How Hibs hero Rob Jones ended up going straight to hospital after 2007 League Cup final party

Hibs captain Rob Jones holds aloft the CIS Cup after the 5-1 win over Kilmarnock at Hampden on March 18, 2007. Pic: SNS

Jones captained the John Collins side that defeated Kilmarnock 5-1 in the Hampden final, opening the scoring with a trademark header to help Hibs on their way to a first major trophy in 16 years.

The towering centre-back had been carrying an injury and was scheduled to go for an operation the next morning, but that did not prevent him from taking full part in the celebrations that followed.

In fact, Jones, who made more than 100 appearances for Hibs, stayed up all night before making his way straight to surgery.

“I was having an operation on my toe the day after, so I left at six o’clock in the morning,” he told the Nothing But Football podcast. “We got blue-lighted all the way back from Glasgow to Edinburgh, which took 25 minutes when it was supposed to take an hour.

“The open top bus, the streets lined with 125,000 people apparently on Leith Walk, it’s just everything you envisage becomes true.

“There was a party at the ground, we went up to a friend's nightclub and I bowled out at six, went for a shower, got changed, got picked up by the specialist, went and had my toe done and then went home and slept.

“To go and win in the manner that we did, it was probably our most perfect performance of the season.

“Sunshine on Leith is so apparent and when you’ve got 32,000 people in the stadium singing that song, it’s spine-tingling really.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.