As the 30th anniversary of Raith Rovers’ incredible League Cup final victory over Celtic approaches, hero goalie Scott Thomson has been talking about his shootout save against Hoops captain Paul McStay, which earned the first division underdogs a 6-5 spot kick victory after a 2-2 draw after extra time in front of 45,384 spectators at Ibrox Stadium.
Stevie Crawford gave the team an early 1-0 lead, but with six minutes remaining, Celtic’s Charlie Nicholas added to Andy Walker’s equalizer in the 32nd minute, putting them behind 2-1. Jimmy Nicholl’s shock troops sensationally tied the score two minutes later when Gordon Dalziel headed in after Hoops keeper Gordon Marshall mishandled Jason Dair’s initial attempt.
And, recounting the subsequent shootout, which gave Raith the only League Cup win in the club’s history, Thomson, 58, current goalkeeping coach of Premiership outfit Ross County, told the Fife Free Press: “The first two or three guys in a shootout are always recognised penalty takers and they feel quite confident.
“When it got to 5-5 onwards, it’s people who don’t really want to be there.
“I think the fact that Paul McStay, being the captain, was the sixth one, suggested that penalty kicks weren’t his forte.
“To be honest at that stage you’re just looking to make a save. I wasn’t thinking: ‘This is Paul McStay against me’ or anything like that, I was just thinking: ‘Right, what’s the chance of him doing this?’
“Generally I had a wee inkling that if you’re not confident on your right foot you tend to go to the goalkeeper’s right because you tend to caress it a little bit more rather than open up and ping it the other way.
“For me personally it was a great moment. But actually playing in the game – we were something like fifth in the first division when that match was played after not having a great start to the season – was just as good and just a great experience. Saving the penalty was my job and it was a brilliant day.
We got a lot of backing from a lot of people that day, it was crazy. The fact that final was at Ibrox, I think it turned the Rangers supporters to being well with us as well!
“Winning that game was a great feeling and qualified us for Europe as well. That was the icing on the cake.”
Raith’s six penalty scorers in the showpiece three decades ago were Shaun Dennis, Dair, current Rovers assistant manager Colin Cameron, Crawford, Stephen McAnespie and Jason Rowbotham.
Although Thomson admitted that he “never got close” to Celtic’s first four penalties – by Willie Falconer, John Collins, Walker and Paul Byrne – he admitted he should have stopped the next one by Mike Galloway.
He added: “I never got quite a strong enough hand on it and it went in. I decided I was going to go right for the first four penalties – I thought somebody was going to go right – but it never quite came off.
“Also, if I got the ball I used to keep it as long as I could, because it was a long walk from the halfway line for the taker.
The ball had some height on it, so they had to watch it come down as I gave it back to them as they were waiting to take the penalty. Even though that was certainly a load of bullshit, I think it might have made them uneasy. The late equalizer Dalziel scored in normal time is another key memory from Thomson’s ultimate victory. “Daz’s header seemed to be in slow motion because I think he took most of the pace out of the ball when big Marsh parried it,” the guy, who also won the first division title with Raith with over 100 games between 1993 and 1997, continued.
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