The Scottish Cup is over for another year, with this ending for Rangers in a defeat after the final against Hibernian at Hampden Park on Saturday.
Rangers had recovered from the disappointment of an early setback to lead, a late goal had the match set for extra time until Hibs turned it around to win it three-two deep into injury-time, which denied us a domestic treble.
This defeat (obviously disappointment in itself), which would have been another draw to those potentially arriving at Ibrox this summer, also denied us a Europa League qualification place upon our return to the topflight….
Hibs were on fire in the opening minutes, which carried on for the majority of the first half of the opening half in fairness, with this blistering start seeing Celtic loanee Anthony Stokes opening the scoring on three-minutes as he drove past James Tavernier and into the box beating Wes Foderingham from an angle the ‘keeper will probably be disappointed by?
The Rangers defence was coming under pressure, Hibs pilled on the pressure with Stokes and Jason Cummings a constant threat coming forward and causing plenty of problems to Tavernier and Rob Kiernan, in particular.
Rangers eventually found a foothold and started to grow into the match when out of nothing the game was level!
Foderingham launched the ball forward, this was won by Kenny Miller (who worked tirelessly throughout for the Gers) with Barrie McKay going forward to Tavernier who sent in a fine cross that saw our Player of the Year last season Darren McGregor out-jumped with a bullet header from Miller having Rangers level on 27-minutes.
Stokes immediately threatened to restore the Hibs lead with Foderingham beaten from some 25-yard but his strike came back off the post this time with Miller then winning another ball into the box, sending a head goalbound that beat Hibs ‘keeper Conrad Logan again but this too came back off the frame of the post, hitting the crossbar!
With 64-minutes played Andy Halliday then had Rangers ahead, a stunning strike from 25-yards seemed a worthy winner, which a strike of that quality most definitely would have been.
Hibs needed a response this time and they got it with substitute Liam Henderson’s corner into Stokes seeing him get the better of Tavernier to power in a header on 80-minutes.
Another Henderson corner in injury-time saw the Rangers defensive frailties exposed again when David Gray headed in a dramatic in injury-time winner for Hibs to see them win the Scottish Cup for the first time in 114-years and deny us further success….
Disgraceful scenes at full time showed the ugly side of football, which no one wants to see these days with this resulting in the awarding of the runners up medals to the Rangers players taking place in the dressing room.
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