1988-05-14: Celtc 2-1 Dundee Utd, Scottish Cup Final

Match Pictures | Matches: 19871988 | 1987-1988 Pics

Celtic Seal Centenary Cup & League double

Trivia

  • Scottish Cup final
  • Celtic landed the Scottish Cup and League double for the first time since 1977.
  • Capped the Centenary season for the club in style.
  • Hundreds of red cards were handed out by people to wave at Thatcher during the game.
  • First Scottish Cup winner medals for Morris, Rogan, McCarthy, Whyte, McAvennie and Walker.
  • Margaret Thatcher (the then very unpopular Prime Minister) was at the game and presented the trophy to the winners (whoever thought that this was going to be a good idea?).

1988 SCF 1988-05-14: Celtc 2-1 Dundee Utd, Scottish Cup Final - The Celtic Wiki

Review

“I don’t think that I’ll be here in another 100 years time but I think these lads will be remembered. I’m delighted for them.”
Billy McNeill as Celtic sealed the Scottish Cup & league double in the centenary season (1988)

Difficult to begin to understand the atmosphere that surrounded this game. For the Celtic players, it was a chance to seal a memorable double for the club in our Centenary Season having wrapped up the league earlier on.

For Dundee Utd, it was a chance to finally break their hoodoo in the Scottish Cup having lost countless number of finals to date (inc the previous cup final in 1987 by St Mirren).

Despite being league winners, this was not going to be an easy game for Celtic, and Dundee Utd under the legendary Jim McLean were a very good and entertaining side with some quality players.

The stands were full and fans were paying over the odds just to get in. The whole place seemed to be just green, white and gold in the bright sunshine and possibly the best Celtic football festival you could imagine.

One note, Margaret Thatcher (then the very unpopular Prime Minister in the UK) accepted an invitation to be present at the Scottish Cup Final to present the trophy to the winners of the game. Which idiot’s idea was that? Anyhow, the reception for her as the announcer announced her presence over the tannoy was loud, raucous and very antagonistic (to put it all mildly). It was a ridiculous idea to have her at the match, and it was just trying to spoil the day for the two great sets of supporters.

The game kicked off, and the entertainment flowed with quite an equal first half. Dundee Utd scored first through Kevin Gallacher (ironically the grandson of Celtic legend Patsy) at the start of the second half after a fluff up by the goalie and defence.

Celtic then went all out on the attack, but to little avail and all seemed hopeless. BUT this was the season where we were famed for scraping out last minute victories! We had a record of them this season, and could we do something special again? McAvennie scored in the 76th minute to send the crowd into wild celebrations. 1-1…

Could we do it? Yes we could do it, and McAvennie (blessed rogue he is) scored in the last minute to give us the winner and send all into delirium and raptures.

Full-time, Celtic had sealed the double, and the emotions were high amongst the fans. To understand the level of emotion, take this quote from Tommy Burns:
“‘That’s what’s so special about them right there, Jim. Just right up there, that’s what’s so special about them. They’re there and they’re always there. And God bless every one of them'”

The pictures of the day clearly illustrate the joy and pride of the moment, and for many it was one of the finest days in their Celtic supporting lives.

Teams

Celtic
(3-4-3):
McKnight;
McCarthy, Aitken, Whyte (sub: Stark 70min);
Morris, McStay, Burns, Rogan;
Miller, McAvennie, Walker (sub: McGhee 70min).
Goals: McAvennie (76min) 1-1; McAvennie (90min) 2-1.

Dundee United
(4-3-3):
Thomson;
Bowman, Hegarty, Narey, Malpas;
McKinlay, McInally, Bannon;
Ferguson, Gallacher, Paatelainen (sub: Clark 71 min).
Goals: Gallacher (49 min) 0-1;

Referee: G B Smith (Edinburgh).
Attendance: 74,000

Goals :

Pre & Post Match Footage. STV.

Post Match Celebrations BBC.

Full Game

Quotes

“I don’t think that I’ll be here in another 100 years time but I think these lads will be remembered. I’m delighted for them.”
Billy McNeill as Celtic sealed the Scottish Cup & league double in the centenary season (1988)

‘That’s what’s so special about them right there, Jim. Just right up there, that’s what’s so special about them. They’re there and they’re always there. And God bless every one of them’
Tommy Burns, May 1988 (being interviewed as we just won the league and cup double in the Centenary year)

Pictures

Supporter Tales

1988-05-14: Celtc 2-1 Dundee Utd, Scottish Cup Final - The Celtic Wiki

Articles

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Late edition :

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Glasgow Herald 16th May 1988

1988-05-14: Celtc 2-1 Dundee Utd, Scottish Cup Final - The Celtic Wiki

1988 SCF Celtic 2-1 Dundee United
Evening Times 16th May 1988
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Football: Celtic rally to grab the double

Sunday Times, The (London, England)

May 15, 1988
Author: JASON TOMAS

Celtic …………..2 Dundee United …….1

CELTIC’S extraordinary capacity for rescuing seemingly lost causes surfaced again yesterday to help them clinch a centenary season League and Cup double.

United, beaten finalists last season, looked set for their first-ever Scottish Cup Final victory when Gallacher put them ahead just after halftime. Celtic, however, stepped up a gear or two, and eventually broke them with two McAvennie goals in the last 13 minutes. Celtic deserved their win, but it was hard not to feel sympathy for United.

Celtic suffered a pre-match blow when their experienced Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, Bonner, had to withdraw with a thigh injury. Considering that his 21-year-old deputy, McKnight, has had no more than 16 first-team appearances this season it was perhaps no surprise to see Celtic using three central defenders – with Atiken a sweeper – and United forcing the early pace.

United’s positive start almost brought them a goal after just three minutes, when Paatelainen’s header from a corner was hooked off the line by McStay.

Celtic, who had taken some time to find their rhythm, created an even better opportunity midway through the first half. McStay, involved in an intriguing battle for midfield supremacy against his marker, McInally, started the move with a delightful pass to McAvennie. But Miller’s header from the ensuing cross was poor and United’s defence, in disarray for the first time, were able to scramble the ball away.

Then at the other end Celtic owed much to McCarthy’s stirring intervention to stop Gallacher capitalising on a superb run and cross by Bannon.

Shortly before half-time, McCarthy got Celtic’s defence out of difficulties again with a solid challenge on Gallacher.

Gallacher, the grandson of the legendary Celtic player, Patsy, was luckier in the 49th minute when he put United ahead with a brilliant opportunist goal.

Celtic were caught stretched at the back as, from Bannon’s pass, he took the ball past Aitken and then, in full stride, struck it past McKnight from just inside the area.

But United had to live on their nerves and flair, inevitably set up their efforts for an equaliser. Celtic made a double substitution in the 70th minutes, bringing on Stark and McGhee for Whyte and Walker. The extra impetus it gave them enabled McAvennie to bring Celtic level in the 76th minute and then put them ahead in the last minute.


The Times (London)

May 16 1988, Monday

Football: Ghosts of finals past return to haunt United
Celtic ………… 2
Dundee United ….. 1

May has become the cruellest month for Dundee United. In 14 years five teams have made the journey from Tannadice to Hampden Park to find the salt of their sweat and tears mingled together as the Scottish Cup was paraded before the celebrating supporters of their opponents.

It may madden rather than control the Tayside players in the aftermath of their disappointment to hear that they were gunned down by opponents who were almost out of bullets. That, at least, is how Celtic’s matchwinner, Frank McAvennie, saw the victory which gave the Parkhead side a league and cup double for the eleventh time in their history.

‘It had gone right through the team that we had to finish the match in 90 minutes because we couldn’t handle extra time,’ McAvennie said, musing on Celtic’s phenomenal ability to approach the final minutes of a contest with the kind of energy others keep for the kick-off.

‘It has been a really hard season and we felt the effects of tiredness in the last couple of weeks after we wrapped up the league title. Even when we went a goal down on Saturday we knew we could make something happen and we also knew that if we scored one goal they would collapse.’

The sure knowledge that Celtic would produce waves of aggression in the closing stages haunted the imagination throughout the preliminaries until the finale was confirmed in the 64th minute. At that stage Dundee United were leading deservedly through a goal which came three minutes after the interval. The game had fallen into the pattern predicted by United sympathizers as they slapped at their opponents’ disarranged defence and when they won a free kick on the line McKinlay, an impressive newcomer in the Tayside ranks, pitched his cross perfectly for Bannon.

It is certainly possible that the United player was unsighted as he rose to meet the ball, otherwise he would have seen that the goal was vulnerable to a simple header. Instead he spun the ball down off the ground and watched in astonished dismay as it rose over the cross bar on the bounce. In hindsight it is clear that if that chance had been taken even Celtic should have found the match beyond redemption but instead the miss signalled the entrance of the ghost of finals past for United.

Celtic’s centenary script was perfectly written and flawlessly delivered. Ultimately this will be seen as a final in which strategy took second place to spirit.

Players from that game

Chris Morris: As a player, I had a good turn of pace, was a good passer and was strong mentally. I never knew when I was beaten. That latter quality was true of many Celtic players then and proved invaluable in our Scottish Cup run in 1988.

The win over Hearts in the semi-final, for example, was just unbelievable. We went through at the death.

The final against Dundee United was pretty close, too.

Kevin Gallacher put them in front and we came back as Frank McAvennie scored twice to land the trophy and secure the domestic double in our centenary season. But nobody could say we didn’t deserve to win that match.

I was the only player who took part in all of Celtic’s competitive matches in their centenary season – all 55 games. It is nice to have my own little place in the club’s history. This picture shows myself and Anton Rogan parading the trophy around the ground.

Billy McNeill was crucial to that success. I got on really well with him and enjoyed his company. He could also be absolutely charming. But, boy, was he a sore loser! I can remember him coming into the changing room after one defeat and kicking a boot. It bounced around the walls before landing squarely on Anton’s head.

7 Macca magic

Frank McAvennie: Billy Connolly did a sketch about Celtic at that time because we always left things so late.

He used to say to his friend:

“How long to go?” His friend would reply: “A couple of minutes.” And he would go:

“Och, plenty of time! I’m away for a coffee!”

We did have some dramatic results and none more so than in the semi-final and final of the Scottish Cup in 1988. We were losing 1-0 to Hearts in the first game with four minutes to go but went on to win 2-1.

Then, in the final against Dundee United, we were again losing 1-0 and managed to come back to win 2-1. I scored both of the goals in the final that secured us the double in our centenary season. This picture shows me saluting the fans afterwards.

The first strike came when Anton Rogan sent Tommy Burns down the wing. He played a ball into the box and Mark McGhee ran by in front of me. Paul Hegarty never spotted me coming in behind him and I got my foot to it and fired home. The winning goal came from a corner that Joe Miller ******. It only made it to the corner of the penalty box. Billy Stark put it through a couple of players, it came off somebody’s shin and fell to me. I just banged it into the net from close range. It looked good, so we said afterwards that we had worked on it.

8 No place for Pat

Pat Bonner: In the build-up to the Scottish Cup Final in 1988, I picked up a back injury which was later to require surgery.

But on the Tuesday before the match I was training and, as I started to jog, my calf seized up. Right up until the day of the match, I was uncertain if I would be fit to play.

On that Saturday morning, we were down at Seamill and I couldn’t stand up on my toes properly and had to admit defeat. It was a traumatic experience as that was a special match – we were going for the double and it was our centenary year.

Watching the game from the sidelines, I felt just like a fan. I actually quite enjoyed it, even though I would rather have been playing. In a way, I still felt I had contributed to the success we enjoyed.

Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher’s presence at the match was spoken about in Prime Minister’s question time with Alex Salmond (SNP leader & opposition MP) scoring a couple of points off Thatcher a couple of weeks later in Prime Minister’s Questions…

Q4. Mr. Salmond: “To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 June.”

The Prime Minister: “I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.”

Mr. Salmond: “Is the Prime Minister aware of the findings of last week’s Glasgow Herald opinion poll, which showed that the political effect in Scotland of her visit to the Scottish cup final and her epistle to the Caledonians was to increase Scottish National party support to its highest level for 10 years? Will the Prime Minister demonstrate her extensive knowledge of Scottish affairs by reminding the House of the names of the Moderator of the General Assembly, which she addressed, and the captain of Celtic, to whom she presented the cup?”

The Prime Minister: “I had a very good day in Scotland. Whatever the Hon. Gentleman tries to say, Scotland’s economy and people are benefiting enormously from the way in which the Government are handling them.”

Players were pressurised into meeting Thatcher

The Herald newspaper 13 Apr 2013 ALMOST exactly 25 years ago the Scottish Football Association braced itself for an afternoon which had the potential to plunge into one of excruciating embarrassment. The Prime Minister of the day was due at Hampden as guest of honour at the Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Dundee United. To suggest that the Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher was not a popular figure in Glasgow in 1988 is as controversial as opining that tomorrow might be Sunday. The leader of the Conservative and Unionist party was nearing the end of her 11-and-a-half years term, and Thatcherism was a creed which, as now, provoked deep divisions. Inviting her into the bearpit of Scotland’s national stadium, in front of a capacity 73,000 crowd largely drawn from the demographic which most despised the Prime Minister, seemed to be an act of breathtaking rashness. The morning of Saturday, May 24, was bright, warm and sunny, but what would the afternoon hold? While the build-up to the final had focused on Celtic, chasing the double in their centenary year, and a still-formidable Dundee United side, there was plenty of other news to keep the back pages busy. In this newspaper a youngish football writer with a full crop of hair called James Traynor started an article by stating: “One of these days there will be good news concerning Rangers.” That the same gentleman is now employed as a highly paid fire-fighter on Edmiston Drive is proof that there is nothing new under the sun. Or, in this case, the Herald. The same week, Edinburgh businessman David Murray stepped up his attempt to buy Ayr United by tabling an “astonishing” £1.25m offer. Closer scrutiny revealed it to be £500,000, with the balance being in the shape of a business strategy which was reported – perhaps generously – to be worth a further £750,000. Twelve months earlier the Prime Minister had been criticised for leaving Perth to attend the FA Cup final at Wembley. Somewhere in London a public relations genius decided she would grace Hampden the following year, but this actually played well with an SFA desperate to elevate the Scottish Cup final to the status of the London showcase. Thatcher being Thatcher, she did her best to crank up her unpopularity rating on the eve of the game. During a Scottish Conservative and Unionist rally in Perth she told the true blues: “The Scots invented Thatcherism long before I was thought of.” The Daily Record’s front page was all over the quote, describing it on the morning of the final as a spectacular own goal. Strangely, there hadn’t been much in the Scottish papers about Thatcher’s visit. But both Jim McInally and Andy Walker, who played in the final, recall that it had been the subject of much debate at Tannadice and Celtic Park. So much so that a compromise was agreed with the SFA: the players would be introduced to the Prime Minister, but not out on the pitch as is normal practice with a guest of honour. “The visit was pretty controversial,” confirms McInally, who played in the midfield for United and is now the manager of Peterhead. “We were under a bit of pressure from the SFA to meet her. Some of the players weren’t keen so the SFA asked if we would compromise by doing it inside the stadium. Jim McLean was as anti-Thatcher as anybody but he felt we should go with that.” According to McInally, the United players shook hands with the Prime Minister in the foyer. Andy Walker, now a Sky Sports pundit but then a Celtic striker, says he and most of his team-mates met Thatcher in a different location. “In the old Hampden you went in the front door and there was an old snooker room to the left,” he recalls. “We lined up in there and she came down to meet us.” “A few didn’t get involved and the one who refused point-blank was Mick McCarthy,” reports Walker. “He was from Barnsley and the son of a miner. Shaking hands with her was a no-no for Mick.” Before the game started Thatcher took her seat in the stand to a chorus of boos and protests. Many in the crowd brandished red cards. Derogatory chants ran round the ground. But that was the worst of it, and when an engrossing final got under way most of the crowd switched their attention to the pitch and Celtic’s dramatic late come-back to win the double in their centenary year. The SFA, and its then secretary Ernie Walker, were deemed to have escaped what could have developed into an ugly afternoon. The last word goes to McInally. “You didn’t need to be a politician to be horrified about what was happening in Scotland at the time,” he points out. “Scotland was getting a raw deal between the poll tax and other things that were going on. It was a bit of a no-brainer to feel the way many of the players did, but it was a massive cup-final for us and that was more important than anything else.”

Frank McAvennie retro (2019)

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/frank-mcavennie-says-neil-lennon-s-celtic-showing-spirit-of-1988-heroes-1-4906157

“In the final [against Dundee United] after we equalised there were 14 minutes left. I remember late on asking the referee how long was left now and he said: ‘just under a minute.’ Wee Joe [Miller] took the corner and after I scored it took me ten minutes to get back to the half-way line. I knew they would not be coming back from that.

“Going up to lift that Scottish Cup is probably why I’m here talking to you guys. It’s synonymous with the club and that year. There were about 74,000 fans in the old Hampden and 73,000 were Celtic fans. I’m not in the photos that are up at Celtic Park. I must have been doing an interview with you guys at that time. There’s a thousand photos but I’m not in any of them. I only scored the two goals…”