Jason Thomson, the Raith Rovers captain, has joined an exclusive group of select individuals who will never have to buy a drink again in Kirkcaldy, becoming one of the club's greats after captaining them to a famous win over Rangers.
The SPFL Championship club stunned Scottish football by winning the Ramsdens Cup with a goal from John Baird deep into extra time at Easter Road on Sunday against a team with a wage bill that could probably buy most of the Fife town.
The theme emanating from the Rovers dressing room after this famous victory was the motivating boost they received by learning that pundits and bookmakers had written their club off. After all, it was Rangers they were playing. It turned out, though, that it was nothing like the Rangers of old.
Thomson and his team-mates insisted they always fancied their chances and the image of the grinning captain holding aloft the trophy will go up there alongside their famous League Cup final winning display against Celtic in 1994 and the taking of the lead in Bayern Munich's Olympic Stadium in a UEFA Cup tie. The famous 'FC Bayern/Raith Rovers FC/0-1' giant scoreboard picture will have competition in the Stark's Park side's greatest ever moments.
"It will be right up there and personally for myself, it's a great honour to be the captain of this club and win a trophy," admitted Thomson. "So it's alongside with 1994 and some of us will go down in the history books and the likes of me and Gordon Dalziel can say we have lifted a trophy for the club, so that's a great honour.
"There was a lot of talk about how Rangers were favourites, but we thought we could put in a performance and get a result, which we did.
"Lee Robinson's had a couple of good saves to make, but you would always expect your goalie to make a few decent saves in any cup final and especially against Rangers. So he did great for us to keep us in the game and we pushed on and got the win.
"It was a one-off game and we knew this season going into one-off games, like in the Scottish Cup against Hibs, that we can do it for games like that. And I think we showed it again here. They had a couple of chances and we didn't maybe have as many, but we got the only goal of the game and that's all that matters. We knew we were capable of getting the win on the day and we showed guts and determination to get the victory."
The former Hearts defender, who spent four years at Tynecastle, took particular delight on lifting the trophy at the home of Hibs.
"I can continue my own 100% unbeaten record at Easter Road too, so I'm happy with that," he grinned. "I don't know how many games it is, but I've never been beat here. It's something I know about!"
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