WILL CLARK - Reporting Scottish Cup final was best day of my career
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Before two months ago, I thought the days of Inverness Caledonian Thistle reaching the Scottish Cup final were a long way away from ever happening again.
However, alongside my colleague and housewives’ favourite Andrew Henderson, I found myself behind the wheel heading down the A9 for the biggest game of my career.
Even bigger than when I covered Wick Academy beating Nairn County 6-2 in the 2015 North of Scotland Cup final for the John O’Groat Journal.
I was still infuriated that the kick-off time had been switched to 5.30pm.
But despite the transport issues with the buses and trains the time caused, although additional services were commendably arranged, I thought using the company’s pool car, aka the Batmobile, would get us down there with no problem at all.
Leaving at noon, we thought that we would arrive at 3pm. But due to major roadworks at Perth, resulting in us arriving at Hampden at peak traffic, we eventually got into the car park at 5pm.
However, we still arrived in time to do our jobs properly and take our seats for what potentially could have been a historic day.
Hampden had 47,247 fans in the ground that day, and it was fair to say 85 per cent of fans were cheering on Celtic.
But the Inverness Caledonian Thistle fans made themselves heard too, whether singing their own songs or unleashing a viking thunderclap, they were determined to be part of the occasion and not just the sideshow.
And so did the players, for all the talk and predictions of a one-sided record scoreline, Inverness put in a stubborn performance which won a lot of admiration from the opposition.
Chances were always going to be few and far between for Inverness.
They were taking on the best team in Scotland who had beaten Dundee United 9-0 earlier in the season as well as delivered thrashings to other Premiership clubs.
But Inverness were determined to make Celtic work hard if they wanted the trophy.
And for the majority of the first half, they did just that.
Wallace Duffy, not normally considered a first team regular, was Caley Thistle’s best player on the park.
A surprise starter at right back, as David Carson was pushed into midfield at the expense of Daniel MacKay who was on the bench, it proved to be a wise decision.
Not just in defence, but he was the thrust of the Inverness attack.
He gave Nathan Shaw a golden chance to score at only 1-0 down, when his cross was inches away from the foot of his teammate at the edge of the six-yard box.
But at 2-0 down with eight minutes left, he delivered hope.
Another outstanding cross from the right wing found the diving header of Daniel MacKay who nodded past Joe Hart, and all of a sudden, fans started thinking the impossible might be possible.
Jota’s injury time goal deservedly sealed the trophy for Celtic, but Inverness showed they were no pushovers, which was a victory in itself.
Saturday was probably the best day of my career in my 18 years in journalism, and I thank Inverness for creating that opportunity for me to be able to report on a Scottish Cup final.
Hopefully, they can create more days like that in the future.
