The 1981 cup final stars serving on the front line with NHS heroes
THIS coming Tuesday will mark the 39th anniversary of the last-ever Scottish Cup final to be replayed, with John Greig’s Rangers producing a vastly improved performance from the 0-0 draw in their initial meeting with Jim McLean’s Dundee United to claim the trophy with an emphatic 4-1 victory in front of 43,099 fans at Hampden.
Midfielder Bobby Russell and striker John MacDonald — inspired by a career-best display by winger Davie Cooper — put themselves in where it hurts to claim three of their side’s goals on that occasion.
Now, almost four decades on, the pair are still making a difference in the front line of the battle — this time in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
It’s hard to imagine some of today’s superannuated footballers needing to find work once their careers have concluded but Russell and MacDonald come from a generation when players didn’t earn much more than the people who came to see them.
Russell, signed as a 20-year-old from Shettleston Juniors by Jock Wallace in the summer of 1977 and immediately thrown into a first team which went on to complete a clean sweep of domestic honours, already knew what it was like to have a life outside of the game.
Consequently, he’s proud to play his part in helping to ease the suffering of others at this difficult time, with the Scottish Ambulance Service.
‘I’ve been driving for the PTS — the Patient Transport Service
— for a wee while now on a part-time basis,’ said the 63-year-old. ‘John does it full-time, while I do it part-time, although it has been getting a bit busier lately.
‘My role is to fill in whenever they need shifts covered. I’m part of what they call a bank of drivers who can be called on whenever we’re needed. I don’t have shifts that are set in concrete.
‘Essentially, it boils down to either taking a doctor out to see patients if they can’t get to a hospital for their appointment or, sometimes, to take the patient into hospital.
‘The majority of work we’re doing now is Covid-19 related.
We’ll take doctors out to check the patient’s symptoms and, when necessary, we’ll then take them to the hospital for a further examination and tests.
‘Do I wear protective equipment? No, the doctors have that, although they take it off when they get back in the vehicle. Our chances of being contaminated are very slim.
‘I’m happy to do it because it’s good to help out. Plus my wife says that it keeps me out of mischief!’
Playing a part in the fight against a life-threatening pandemic would, of course, have been unimaginable back on May 12, 1981 when Russell was collecting his third and final
Scottish Cup winners’ medal in a glittering career.
He happily concedes, though, that the evening belonged to the brilliance of Cooper, whom he later teamed up with again at Motherwell. Cooper enjoyed a tempestuous relationship with Greig, who struggled to get the best out of him.
He had been left out of the starting XI for the first game against United and it was clear from the start that night in the replay that he was in the mood to underline his credentials.
‘Davie and the manager didn’t always see eye to eye and Davie wasn’t too happy at having been left out,’ admitted midfielder Jim Bett, who also starred against United. ‘He probably felt he should have been playing and he was right.
‘When I was in the team, I didn’t like to see him coming back and trying to tackle or find the ball because he wasn’t any good at that. I liked to have Coop in front of me where I could find him and he was excellent that night: it was his final.’
Indeed it was. Cooper opened the scoring with an audacious chip over the advancing United goalkeeper Hamish McAlpine to break the deadlock after 10 minutes. From a free-kick 10 minutes later, he picked out Russell, who scored with a superb half-volley at the far post.
Davie Dodds pulled one back midway through the first half but Cooper then cut in from the right and drifted past two opponents before slicing open the United defence with an inch-perfect pass to provide MacDonald with a simple finish. The forward then repeated the feat from Ian Redford’s through ball in the 77th minute.
‘United were very difficult to break down, as we’d discovered on the Saturday,’ said Bett. ‘You need someone special against a team like that and Davie, who also had a point to prove, turned out to be it.
‘He could open things up for you and everything went right that night. When he was in that kind of form, it was almost impossible to stop him.’
Russell agrees with that assessment and, on reflection, is glad Rangers didn’t claim the cup at the first time of asking.
‘We should have done because I’d been brought down for a penalty in the last minute but Ian Redford’s effort was saved,’ he recalled.
‘However, if we had won it then, we wouldn’t have had Davie’s performance in the replay.
‘He was exceptional and it probably was his finest moment.
‘The sun was shining and it was a glorious night for football. Archie Macpherson, commentating for the BBC, said there had been more action in the opening five minutes than there had been in two hours on the Saturday. It was all-out attack.
‘Everyone’s head went up when we found out Davie was in the team. He was an entertainer who always wanted to be easy on the eye. In the position he played, it was hard to maintain that level on a consistent basis but, when he was on his game, wefeltwecouldbeatanyone.’