STARK RAVEN MAD!
His semi-final goal saw off Celtic, paving the way for Inverness’ finest hour and a memorable pub pit stop... but Caley Thistle hero had to sit out his club’s Hampden high
FATE denied David Raven a medal to commemorate his golden moment, but reminders can still be easily located. They tend to pop up on his mobile phone every spring. For the rest of the year, he can look to the wall of his daughter’s room.
Each connection takes Raven back to April 19, 2015 — the day he entered Inverness folklore by scoring a Scottish Cup winner against Treble-chasing Celtic at Hampden. This week, inevitably, those memories feel particularly fresh.
Pain followed the pride and the pints. A reminder of that still exists in scar tissue on his calf muscle.
After his semi-final heroics, Raven cruelly missed the trophyclaiming triumph over Falkirk due to injury. Eight years on, he will be absent from Saturday’s final, too.
A long-booked holiday with his family provides an unfortunate clash of dates for the 38-year-old Liverpudlian. Otherwise, he would have been in Mount Florida, willing someone to repeat his past feat against Ange Postecoglou’s all-conquering team.
Nine-year-old Iris Raven, it seems, is even more peeved at missing out.
‘My little girl is an Inverness fan through and through,’ smiles Raven, now assistant manager of National League North side Warrington Town.
‘She’s got a kit with her name on the back. When anyone ever asks her where she’s from, she says Inverness, Scotland. She was born there and she’s proud of it.
‘We’re away when the final takes place, otherwise I would have brought her up to Hampden. She’s a bit disappointed she can’t go.
‘Bless her, she’s actually got a picture of me celebrating up on her wall. A girl called Sophie up in Inverness once asked me if I wanted her to do a watercolour of me from that day. Oh, yes please.’
It portrays one of only five goals Raven scored in 188 appearances for Caley Thistle. An angled finish in the 117th minute of a chaotic game ended Ronny Deila’s hope of completing a domestic clean sweep and put the Highlanders on course for history.
‘There was just elation,’ recalls Raven. ‘We stopped off at the pub on the way home. We used to stop at Auchterarder for fish and chips but we stayed there a bit longer than usual to get a good few pints.
‘There were a couple of Celtic fans in the pub, who did a bit of a double-take when we walked in. I think they squeezed my hand extra hard when they said well done!
‘When I think about it now, it just brings a smile to my face. I get reminded of it every year on social media.
‘The longer I’m away from playing, the more you understand what it meant. I’ve spoken to Inverness fans who say it’s one of the best footballing moments they’ve had. For me to be involved in that is massive.’
Manager John Hughes took a collective approach to preparations. Call it a case of risk leading to reward.
Raven explains: ‘Yogi came to us and said: “Right lads, there are two ways we can do this. We can sit off Celtic — or we can get after them”. We said we wanted to get after them. So we spent the whole week on shape, pressing sessions and so on. It was a brilliant week.
‘When you do what he did, laying out the choice, you get absolute, total buy-in. To be honest, he was probably 90 per cent sure of what we’d say anyway.
‘Our feeling going into the game was that we were ready. But we knew it had to come off. Yogi said that to us. It was basically: “Boys, you’re either going to win, or you’re going to get beat by five!”.
‘When the game started and they were peppering our goal, we’re thinking: “Yeah, this could be five…”.’
Virgil van Dijk’s free-kick gave Celtic the lead before the game’s most infamous moment. Inverness centre-back Josh Meekings used a hand to block a Leigh Griffiths effort on the line but referee Steven McLean and his assistants didn’t spot it — and, in 2015, there was no VAR.
‘In my own memory, honestly, I didn’t see it,’ insists Raven. ‘I now look back and think: “How have they missed it?”.
‘Steven’s linesmen had to help him out — and I can’t understand how they didn’t see it. So, yeah, it was a big moment. But sometimes you get the luck you need and have grafted for.’
It was Celtic who were reduced to ten men in the second half when Craig Gordon hauled down Marley Watkins. Greg Tansey stuck away the penalty before Edward Ofere and John Guidetti traded goals in extra-time.
Raven got the final say. But not a place in the showpiece.
‘I got a dead calf in training,’ he reflects. ‘But because I was so desperate to get ready for the final, I started training too early. My calf wasn’t ready and it just ripped. I knew straight away.
‘I’m still gutted I missed out on the final, of course I am, but if I didn’t have that moment in the semi-final, I’d have been absolutely inconsolable.
‘It was such a deep gash in my
muscle, I’ve still got a trench in my calf.’
Raven felt part of the post-final celebrations in Inverness, even bringing out his guitar to serenade the crowd. Unsuccessfully lobbying the SFA for a medal was less joyous.
‘The disappointing thing was there were a couple of team-mates who hadn’t kicked a ball all year and were on the bench because I wasn’t,’ he says. ‘They probably took the medal, walked away and tossed it in the bin.
‘We had a little bit of a campaign with the SFA to try and get one (for those who missed the final). But rules are rules, so we didn’t get one — myself, Gary Warren, Dean Brill, Scott Kellacher.’
Raven was equally frustrated by how Inverness failed to build on their finest hour. He was still there when, two years after winning the cup, they were relegated to the Championship. The club has been stuck in the second tier since.
‘It does hurt me,’ he admits. ‘I’ve said before we’ve got a lot of responsibility for that.
‘I was part of the team that got the club relegated. For everything that went right in 2015, the list of what went wrong after is just as long — if not longer.
‘All the older lads were saying: “Come on, let’s push it forward”. Ryan Christie leaves, we get a few quid for him. Where’s that gone? Why can’t we get other players? All that sort of stuff.
‘You’d have to ask someone who knew the finances. But, for me, that was the time when we should have been kicking on and it just felt like we went backwards, which was sad.
‘The team we had should never have got relegated. But issues in football clubs spread into changing rooms.
‘I just hope now that this can be a springboard. The financial reward from getting to this final can hopefully help get them over the line in Championship next year.’
Billy Dodds’ side narrowly missed out on the play-offs this season, meaning a hunt for opponents to fill the month-long gap until the final. Winning on Saturday, then, would be an achievement to eclipse 2015.
‘I’ve seen how well this Inverness team can play, but you’re up against a different animal with this Celtic side — even compared to the one we played,’ recognises Raven.
‘Having said that, football is a mad game. Anything can happen. It’s going to be a tough, tough ask, but why not? You can dream, can’t you?’