Exclusive:Hibs cult hero in Scottish Cup admission as legend Logan makes 'didn't believe' claim amid Rangers title fight
Emergency arrival was semi-final star before Hibs ended 114 years of hurt at Hampden
Almost ten years on, and with nearly a decade’s worth of bona fide cult hero status under his belt, Conrad Logan can admit that he was slightly slow on the uptake. The importance, even the necessity, of Hibs ending their long, long wait for Scottish Cup glory was something he’d have to learn as he went along.
True, asked when he first heard about 1902 and all that, the larger-than-life former goalkeeper responds: “When I arrived at the airport in Edinburgh.” He can’t say he wasn’t warned.
But it took a good couple of weeks, following his arrival as an emergency signing in March of 2016, for the big man to really get it. Thanks, in part, to heartfelt cards and notes from neighbours eager to make their point.
The details of the Logan legend are well known to anyone with even a passing interest in Hibs. Signed specifically to cover for Mark Oxley’s Scottish Cup suspension, the Irishman saved two penalties in a shoot-out win over Dundee United in the semi-final; cue scenes, limbs, and the rest.
The fact that he hadn’t played a competitive game in 16 months, leading to a rather obvious lack of conditioning on the part of a hard-working professional desperate to prove his full recovery from a serious injury, merely added to the glory of his tale. If you can’t remember your first sight of an over-sized Logan during the warm-up at Hampden on semi-final day, well, you possibly weren’t there …
Logan: ‘I didn’t make a save in the final!’
He was, of course, brilliant on the day. And, although he jokes about not making a single save in the final, Logan earned all of the tributes, messages, gifts and personal visits he’s received from Hibs fans in the decade since his arrival in the capital.
Speaking to The Evening News after travelling north to make the semi-final draw for this season’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-finals, Logan revealed some of the lesser-known elements of his own personal path to hero status. Including his initial misconception over what really mattered to Hibs.
“It was only after the semi-final that I probably realised how much it meant to everyone, having this opportunity, just being told: ‘If you are the guys that lift the trophy, you're going to be heroes and legends …’ and all this sort of stuff,” he admitted. “And you're like: ‘Yeah, yeah …’ I wasn’t sure I got it right away.
“But I was staying in a flat near the training ground. There were cards and letters and everything posted under the door for a couple of weeks before the final.
“I'm thinking: ‘No-one even knows who I am.’ I'm just strolling in and out of training and cracking on.
Conrad Logan Supporters Clubs bearing gifts
“And you come back from the semi-final, open the door - and there were all these cards under there from people, obviously neighbours in the other apartments and so on. So yeah, you don't sort of realise how big it was until you're sort of involved in it. And then it was a short window of a couple of months and yeah, amazing times.
“But even after the final and even when I went back to England, there were people who drew pictures of me, or there were people who sent gifts. And then there’s been the supporters clubs.
“I’ve had Conrad Logan Hibs Supporters Clubs who have come to Rochdale and Mansfield and wherever. I’ve had presents of whisky, I've had God knows what, I've had everything.
“But that's just everyone wanting to say well done and how grateful they were for giving probably them the best days of their lives as Hibs fans.”
Asked when he was first told about the century-plus jinx that he’d agreed to take on in the one competition that mattered more than any other to Hibs fans, Logan said: “When I got picked up from the airport. Well, the second time.
“I think I trained for a couple of days. I went back down and they were sort of saying they were going to make a decision on if I was going to sign or not because I trained with the goalie coach.
“There was a break, Hibs didn’t have a game, so the gaffer wasn’t around. I was told to come back up on the Monday because the first team were back in training.
“So I got picked up at the airport. And immediately it was like: ‘Oh, you know, if we win this cup it'll be like the biggest thing ever …’
“And I'm thinking: ‘Like, surely getting promoted will probably be bigger than that.’ Because obviously we were in the Championship at the time.
“I was thinking we had a chance of doing the double, but surely being in the Premiership had to be the No. 1 goal. Or so I thought.
“People started telling me I just didn’t realise what the Scottish Cup meant, how long it had been. So that made sense.
“But I probably still didn’t believe it until after the semi-final, if I’m honest. Because I was thinking about the gap between us and Rangers in the league, which wasn’t massive, maybe the play-offs.
“I was honestly thinking: ‘Surely that has got to be the No. 1 goal.’ But, yeah, I was soon made to realise how important the Cup was.”
The post-triumph celebrations, which Logan cut short by flying south after the Sunday parade from the City Chambers to Leith Links, created memories to last a lifetime. And, amid the revelry, a moment of quiet vindication for a character who had effectively gambled on himself after a snapped Achilles’ tendon threatened to end his career.
“To be honest, it was a crazy period for me personally,” said Logan, who was 30 when he took a swing for the fences by signing that short-term deal with Hibs. “Obviously, being out injured for so long, I had to take some risks even to probably go to Hibs and sign myself off medically from Leicester.
“If anything would have happened, then it would have been on me. You might not end up playing again. So, there was a lot of risks taken even before coming up here.
“And then, yeah, coming up, training a little bit, then getting a short-term contract to the end of the season, probably thinking it was going to be for the semi-final game to sit on the bench and provide back-up. But, once you're in there and you're a professional …
“Listen, as much as I probably would have said that about playing back-up, if I come up and sign, I want to be playing. Do you know what I mean? And a couple of weeks in training was obviously enough to get the nod in the semi-final.
“That was just one of those games that you think: ‘I've been out for so long, what's the worst that can happen? Just go and trust yourself and see what happens.’ And it went okay. So, happy days. Yeah.
“It wasn't a decision you can make lightly, as you can imagine. I'd never been in that situation before. I'd always been injury-free and then I got hit with quite a big one.
“So, yeah, there's a lot to think about. But at that time of year, I was sort of contemplating my options.
“Do I wait until the end of the season and try and find somewhere the next summer? But then there's a lot of people going to be out of contract. Then you're fighting against players who have maybe played for a season. You're tossing everything around.
“But sometimes you've just got to take a chance and see how it goes. And touch wood, I didn’t have any injury issues again after that.”
Veteran still feels ‘pride’ in final win over Rangers
Logan was still listed as an active player until last year, which is a testament to his durability. Now aged 39, he’s joined former team-mate David Gray in becoming a manager, enjoying life – “It’s easier because we’re going well!” he jokes – with Anstey Nomads in the Northern Premier League.
Not surprised that Gray has become a gaffer, Logan keeps in occasional contact with the guys who ended 114 years of hurt for Hibs. It hardly needs saying that his brief contribution to the club remains a favourite spell in a long career that took him to 13 different clubs.
“I was only there for a small part of it,” he says of the whole Cup adventure, seeking to explain his own favoured status among supporters by saying: “Listen, there's probably many reasons. There was obviously the story, because of my injury and not playing and stuff like that.
“I mean, in the final, I don't think I made a save! It’s the semi-final that everyone remembers and, you know, it was just one of those days. The saves that I made were saves that I like to make.
“Yeah, saving penalties and stuff. You become the hero for giving them the chance to get to the final.
“But you look at Stokesy (Anthony Stokes) and David Gray doing what they did in the final. And everyone chipped in on it. It’s never one player, it’s a team sport.
“To be remembered for my part in it, yeah, it does give me a lot of pride. I've won things in my career and before and been part of good teams. But that was a big one.”