Euro very good!
Cliché yes, but there are no easy games
by Pat Stanton
EUROPEAN
FOOTBALL will help move Alex McLeish's team up a level in terms of their individual and
collective abilities as playing against sides the quality of AEK Athens can only serve to
help players develop their game.
I'm really looking
forward to travelling to Greece with all the fans and I can tell you it will bring back a
good few memories for me. I played in a lot of ties and I think it helped make me a
better player. You face the same guys week in and week out in domestic football and
your game develops to meet that need but when you come up against some of these foreign
teams you have to develop that wee bit further.
My first
recollection of playing in Europe was when the Hibs met Valencia. In those days Hibs
seemed to be involved in Europe on a regular basis and it was an education in itself as
Spanish football was of the highest quality in those days but I learned from the
experience and, like I say, it made me a better player I reckon.
Its great for the
supporters too because over the years they've had the chance to see players they might
only have read about otherwise. Puskas and Gento of Real, although that was only a
friendly, Altafini, Zoff, Seeler, Bremner, Toshack - all great players. As a player
you can't help but flourish against that kind of quality of opposition.
AEK will be a real
test as they seem to be a good team which is why I'm happy the first game is away from
home. If we go there and keep our concentration we'll do OK. I've seen
occasions in the past when everything seems to be going along fine and then suddenly the
concentration drops and you're in trouble.
In 72/73 we were
giving Hadjuk Split a pasting and then lost two late goals at Easter Road. We went
to Yugoslavia with a 4 - 2 advantage, didn't play on the night and lost 3 - 0 to go out
when an aggragate win would have put us in the quarter-finals. That was a real
disappointment but it highlighted best the need to stay focused over the whole 90 minutes
of each leg.
European goal scorer
last time out (sns)
You need a bit of
luck too in these situations and a couple of times our luck was out was when we played
Hamburg in 68/69 and Leeds the season before. Against Hamburg, who had Uwe Seeler
and Willie Shultz in their team, we lost 1 - 0 in Germany and then beat them at Easter
Road 2 - 1. We went out on the away goals rule but we had two good goals chalked off
that night. The Hamburg keeper was wearing a green jersey and I reckon the linesman
gave offside when it wasn't a Hibs player.
The Hamburg game
brings back memories of their winger whose name was Dorfil. We'd studied pictures of
their team so's we'd know who we were marking and so on but when they ran onto the pitch
this guy was totally bald. Turns out he wore a wig when he wasn't playing and so
nobody knew who he was from the team photo!!
In the Leeds tie -
and they were a superb side in those days - we lost 1 - 0 at Elland Road but had pulled it
back to 1 - 1 on aggregate at Easter Road when the Referee penalised our keeper Willie
Wilson for breaking the four steps rule. Willie was actually nudged into that extra
step by a Leeds forward and he was unlucky because no Scottish Referee ever paid heed to
the 'fifth step' but Leeds equalised from the free kick and we were out.
We've all heard
tales of hosts making life awkward for visitors to try and gain some advantage but I've
never really encountered anything like that. When we played FC Besa of Albania in
72/73 that was a bit strange because in Tirana there was hardly any cars! The
streets were full of horses and carts and our Coach got to the stadium in record time!
They were good hosts though and had laid out food in the dressing rooms for us
before the game!
In the previous
round they'd played some team in Copenhagen so I don't know what they would have made of
that City or even how they got them all to come back to Albania! In our hotel in
Tirana none of the toilets would flush and one of our Directors, Jimmy Kerr, had to call
on his skills as a time served plumber! He was our best player on that trip!
Mostly, Clubs are
very hospitable to each other. When we met Guimares of Portugal our Chairman Tom
Hart put on a special Burns Night type evening at the old North British Hotel in Princes
Street. Thet were over the moon and treated us like royalty in the return leg even
though we beat them 3 - 2 on aggregate!
You see some lovely
Cities and some impressive stadiums. Valencia was nice, Naples, Porto and I'm sure
Athens will be equally nice. I loved Lisbon and I'd say that although we lost over
there by 2 - 1, that was the best Hibs team I ever played in that night. Arthur
Duncan scored our goal late in the game but we could have won it with a little more luck.
Of course we demolished them 6 - 1 in the second leg at Easter Road so all's well
that ends well!
Brussels was great
last time out and Darren Jackson's equaliser over there had me jumping whilst the
performance of the fans on the night brought a real lump to my throat so I'm looking
forward to similar experiences this time around.
Like I say, there
are no easy games in Europe and AEK will be a real test for Alex and the boys but I'm
delighted I'm going to be there to cheer them on and I'm looking forward to the trip and
to meeting you all. Be sure to come up and say hello during that flight to Athens!
Until next time
..........
Pat |
