JOIN US IN STIRLING FOR A NIGHT OF CELEBRATION FIND OUT MORE
Date: 10th June 2025
With the holiday season soon to be upon us, if you are looking for something to read in the plane and on the beach, this is a very readable, very enjoyable account of, as it says on the cover, “Football Stories of Great Games, Heroes and Villains.”
A running theme throughout is the list of “Cup Final Legends,” many of whom will be instantly recognisable (Maradona, Messi, Pele, Sir Stanley Matthews, Puskas, Di Stefano and the like). Others, will either be on the borders of your memory (Joe Mercer, Jim Montgomery, Jackie Milburn etc.), while some will have you questioning their inclusion, either because you’ve never heard of them (Charles Alcock, Walpole Vidal, Bert Turner et al) or because you wonder what they have done to deserve inclusion (Gareth Southgate and, somewhat bizarrely, Arthur Montford come into this latter category). However, when you read the pen-portraits of each individual, it’s obvious why they have been selected and it’s also made abundantly clear that there is a very good case for their being so. And the beauty of this book is that it shines a light on not just the stars of the author’s lifetime (he was seven in 1952 when he listened to the FA Cup final between Newcastle and Arsenal, which the Magpies won 1-0), but he also delves deep into the game’s history; for example, telling the tale of Morton (Monty) Peto Betts (1847-1914), who was the first ever goalscorer in an FA Cup final.
The chapters take us through a number of different themes. There is one called “Pilgrimage,” which traces a route from a game between New Salamis and Kensington & Ealing Borough in an extra preliminary qualifying round of the 2021-22 season FA Cup, following each winning team until it is eventually knocked out, up to the final where Liverpool defeated Chelsea on penalties. Other chapters look at, amongst other things, “Heroes and Glory,” “Villains,” and “Underdogs.”
That last chapter contains three of the four Scots to be categorised as “Legends.” They are Rose Reilly, the sine qua non of Scottish women’s football (and I can just hear her saying “what the **** does that mean!?), as well as Raith Rovers’ goalkeeper Scott Thompson, who saved the sixth penalty of the shoot-out in the League Cup final against Celtic in 1994 for the Rovers to win their first national trophy. The third Scottish “Legend” in this chapter is Arthur Montford. This is one of the things I really liked about Cliff Hague’s book; his willingness to include characters one would not normally associate with legendary status, at least in terms of Cup finals. Of course, Arthur’s catch-phrases – “Up go the heads,” and “what a stramash,” get a mention, as does a nice story about Alan Rough sharing sandwiches with disabled children behind his goal during a match.
The other Scot to get a mention as a “Legend” is Celtic’s Tommy Gemmell. This, you’ll perhaps not be surprised to learn given the rest of the book, is as much for his celebrated kicking of an Argentinian player in the gonads during the infamous Intercontinental Cup matches between the Lisbon Lions and Racing Club of Buenos Aires, as it is for Gemmell’s more obvious exploits on the pitch, including scoring in two European Cup finals.
The final Scottish mention comes in the Epilogue, where – after the heights of World, European, FA and other luminous finals, he describes “a real Cup final,” the contest for the 2024 Scottish Junior Cup, played at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld between Darvel and Arthurlie. Noting that the Scottish Junior Cup is the fifth oldest national trophy in the world, he tells us of a fan who came from the north-east of Scotland to see, “a good game…about playing with spirit and not rolling over screaming when tackled.”
I should declare an interest here. Although a life-long St Johnstone fan, I live 400 yards from Darvel. Consequently (even though I knew the score), it was a delight to read how the Vale, as Darvel are called, came from behind to win 2-1. It was the first time they had won the Junior Cup. I recall that the morning after, the town (much as it was after Darvel’s famous giant-killing act to end all giant-killing acts when they defeated Aberdeen in Darvel in the Scottish Cup), was rather quieter than usual. When asked prior to the match what a win would mean, fans of both clubs that day at Broadwood replied, “Everything.” And that – and a massive hangover – is what a Cup final means.
Alastair Blair, SFSA Director of Operations
Cup Finals is published by Pitch Publishing and is available from all the outlets at this link: https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/cup-finals
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: Book Review