat Fenlon was just the man to achieve that sort of status, the Irishman — Dan McMichael of 1902 fame was Irish too, a clear omen — leading Hibs to two successive Finals … and, naturally, losing both. In 2012, Hearts beat them by a scoreline still much quoted on derby day, then Celtic strolled to a 3-0 win the following year.

‘I heard all about the curse, particularly leading into the first Final,’ said Fenlon. ‘I think everybody bought into that, an

With a bit better luck than in ‘79, Hibs definitely stand a chance