Scottish cup final

GORDON HUNTER is still lauded as Hibs footballing deity for the goal that ended five years of Edinburgh derby hell. From 1989 to 1994, Hunter played 22 Edinburgh derbies in which time the Easter Road side embarrassingly didn’t win a single one. Yet his career and life changed the moment he netted the winner in the all-capital clash on August, 27th 1994 in a 1-0 win against Hearts at Tynecastle. Hunter said: “I scored in the 23rd match after 22 games without a win, which I still cringe at because it went that long, it was embarrassing. “Michael O’Neill hit a corner, Dave Bowman got a touch and I ran off Neil Berry and fired the ball in at the back post. “It could have gone anywhere and seven goals in 400 appearances tells its own story. “It was just a massive relief and if you look at the pictures on TV and You Tube you can clearly see the relief. “Living in Edinburgh you were getting it all the time and people telling us how ridiculous it was, and I was delighted to get that goal – I think in 400 games it was about the only thing I ever did right at Easter Road. “It was total relief, a real weight of the shoulders, then I think we went on to beat them another two times that season. “To go 22 games without a win against Hearts was ridiculous and the length of the run was never really brought up in the Hibs dressing room. “It was just in the back of our minds I guess. Every single game we went out there to win and we gave them a right doing at times – but John Robertson would pop up to score the winner. “There were loads of games that were close, the only difference that day was that I was up for the corner. “I have a picture of my celebration, I ran right up to the away end and the steward grabbed me because you couldn’t go over the line. “After all these years that goal still gets talked about and it is what I am best remembered for.” Hunter insists all bets are off this afternoon, though, and years of Edinburgh derby history will be wiped out in seconds by the player fated to become a Hampden hero in the all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup Final. Hunter is aware a football legend in the truest sense of the word will be created. He said: “If Hibs win on Saturday everything else is wiped out – the 7-0 win against Hearts, the 6-2 game, everything. “The man who scores the winner on Saturday is a legend for life. I’d love to say it’s Hibs turn to win it but it has been 110 years. “It would mean everything to me if Hibs won. The fact I live and work in Edinburgh would make it even better. On the flip side, though, if Hearts won it would be even worse. “The buzz in Edinburgh is just unbelievable. It is a shame this doesn’t happen more often.” The barren Edinburgh derby run also coincided with the ‘Hands Off Hibs’ campaign in 1990 when former Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer came up with the ill-conceived notion to merge Hearts and Hibs. Hunter and some of his Hibs team-mates became active in the campaign that eventually saw Mercer back down. Hunter said: “I still wonder whether Wallace’s plans for a merger was ever really going to happen. “I’d never say it couldn’t have happened. But it just seems silly now.”