[ritchiebaby]

I came back from Spain last night and had the pleasure of watching Hibs beat Rangers in the company of a lovely wee Spanish barmaid who kept me supplied with alcohol during the game - unfortunately I still had to pay. The match itself was full of end-to-end play and plenty of goalmouth incidents - just what Scottish football needs. Both defences left a lot to be desired and both teams weren't afraid to have a go, again a fine advert for the game. Of course, as a big occasion player, Anthony Stokes had a fine game and proved Alan Stubbs was right in signing him. The whole Hibs team gave it everything they had and ran out deserved winners in an exciting and tense game. Rangers had loads of possession, but as the Rangers fans on here enjoyed reminding us, you've got to score the goals to match that. Well, they didn't and 11 blue bottles shattered under the Hibs pressure. To score two goals in the last ten minutes against the runaway Championship winners, you've got to be special and Hibs skill, commitment and desire swept them aside.

After the final whistle, my emotions plummeted from delirious joy to disbelief and disgust in a matter of minutes. From the naivete of the thousands of ecstatic Hibs fans who invaded the pitch to the moronic thuggery of the tiny majority who intimidated and/or assaulted Rangers players and officials or caused damage to Hampden, I was horrified at the events unfolding in front of me. In one fell swoop, we allowed Rangers, of all teams, to take the moral high ground and give them a chance to twist the world-wide media coverage away from Hibs wonderful victory onto the after-match scenes.

Now, after all the years of fan trouble that have beset Rangers, they are getting pretty good at deflecting attention away from their own failings towards others. Witness the Rangers FC official statement, which complains that "BBC employees, in particular Stuart Cosgrove, believe Rod Petrie’s comments to be ‘balanced’ and others speak of a ‘minority’ of Hibernian supporters." Typically, Rangers FC cannot speak of a minority of Hibs supporters who had misbehaved. They like to give the impression that it was much worse than that.  I've read both Club's statements and the Hibs one seems to me to be perfectly balanced - http://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/news/6529 - but the Rangers one is the work of a bitter PR department.

My day was spoiled because all people wanted to talk about was these scenes and not the brilliant game of football. To be fair, Rangers made a large contribution to the game and their day was spoiled because their players did not have their medals presented to them in front of their fans and the decent Rangers fans did not get the chance to applaud their team. Hibs day was spoiled because the team did not get the chance to parade the newly presented Cup in front of their fans and the decent Hibs fans were also denied that pleasure.

I'll always remember the marvellous day that Hibs won the Scottish Cup and we should always take great delight in helping to put Rangers back where they belong - in second place behind Hibs!