This one holds fond memories for myself even though I was only 9 years old at the time. Living in South West Scotland as I did (and still do) even at that early age I was surrounded by the so called West Coast Bias. It seems a bit over the top, but being surrounded by Celtic & Rangers fans at that time off your impressionable youth can have an adverse effect on a child, as you've guessed my loathing of the Old Firm is insurmountable even to this day as I reach my Thirties. The fact we won the Cup against a strong Aberdeen side was very pleasing, but I didn't realise until much later how much of a milestone that game really was, the fact that it was our first major trophy in Scottish football passed me by as at a young age you don't worry about such major things.

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The following passage is an extract from Jim McLeans book: "Jousting with Giants". Aberdeen were formidable opposition, possibly even more formidable than either of the members of the Old Firm at that time. Certainly on the way to the final of the tournament the team, guided by Fergie, had beaten both Rangers and Celtic. We had an easier route to Hampden. We had met Airdrie in the first round and lost 2-1 in the first leg at Broomfield before winning the Tannadice return 2-0. Then against Queens Park we managed to win both matches, including a rare victory at Hampden when we won there 3-0. The next round saw us against Raith Rovers where we could only manage a draw at home 0-0 before scraping through by a header from Paul Hegarty at Stark's Park. Our luck in the draw continued when we were pulled out against Hamilton, my first ever senior team. That semi-final was played at East End Park and we won 6-2 to crash through to the final of the tournament for the first time in the clubs history.

We knew that Aberdeen, who were to go and take the title that season, would provide us with a tough test, the toughest around in that season. We had already played them in the Premier League and lost 3-1 to them on our own ground. If we needed any warning then that was surely enough. We went into that final as Underdogs and for long spells in the game that is how we played, Hampden, as I'll go into detail later, has that effect on our players.

The team I put out that afternoon at Hampden was: McAlpine, Stark, Kopel, Phillip, Hegarty. Narey, Bannon, Sturrock, Pettigrew, Holt & Payne. It was not good enough to win in the end but it was good enough to earn us another try at the trophy when the game was still finished level at 0-0 after extra time. View Picture. So it was on to a midweek replay at Dens Park, a venue which suited both teams. Neither of us wanted to force our fans to travel and we were convinced that playing the game at a neutral venue which would be more accessible for the supporters would benefit the attendance. We were proved right because at Hampden the game attracted 27,173 while in midweek at Dens we pulled in 28,933. I changed the team a little for that replay - George Fleming took over from Iain Phillip and Billy Kirkwood was used in place of Graham Payne.

We went in to that game with more confidence than we had shown at Hampden and an early goal from Willie Pettigrew might have had something to do with that. He scored the first goal after only quater of an hour and I knew then, I think, that we were on the way to that first so elusive trophy. Pettigrew scored the second after half time and then Paul Sturrock made the win completely convincing with a third goal before the end. It was a decisive win for us against a team who were to go and take the title.