Hibs played Leicester City in a friendly on December 10th 1979. I believe we won 3-2 and George Best played..anyone got any other information about the match ? scorers, attendance etc. ?
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Hibs played Leicester City in a friendly on December 10th 1979. I believe we won 3-2 and George Best played..anyone got any other information about the match ? scorers, attendance etc. ?
We went, its a bit hazy through time and the drink we consumed that trip. I always thought we won 2-0 and Best never played?
I was at both but all i remember from the home game was coming out of Macs Bar (Mash Tun) Easter Road and a pagger with around 20 rangers fans who thought it was good to come through in support of their ex manager Jock Wallace.. I also a remember a few pint glasses getting thrown in their direction with one of them copping it bang on the forehead.
The game down in Filbert Street should never have went ahead due to the state of the icy pitch. Hibs won 2-0, i'm sure Jackie Mac scored the first very early and Best made his first start after his infamous disappearance.
Our bus did the same. Liberton Hibs.
I remember the bus dropping us outside the ground at around 2pm, there was a door open into the players lounge and no one inside. All the bottles of spirits didn't last long that were attached to the optics and programmes were nicked before they even went on sale. Two good Hibbies who had never been in trouble in their puff with Mick McGhee being one of them got a lie down for having stolen possession on them, yes the programmes.
I wonder if I have a programme for this....anyway I think there were more huns than that, my mate got a kicking off some of them outside the Nip. Leicester had a player called Derek Strickland who they signed from rangers and that seemed to add to the appeal for the orcs as well as Wallace.
Were the games not agreed as part of the deal that took Bobby Smith to Leicester?
A flange of West of Scotland FC Orcs came swaggering into the away section in the old stand lower enclosure singing about "Wan Joak Waallis" at the home game. Or should the collective noun for them be a Lodge of Orcs?
I was at both Leicester games . Tiny crowds at both with about 5000 ( including about 100 Huns in old South Enclosure ) at home game and about 2000 at away game including a couple of hundred Hibs fans at one end of whom about 20 were lifted at half time for supposed programme theft etc. . In home game we had Yugoslav goalie on trial / loan - he`d played in a 4 - 0 defeat in a friendly at Killie 2 days before . Can`t remember why we had no league game that weekend . Surprised to read that Best played as I thought debut at Paisley ( even with Best we lost so maybe yesterday wasn`t so bad ) and home debut v Jags had been just before Christmas . Pretty sure away game was one of the ones where he was supposed to have played but didn`t make it . We won 2 - 0 in Leicester ( our only away win except maybe bounce matches that season which should maybe be remembered when people consider Turnbull`s management record ) with Jackie Mcnamara scoring his first goal for Hibs ( remember him scoring at Ibrox in a SC tie a year or two after but he didn`t score many goals ). Away game was played on a pitch with thick layer of snow at a time when Leicester were famous for the balloon they put up to protect the pitch but didn`t use for that match . I went by train and remember Hibs team were on same train ( from Birmingham ) on way back but with sleeper beds while fans had seats .
According to the late Stewart Brown's book 'Hibernian Greats' Best made his debut for Hibs at St Mirren before his home debut a week later v Partick Thistle.
Brown writes: 'The Irishman then turned out in friendlies against Kilmarnock and Leicester but failed to appear for the next league game against Morton at Greenock. Tom Hart provided a cover story but was the start of his tantrums? Evidently not, for he shared in a 2-1 success over Rangers in the pre-Christmas match in which Tony Higgins and Colin Campbell scored, and he contributed a memorable goal in the drawn game with Celtic a fortnight later as 22,000 looked on.'
The balloon thing is fascinating..never heard about it before..here is a picture of it in action
http://www.footballsite.co.uk/Images...%20Balloon.jpg
and here is one of the players actually training underneath it !
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/ET043X/the-...ter-ET043X.jpg