When Saturday Comes
Wednesday, 14th Sep 2011For the visit of Hibernian all hospitality suites including the Rennie, Jock Stein Suite and Legends will be open from 11.00 a.m. this Saturday.
This Saturday sees the start of a sequence of three SPL matches that have been moved away from the traditional 3.00pm kick off time. The next Saturday kick off at that time is not until the home game against Hearts on 15th October!
For the visit of Hibernian all hospitality suites including the Rennie, Jock Stein Suite and Legends will be open from 11.00 a.m. this Saturday.
Guest of honour at this Saturday's game will be Bobby Kinloch. Now 76 years of age, he played in the Pars Scottish Cup winning run in 1967/68 after being signed as cover for the suspended Roy Barry. The Pars captain was handed a 14 day suspension for a sending off offence in December 1967 so counting him out of the Scottish Cup Quarter Final tie against Partick Thistle.
Kinloch had been released by Raith Rovers and was not cup tied so the 32 year old "utility player" went straight into George Farm's team. He had games against Clyde and against Rangers before seeing the Pars through to the Scottish Cup Semi Final with Bert Paton firing in the goal to secure the 1-0 win.
Kinloch played for Hibs as well and tells a story about how in February 1961 he was ordered to take a crucial penalty against Barcelona at Easter Road. He scored from the spot to clinch Hibs a 3-2 victory and send them into the last four of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup on a 7-6 aggregate.
German referee Johannes Malka's decision sparked fury among the Barcelona players and police were forced to take action to calm the explosive incident which became known as the 'Battle of Easter Road'. During a 13-minute delay the fracas Kinloch sat on the ball in the centre circle and was stunned when regular penalty taker Sammy Baird told him to take the kick.
Despite scepticism on the terracings about Kinloch as a penalty taker, he converted the penalty and his success earned the team their highest bonus of £90.
Many years later Kinloch relayed the story:
"Sammy was originally earmarked to take Hibs' penalties. The whole crowd and the players thought I would miss the penalty. Pat Stanton, who later captained Hibs, was in the crowd and he will verify that he was going mental as I ran up to hit it.
"Nobody expected me to score after so much time had elapsed and my priority was just to hit the back of the net. I couldn't really lose because if I had missed we would have drawn and if I scored I would be the hero.
"I did score and we won a European tie against the mighty Barcelona. We all got a £90 bonus for that one match - our highest ever. I remember getting a load of nice crisp new fivers in a brown envelope. Lawrie Reilly, who is a Hibs legend, only ever got a maximum of £20 a week."
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