2011 – The Scottish Sun

ALAN ROUGH sat upstairs on the No11a Glasgow Corporation bus, surrounded by Celtic fans as he started the first part of his journey to Hampden — and the game of his life.

Nobody recognised the tall teenager making the short trip from his home in Knightswood to Anniesland Cross as he listened to the supporters happily forecast how many goals Jock Stein's side would sweep past Partick Thistle in that afternoon's Scottish League Cup Final.
Rough wouldn't go unrecognised for long. He went on to play in goal 53 times for Scotland, including three World Cups, and 624 times for Thistle before finally hanging up his gloves after a long career and taking up the mic as a pundit on Real Radio.
Yet he could just as easily have been one of those fans. His bedroom in his parents' Glasgow home was decorated with Celtic team pictures, a Celtic rosette, a Celtic scarf and even a Celtic tea mug!
He recalled: "Yes, I did support Celtic as a kid but I never went to see them because I was always playing football."
In his bag on the bus the already superstitious 19-year-old had a collection of trinkets, including seven pieces of chewing gum — three for the first half and four for the second, 'because Thistle are always under more pressure in the second'.
The build-up to the big day had a wacky start for Roughie, in keeping with the zany approach that made Partick Thistle special.
He coached his local Boys' Brigade team, the 237th Glasgow, and that very morning had stood on a windy touchline at Knightswood Park watching them win 3-2.
Rough looked back to that day — 40 years ago tomorrow — and grinned: "It just wouldn't happen today. Can you imagine before such a big game any player taking in a kids' match and then getting a bus to join their mates for the pre-match meal?"
As Celtic relaxed at their Seamill HQ on the Ayrshire coast, cash-strapped Thistle could only afford a big-game lunch at Esquire House, an Anniesland restaurant owned by the Reid family, the Firhill side's controlling shareholder.
It wasn't the only contrast the afternoon of that League Cup Final, when 62,470 fans were to watch history unfold.
It had been billed as the most one-sided final in modern history. The average age of the Thistle players was only 22. Manager Dave McParland had stepped up from the dressing-room and was just 36.
They looked more famous for their fashion than their football, with their early 70s uniform of wide-lapelled jackets, kipper ties, flared trousers and long hair.
The bookies wrote them off and even Sam Leitch — the Des Lynam of his day — dismissed them on his match preview on the BBC's lunchtime Grandstand as having 'no chance', words which came back to haunt him post-match as the irate letters from Firhill fans poured into the Beeb.
Unknown to the experts, the Jags players had been wound up before the game when Celtic's Lou Macari dismissively told Thistle icon Denis McQuade in the tunnel: "At least you'll get a runners-up medal."
McQuade collected more than that. He also scored the third in the 4-1 Thistle win that turned into a football earthquake.
Rough maintains it was the biggest upset of them all: "We beat them in a national Cup Final. To my mind that was a greater achievement than Berwick beating Rangers or Inverness putting Celtic out the Cup.
"Remember, this was a Celtic side at the peak of their powers. They went on to win the League and Cup double and reach the semi-final of the European Cup."
Stein's side had four of his Lisbon Lions — Tommy Gemmell, Bobby Murdoch, Jimmy Johnstone and sub Jim Craig — and in Davie Hay, George Connelly, Kenny Dalglish and Lou Macari four of his Quality Street Gang, the kids groomed to take over.
But crucially Celtic were missing injured skipper Billy McNeill, and minus their penalty-box field-marshal their central defence was shredded an incredible four times in the first 36 minutes. You can watch on the web the torment of Celtic's rear-guard as Thistle skipper Alex Rae opens the scoring with a lob after 10 minutes.

My neighbour in the press-box high above the Hampden main stand turned to me and said: "At least it makes a game of it."
It certainly did. Winger Bobby Lawrie cut in from the left to notch the second five minutes later then Johnstone went off injured in 20 minutes and had to be replaced by Craig, with Hay moving from right-back into midfield.
But it didn't stem the tide. McQuade popped up in the middle to grab the third in 28 minutes and striker Jimmy Bone applied the final knockout eight minutes later.
Bone, now working for the SFA as development officer at schools in Dundee and Methil, remembers how he turned up for the final without any sleep.
He said: "I was a part-timer with Thistle.
"My other job was as an electrician down the pit at Fallin, the Stirlingshire village where I was brought up.
"I was due to be on the night shift on the Friday evening but the foreman looked after me and got me a change otherwise I'd have had to go straight from the pit to Hampden."
Bone still vividly remembers his glory moment that day at Hampden.
He said: "The ball came across from a free-kick on the right and I started to move. I found to my amazement none of the Celtic defenders went with me and I had the freedom of Hampden.
"I knew I was going to get the ball but I was conscious that I must make sure I didn't balloon it over the bar so I actually hit it in with the sole of my boot, just to be sure I kept it low."
Bone recalls he was on £40-a-week at Thistle and the bonus for the greatest result in the Maryhill club's history was £300.
He added: "It doesn't seem much today although it was quite a sum then. Still, it wasn't gigantic.
"I reckon the directors must have thought they would never have to pay it because we weren't expected to win.
"I've never known a dressing-room like ours at half-time, we just couldn't believe the score, we were in dreamland.
"We expected an all-out Celtic blitz. Their team of that time was well capable of banging in five but although they did put us under a bit of pressure and Kenny Dalglish scored, they never looked like turning the game around."
Rough claims the victory was partly due to youthful exuberance. He said: "We were a team of rookies starting out on our careers and we were too young to know fear."
But it wasn't all down to kids' stuff. Of that side, Rough, John Hansen, Alex Forsyth, Ronnie Glavin, Bone and McQuade went on to play for Scotland — and Rough, Glavin, Bone and sub Johnny Gibson later signed for Celtic.
Manager McParland was appointed Stein's assistant at Parkhead in 1975.
Rough was nearly sold to Hull City the week after the Hampden triumph. Tommy Docherty co-managed the English club and Scotland at the time and he and Terry Neill turned up at Firhill to make a £50,000 bid for the keeper which Thistle turned down.
Roughie revealed: "I wasn't bothered, I was quite happy where I was. It might have been different if I had realised it would be another 11 years before I did leave Thistle, when I signed for Hibs."
Not even their League Cup success could transform Thistle's image as the great unpredictables. They turned in a respectable no-scoring draw against Dundee at Dens Park that midweek then were crushed 7-2 by Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Rough confesses: "We had done a lot of bevvying that week, I guess it just caught up with us."
Only a month later Celtic visited Firhill and crushed Thistle 5-1 — but few remember that score now, for nothing could dim the Hampden result.

CELTIC: Williams, Hay, Gemmell, Murdoch, Connelly, Brogan, Johnstone (Craig), Dalglish, Hood, Callaghan, Macari.

PARTICK THISTLE: Rough, Hansen, Forsyth, Glavin (Gibson), Campbell, Strachan, McQuade, Coulston, Bone, Rae, Lawrie.

Referee: Bill Mullan, Dalkeith.