Well played Alan Stubbs

If you’re not fed up with Jose Mourinho telling the world just how great he is or Luis Van Gaal how many countries he’s won finals in then there is something wrong with you, especially if you saw Hibernian manager Alan Stubbs interview in the lead up to yesterday’s Scottish equivalent to our FA Cup.

By the way the Hibernian and Rangers match made the Crystal Palace and Manchester encounter look like you were watching a kiddies match, one where the Under-11s were a little short of ideas and ability. In a topsy-turvy affair in Glasgow, you could not go into your kitchen to put the kettle on, or in my case go into the fridge and get some ice for your vodka. I needed a drink after the first few minutes because I was going to bet the underdogs and they took the lead early on and history looked on the cards, as they had not won in their last ten finals, and not carried of the most famous, and oldest, domestic cup trophy in 112 years. Rangers struck back twice and their opponents looked cooked until the hit back twice to win in the final couple of minutes of extra-time. I can only think Alan Stubbs would have swapped places with me? Fantastic stuff, and compared to the so-called Wembley Showpiece, it was exhilarating, with the interview in mind, even more so! I was told about Stubbs by my former Seattle Sounders team-mate Roy Greaves who saw him play in is early days at Bolton, with Roy telling me he was going to be a “top player”. Well, he was not only a top player but Top Man, and the way he went through the preliminaries and post match, not forgetting the match itself, was something managers should watch and follow suit. He never even loosened his tie all through this pulsating and hectic football match, the kind that tugged your heartstrings. But if the match itself was special then his pre-match interview absolutely crushing. I was so looking forward to the English version, where I fancied Palace to get Van Gaal out of his job, but after watching the Scottish version, the match over the border turned Wembley into a complete anti-climax. Stubbs put everything into its rightful place by telling of two letters he received from people who had desperate stories about their children, one having lost theirs not so long ago. He spoke about something I know quite a lot about, how winning his battle with cancer has changed his complexion on life, although mine was a near fatal car smash. Yeah, and it showed on his face! Alan Stubbs was completely sincere and not at all melodramatic…. He wanted to win this match for those two women and promised his medal, if they won, to one of them (something they now should share, to raise funds for their cause, whatever makes them feel a little better… I thought ‘If there is anyone up there taking any notice, then here’s the time’. From there on in I was willing them on and with 15 minutes to go when time was running out I felt that his interview fell on deaf ears? All of a sudden they equalized and extra-time beckoned before an in-swinging corner found their captain lurking amongst several players and somehow the ball found his head and in turn found the back of Rangers net. Well, what was come was something seen in Rocky, or in my case, Sleepless in Seattle, a tear jerking Saturday afternoon, where football won the day with not a complaint about anything that happened in those fantastic 90 minutes. The difference in interviews was after the FA Cup several people involved saw this match a Wayne Rooney out it “A fantastic advert for the Premier League”, which had me thinking ‘Are footballers really thick?’ They obviously never tuned into the Scottish match and most certainly never saw an interview which meant something and for a change meant something. I was at the Old Trafford bomb scare last Sunday with my mate Terry Churchill and had to leave the ground without a ball being kicked and after watching Manchester United yesterday I think we were better off finding the nearest bar, or in our case our beautiful home for the night, The Rake Hotel, Tapas and Mediterranean Bar in Littleborough near Rochdale, where the host Mark did us proud. The perfect day would have been to have been at the Hibernian match shake hands with Alan Stubbs and invite him back to celebrate with us, even if to see him take his tie off and relax. Well Done to you and all of your players, for not only do we all love the underdog, but the team that deserves to win, and nobody deserved it more than you for many different reasons. How Fitting!