[HerefordBull]

This should have been a glorious celebration for all of Hibs fans, players and staff but unfortunately it has been completely tarnished by the whole pitch invasion, fighting, "abuse" of players and/or officials and the damage caused to the grass and goalposts!!!  I listened to Stubbs interview in the tunnel right after the game and you could hear the disappointment in his voice rather than the excitement and joy of the what was achieved on the pitch by the team.  I know none of you are condoning anything that happened but there has to be punishment of Hibs and a lot of outside shame because of these events.

No shame here SCO......I didn't go on the pitch but can understand why many did. 99.9% were on there to soak up the moment and you have had to have been a Hibs fan to understand the feeling about the Scottish Cup and what it meant to win it. I doubt there is another club in the World ( with the exception of the Chicago Cubs , but even they have only been waiting since 1908  ) where winning a trophy would produce such emotion. In all my years of watching football, including many top games with Villa ( winning the European cup in Holland) and even Hereford ( one memorable trip to City Ground, Nottingham for an FA Cup tie when they were top flight) I have never experienced emotion and atmosphere like I did on Saturday. The best footballing occasion of my life and it shows, despite the standard of football you don't need the greatest players in the World at the best venues to produce the best football experiences.

What I witnessed after the game was huge enjoyment and emotion from the vast majority, yes they shouldn't have been there, yes they shouldn't have damaged the goalposts or dug up the pitch.

If you look after 5 to 6 minutes of the invasion 90% + are still in the Hibs half, none of this press reporting about all the Hibs fans rushing up the other end to fight their fans. A very small bunch of mindless idiots did go up there......majority with no colours on to have a rammy with gers fans where again many didn't wear colours    ..... the vast majority of their fans stayed in their seats or went to the exits. We were seated near the halfway line where the segregation barrier down the middle is and at no time was there any hostility between the 2 sets of fans and no throwing of items etc or if there had been real intent trying to scale the barrier to get at each other.

Yes Hibs should be punished but there also needs to be balanced reporting and trying not to make stories where there aren't any. Yes jostling their players was also wrong but if you look at the videos you will see other Hibs fans dragging the culprits away as they knew it was wrong and most of their players were allowed to walk off OK.......some reporting saying that some of their players received a good kicking   and all 11 players were injured  ......there is a shameful piece of footage showing a Hibs fan approaching Kenny Miller walking off untouched and.........shaking his hand. I really hope Hibs come down hard on him    .  There was a photo in yesterdays "I" newspaper showing a Gers fan out on the ground with Hibs around ( with colours) and a small lad in a Hibs shirt.........what they failed to show or say was moments before the Rangers fan had picked up the little lad and was turning as if to abduct him back towards the Rangers end.....the Hibs had become incensed at that and sparked the fight. Prior to this the lad and his family had just been enjoying the occasion unaware of the impending moron approaching. I'm sure if someone threatened your family you would have reacted in a similar manner?

The problem they had was that they were defending the end where the Hibs fans were coming from at the final whistle so unfortunately got caught up in all the exuberance. Look at the Millwall v Bradford play off game where all the Millwall fans came on the pitch at the end in excitement.....they gave the Bradford players a hard time and went down to taunt the Bradford fans but everything had been thought out by the authorities and police and there was not any violence. Motherwell got in trouble last year at the end of their play off game with Rangers when their fans staged a pitch invasion and the SFA blamed 'well for not having proper procedures in place.....at the end of the day the SFA underestimated the effect of a Hibs win and they will have to fine themselves for not having proper procedures in place 

So I will say again, we were wrong and should be punished but feeling shame.....NO.......I'm so PROUD to be a Hibby, greatest feeling in the World.

As SoL goes .....THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

GGTTHH