The 1957 Scottish League Cup Final was the final of the

1957–58 Scottish League Cup The 1957–58 Scottish League Cup was the 12th season of Scotland's second football knockout competition. The competition was won Celtic, who defeated Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role spec ...

. The

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

match was played on 19 October 1957 at

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

, in which

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

beat rivals Rangers in a record 7–1 victory. The final was nicknamed "Hampden in the Sun", a phrase coined by Celtic supporters as the title of a terrace song. It has since been used in other songs, poems and a book about the game. The 7–1 scoreline remains a record for a major domestic cup final in British football.

Overview

Celtic entered the final as holders, having beaten

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been m ...

after a replay in the previous year's Final. Rangers were the reigning league champions. The match was the 12th League Cup Final, and the first contested by the

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

. It was held at a sunny Hampden Park in Glasgow, at 2.45pm on the afternoon of 19 October 1957. Celtic attacked from the start, with shots hitting the post twice in the first twenty minutes. The first goal was scored by Sammy Wilson, from a

Charlie Tully Charles Patrick Tully (11 July 1924 – 27 July 1971) was a Northern Irish football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, Kick (football), kicking a Football (ball), ball to score a Goal (sport), goal. Unqu ...

cross on in the 22nd minute. Rangers defended for the remainder of the first half, however in the 44th minute

Neil Mochan Neil Mochan (6 April 1927 – 28 August 1994) was a Scottish professional footballer whose twenty-year playing career included periods in both the Scottish and English top divisions. Born in Carron, Stirlingshire, he attended St Francis RC Sc ...

scored a solo goal after a run down the left wing. Within eight minutes of the restart

Billy McPhail William Simeon McPhail (2 February 1928 – 4 April 2003) was a Scottish football player who played for Queen's Park, Clyde and Celtic. He scored three goals in Celtic's record 7–1 victory over Rangers in the 1957 Scottish League Cup Final. ...

scored Celtic's third goal with a header from a Bobby Collins cross. Rangers narrowed the margin five minutes later, a goal by Simpson, however it only served to reinvigorate the Celtic attack as McPhail, then Mochan scored their second goals. In the 80th minute, McPhail claimed his third, a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

of goals all scored with his head.Rej, Arindam
Veterans battle to prove brain damage link
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', 23 December 2004 As the game drew to a close violence flared in among the fans, but in the final minute McPhail was fouled in the Rangers'

penalty area The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it. With ...

. He declined the opportunity to score a fourth goal, a feat never achieved by a player in an

match, instead Willie Fernie took the kick. In addition to the seven goals, Celtic hit the

woodwork Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mater ...

four times. They were permitted to keep their jerseys as a souvenir of the day. Much of the blame for the poor defensive display by Rangers was attributed to centre back John Valentine, who had signed from Queen's Park earlier that season. Bobby Collins told ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, N ...

'' "I don't know if Valentine had no faith in George Niven or Niven had no faith in Valentine, but ultimately they had no faith in themselves, something you can sense very quickly on a football field, and inevitably the game became a rout." The victory, reported in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' as "a wonderful exhibition of football", and as an "October Revolution" by ''The Sunday Post'', was comprehensive. The scoreline remains a record in any major British football final, the record margin of victory in an official Old Firm game, and Rangers' record final defeat.

Match details

Teams

In song

In the summer of 1957, the motion picture '' Island in the Sun'' was released in Europe, featuring a title song by

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internati ...

. The song peaked in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in June and went on to become the 5th biggest selling single that yearChart Archive: 1950s singles
everyHit.com, retrieved 23 July 2007 Celtic fans composed alternative lyrics to the tune, and began to sing ''Hampden in the Sun'' at football matches to celebrate the victory. The song has since been recorded by artists such as ''Freedom's sons'' and regularly features on albums of Celtic football song. The phrase itself has become synonymous with the match, and has since been used in other songs and poems,Celtic Over All
by Charlie and the BhoysHoops bid farewell to hat-trick legend Billy, ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one ...

'', 6 April 2003 and is the title of a book about the 1957 final and the iconic status it achieved among the Celtic support.Burns, Peter & Woods, Pat (1998). ''Oh, Hampden in the Sun'', Mainstream Publishing,

Notes and references

External links

Soccerbase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish League Cup Final 1957 Scottish League Cup Final 1957 Scottish League Cup Final 1957

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...