Inside 'pandemonium' of Hibs Scottish Cup win + why Police hit boss with loaded f bomb amid jubilation

Hibs hero Alan Stubbs has pulled the curtain back on what was going on behind the scenes at the unforgettable 2016 Scottish Cup final.

The former Everton and Celtic player was the man in the dugout as Hibs beat Rangers 3-2 to end years of waiting to win Scotland’s premier knockout tournament. David Gray’s header sparked wild scenes and fans invaded the Hampden turf post match as joy spilled out onto the pitch.

Speaking on Undr the Cosh, Stubbs has lifted the lid on all that happened that day in May. He admits that the ultimate remit of the 15/16 season - getting out the Championship - was failed but cup competitions is where the team really thrived.

Hibs thrill in the cup

Stubbs said: “We'd had a really good season. When I say that, you know, we'd, ultimately we'd failed our major target, and that was promotion. Our number one target was we really had to try and get out of the league. Hibs, the size of the club they were, our budget was budgeted to get us out of the league. And ultimately we failed, but we'd got to the, and this was obviously as a Championship club, but we got to the league cup final, which we lost 2-1 against Ross County. And you can say it sounds like sour grapes, but it wasn't, we were by far the better team on the day.

“We made two individual mistakes and we got punished. Then we found ourselves up against Rangers in the Scottish Cup final. And we took the game to Rangers. And I'd like, I actually, because I was that much involved in the game, I'd lost track at the time. I didn't actually realise how late in the game it was before we equalised.

“Obviously Dave's popped up with the winner, literally, you know, with minutes to go. “And my last vivid moment of it was actually seeing Liam Henderson run to the referee. And I remember it like as if I could visibly see his lips and say, how long's left? And the referee turns to him and goes, ‘that's it, I'm about to blow the whistle.’ And Hendo, even though the game is still going on, Hendo just ran away to celebrate.

“So he's ran away to celebrate towards the fans. And I'm thinking, where's the f****** whistle? And literally five seconds later, he blows the whistle. And it's just then, it's pandemonium. Then after that, you know, I remember my assistant coming up to me, like, hugging me. Then he just makes a beeline for the fans at the far end. And all the staff and everyone are all running on. And the next minute, not just them, but the fans are on the pitch then. And it's just, it's great, but it's obviously crazy.”

Police anger

Stubbs had made the plea for a lap of honour after the scenes on the pitch, but an angry Police commander wasn’t having it, until a compromise could be met. The hero continued: “Obviously the scenes afterwards, I got pulled away very quickly from it because I got summoned more or less to meetings with the match commander. He was well p****** off with what, obviously what was going on. He was trying to get everything under control. And all I'm thinking about is like, get them off the pitch and let's do a lap of honour type of thing.

“So like, I've gone in and I said, well once you get it under control, I said, then can we go for a lap of honour? And he's looked at me as if like I had two heads and he's gone, ‘you ain't doing a f****** lap of honour today.

“And I go, oh, why not? Once you get under control. And he was obviously p***** off cause things had just gone t*** up for him. You know, he's lost control. If anything, I've got to be honest, they didn't envisage anything like that happening and they got caught out. And obviously that happened. We didn't get to do a lap of honor. But the thing that we agreed on was that the fans, once they got pushed back, is that they would stay there with the police forces and everything but then we would be able to go and get our medals and then we could do Sunshine and Leith.

“But we'd have to stay at the side of the pitch on the halfway line. And that's obviously the way it all panned out. It's incredible. I obviously think it's probably the best song anthem out there. Obviously people are going to say, you'll never walk alone, Liverpool's, which I'm not going to say. And I can see why people would say that. But Sunshine and Leith is something else. It was one of the moments where you just look at something and you go, wow. You know, it was a great day.”