Historic victory in ’72 was still bittersweet for Brownlie
HIBERNIAN have, historically, been no strangers to long cup droughts in amongst the occasional storied success.
Their first League Cup victory 49 years ago — their first cup success since 1902 — was a case in point, though right-back John Brownlie believes they missed a great chance to create a prolonged period of high achievement in the wake of that Hampden victory over today’s opponents Celtic.
Managed by Leith legend Eddie Turnbull, part of the heralded Famous Five team which claimed three league titles between 1948 and 1952, Hibs saw off Jock Stein’s side 2-1 in front of 71,696 fans at the national stadium.
Brownlie, who won seven Scotland caps, believes that win should have been a springboard. Instead it became a trapdoor and he argues that Turnbull was, unwittingly, the architect of his own downfall.
‘We had a great group of players and we all got on well together, plus most of us were more or less local,’ claimed the 69-year-old, currently assistant manager at East Stirling. ‘Everyone respected everyone else and, when that happens, you work harder for each other. And that’s when you get success.
‘Eddie was a great manager, if not exactly a great PR man. As a coach, though, he was the best I ever worked with. ‘Training was always intense and he’d make us do the same drills again and again — attack v defence. It was hard work but it meant that we had a proper structure and everyone knew their job. He could spot a player, too. Eddie should have been jailed for theft because he signed Alan Gordon and Alex Edwards (from Dundee United and Dunfermline, respectively) for peanuts — and he paid Partick Thistle just £35,000 for Arthur Duncan.
‘But the best player in our side was our skipper, Pat Stanton, who scored the opening goal in that final early in the second half. He then made the second after an hour for Jimmy O’Rourke and also hit the post.
‘We’d been battered 6-1 by Celtic in the Scottish Cup final earlier that year but we were determined not to let that happen again. So we battened down the hatches and, although Kenny Dalglish pulled one back late on, we deserved the win.’
Turnbull and his players returned to Edinburgh on an open-top bus, with thousands of supporters braving the cold in Princes Street to cheer them.
‘It was an emotional day because it was the first major honour I’d won,’ added Brownlie. ‘At that age, I thought we could do that year after year — and maybe we could have, but the manager broke up that team far too early.
‘We had four top-three finishes in a row under him and came close to winning the league a couple of times. We were up against the best team in Celtic’s history but they were only slightly better than us.
‘Our starting XI more or less picked itself every week. But the boss was desperate to bring in Joe Harper from Everton and it changed the whole dynamic of the group.
‘We should have gone on to win more trophies but we didn’t.’