Whose Double is it Anyway?

Given how dominant Celtic and Rangers are of Scottish football, it almost seems a surprise that it’s been TWENTY TWO YEARS since we last had a Glasgow Derby Scottish Cup final. But this weekend we’ll get one, and someone is going to finish the season with a double.

In the green corner, the three in a row league champions will be looking to retain the trophy they won last June when they beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-1 and won their world record eighth treble in the process. Victory on Saturday would take them to 118 major honours (currently they sit with 1 European Cup, 54 league titles, 41 Scottish Cups and 21 League Cups), bringing them level with the number of major honours Rangers have claimed (1 European Cup Winners’ Cup, 55 league titles, 34 Scottish Cups and 28 League Cups).

Yeah, yeah, I know, 2012… look, regardless of how you see that, it’s undeniably the same set of fans and football without the fans is nothing as they say.

In the blue corner, Rangers already have the League Cup in their trophy cabinet and will be looking to add a second Scottish Cup in three seasons, having beaten Hearts 2-0 after extra time in 2022. Do that, and they’ll keep Celtic behind them in terms of major honours too (119 to 117). It would also replicate how things played out the last time Celtic faced Rangers in a Scottish Cup final!

Back in 2002, Celtic were runaway winners of the league, but when Dick Advocaat was replaced by Alex McLeish as Rangers manager midway through the season, his side beat Celtic in the semi final of the League Cup on their way to winning the trophy before the two met at Hampden in the showpiece finale to the season.

Despite Celtic twice taking the lead through John Hartson and Bobo Balde, Rangers twice pegged them back through Peter Lovenkrands and Barry Ferguson. As extra time loomed, Lovenkrands pounced to score a dramatic injury time winner and secure the cup double for Rangers.

That was the fifteenth time Celtic and Rangers have met in the final, which still seems not a lot when you consider they have 75 Scottish Cups between them across the 138 finals and 137 presentations.

Yeah, about 1909…

The fourth time the two sides met, no one was awarded the cup. After two draws between the two sides, and another money spinning replay being talked about, the fans of both sides had enough, joined forces in a somewhat unique manner and rioted against the establishment. The SFA fined both sides and withheld the cup – the only time that’s happened.

However it’s not the only time there’s been a riot at Hampden when Celtic and Rangers have met though, unfortunately.

You know how you can’t drink at football in Scotland? Well, you can, if you wear a suit, but that’s another discussion. Well back in 1980, Celtic’s George McCluskey scored the only goal of the cup final against Rangers in extra time. On a warm sunny day, with extra football being played and plenty of alcohol available, Celtic celebrating that victory didn’t go down too well. Alcohol has been banned in main sections of football stadiums ever since and that doesn’t look like coming back any time soon.

There have been some memorable finals between the two sides that are remembered for all the right reasons. Whilst Celtic beat Queen’s Park in 1892 to get their hands on the trophy for the first time, just four years after their founded and actually in their second cup final having lost to Third Lanark in their debut season, Rangers first triumph in 1894 actually came at the expense of Celtic.

Having lost in the final to Vale of Leven in both 1877 and 1879, it was third time lucky for Rangers as goals from Hugh McCreadie, John Barker and John McPherson gave them their first Scottish Cup triumph – the legendary Willie Maley, still a couple of years away from taking up the post of first manager of Celtic, got the Celtic goal that day.

Celtic won 2-0 in 1899 in the second final meeting between the sides, but the 1904 final was perhaps one of the most memorable there’s ever been. Not many players score Scottish Cup final hat tricks. Indeed, there’s only ever been four, and it hasn’t been done since Gordon Durie against Hearts in 1996. Dr John Smith of Queen’s Park was first to do it in 1881 against Dumbarton, whilst Dixie Deans is the only man in Scottish football history to score hat tricks in the finals of both the Scottish Cup in 1972 and the League Cup of 1974 – both against Hibernian!

Poor Joe Harper though, he also scored a hat trick in that final in 1974 and still lost. Kylian Mbappe should give him a call.

But none of those hat tricks were scored from 2-0 down! That’s what Jimmy Quinn did for Celtic in 1904, turning around the match after Finlay Speedie had scored both goals for Rangers.

The finals between the sides get rather sparse after that. The 1909 riot was the fourth meeting, but the fifth didn’t come for another nineteen years as Rangers won 4-0 in the 50th Scottish Cup final. It was also Rangers first victory in the competition for twenty five years, and came courtesy of a David Meiklejohn penalty and further goals from Bob McPhail and two from Sandy Archibald.

Celtic would match this high scoreline in 1969 as Billy McNeill, Bobby Lennox, George Connelly and Stevie Chalmers all but helped to end the Rangers career of some guy called Alex Ferguson. He did pretty well for himself in the end though.

Prior to that, Rangers won in both the 1963 and 1966 finals against Celtic, the former being a 3-1 win in a season probably more famous for an earlier round tie between Airdrie and Stranraer being postponed THIRTY THREE TIMES due to the weather. The latter, however, was the first real disappointment for Jock Stein at Celtic.

Having come to Celtic Park and won the Scottish Cup in 1965, that was then followed up by winning the League Cup the following season and so Celtic were going for their first ever treble. But the 1-0 win for Rangers in the replay courtesy of Kai Johansen after the initial game finished goalless ended that particular dream.

Celtic did go on to win the league a couple of weeks later, thus qualifying for the European Cup for the first time for season 1966/67 and… well, you know what happened next. Celtic got more than just a treble.

Speaking of European triumphs, Rangers Cup Winners’ Cup success in 1972 all started back in 1971 when they faced Celtic in the Scottish Cup final. The initial game was a 1-1 draw, but Celtic won the replay 2-1 thanks to goals from Harry Hood and Lou Macari and no thanks to a Jim Craig own goal! Despite defeat, Rangers qualified for the tournament they would go on and win courtesy of Celtic taking part in the European Cup yet again, of which they’d reach the semi final.

Ah the good old days before money ruined everything.

1973 saw Rangers beat Celtic 3-2 in a game similar to one we’ve talked about earlier. Celtic twice took the lead through Kenny Dalglish and George Connelly, only for Derek Parlane and Alfie Conn to equalise. Tom Forsyth was the Rangers winner that day.

Four years later though, Alfie Conn was in the Celtic side that beat Rangers 1-0 courtesy of an Andy Lynch penalty! There’s not many people have Scottish Cup winners medals with both Celtic and Rangers, let alone any other than Alfie that have winners medals with one having beaten the other to get them!

The only finals I haven’t mentioned here are a couple of 1-0 wins. First there was the one from 1989. The one that comes up any time Celtic fans accuse Rangers of having help from the referees. The one that was decided by a Joe Miller goal that all started because Celtic’s Roy Aitken took a Rangers throw in and the referee just decided to play on instead. Rangers did have several chances to prevent the goal between the throw in and the strike, but you just know VAR would have wiped that one out if it happened today!

And finally, there was 1999, where Rod Wallace clinched the treble for Rangers. Not too much else to say about that one!

How will this weekend’s final go? We’ll find out soon enough. Rangers haven’t managed to beat Celtic this season, but this would be the perfect time to do it and it’s not like the four league games weren’t close.

But it should also be noted that while one of the two men’s team are definitely going to finish with a double, Rangers particularly are also going for another kind of double this weekend. One that Celtic have already achieved.

Whilst the men face Celtic in their Scottish Cup final on Saturday, come Sunday attention will turn to the women.

After the heartbreak of being denied the league title thanks to Amy Gallacher’s late winner at Celtic Park last weekend, meaning that both the men’s and the women’s league titles are with Celtic, Rangers women will be hoping to pick themselves up and add the Scottish Cup to the League Cup they won earlier this year. Hearts are the team that stand in their way, and both are looking to win the trophy for the first time.

Rangers only lost twice in the league this season, but one of those two defeats was in April to Hearts, so whilst the latest game between the two was a 3-0 win for Rangers it’s not a foregone conclusion.

So we have Celtic going for a league and Scottish Cup double, Rangers going for a League and Scottish Cup double, Rangers women going for a League and Scottish Cup double, and Rangers men and women combined going for a League and Scottish Cup double double.

I think I need a double after writing that sentence…