HAVING played just fleetingly alongside Celtic greats like Roy Aitken, Pat Bonner, Tommy Burns, Peter Grant and Paul McStay, Tony Shepherd is nowhere near as revered as many of his former team-mates.
But can any other member of the legendary Parkhead side of the 1980s lay claim, as Shepherd can, to being the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question?
The midfielder only featured in the first team at Celtic Park for 28 games before moving on and spending spells at Carlisle United, Motherwell, Portadown, Partick Thistle and Ayr United.
His involvement, though, in the infamous League Cup final with Rangers 30 years ago, an X-rated encounter which makes subsequent Old Firm “shame games” look like pre-season friendlies, means he holds a rather unique place in football folklore.
“A reporter phoned me up a few years and told me a sports edition of Trivial Pursuit had been brought out and I was one of the answers to one of the questions,” he said. “Apparently, I am the only person ever to be sent off and brought back on again to finish the game.”
Shepherd is the watch commander at Easterhouse Fire Station these days and is sometimes asked by people what it feels like to enter a blaze. His answer is always the same and illustrates just how incendiary some of the Glasgow derby matches he was involved in were.
“The way I describe going into a fire is to say it’s like going on to the park in an Old Firm game,” he said. “They were unbelievable games. The only way you know what it’s like is if you have actually done it.”
The meeting between Davie Hay’s side and Graeme Souness’s team at Hampden in the League Cup final on Sunday, October 26, 1986, was certainly an explosive affair.
Souness, whose appointment as manager had been confirmed towards the end of the previous season, had stunned the British game by signing Terry Butcher and goalkeeper Chris Woods, the then England captain and goalkeeper.
After many years in the doldrums, it looked as if the Ibrox club’s fortunes were poised to change. That final was their first opportunity to win silverware and their city rivals were determined to stop them.
Almost inevitably, tempers flared with six minutes minutes remaining when, with the scoreline tied 1-1, referee David Syme ruled that Aitken had brought down Butcher inside the Celtic area and awarded Rangers a penalty.
“I wouldn’t say it was soft, I would say it was extremely soft,” said Shepherd. “It was a tough one to take in a cup final.
“Rangers fans will always accuse Celtic supporters of having a persecution syndrome. But there was enough evidence at times to justify it. In those days, we used to say that to get a hand ball against Rangers they had to have both hands on the ball.
“On the day, the 50/50 fell Rangers way. We had to accept it and move on. Davie Cooper stuck it away. He used to take great pride in telling me about it most days in training when we were at Motherwell together.”
However, the controversy did not end there. Anything but. Shepherd soon found himself inadvertently embroiled in one of the most bizarre incidents ever witnessed in the history of the Scottish game.
“Mo Johnston got sent off for an off-the-ball thing, a head butt on Stuart Munro I think it was,” he said. “I ran over to the referee to protest his innocence. Mr Syme said: ‘Get yourself away or you’ll be joining him’.
“As I went to walk away a coin came over from the crowd and hit him right on the back of the head. He must’ve thought I had flicked my hand at him and hit him. He turned around and showed me a red card. I can remember the look to total bewilderment in everybody’s faces.”
Hay ran out of his dugout to confront the match official over the blatant injustice and had to be escorted away by police officers as bedlam broke out among the 74,219 fans inside the stadium.
“Derek Whyte came over to me,” said Shepherd. “He told me: ‘Tony, just go off! There’s going to be a riot!’ I was just 19, but, even at that age, I had enough courage in my convictions to say: ‘No, I’m not doing it’.
“I went over to the linesman. He was the proverbial rabbit in the headlights. I said: ‘Gonna tell him what happened there!’ He consulted with the referee. Mr Syme came over to me and said: “Mr Shepherd, please carry on’.
“You know you’re never going to change the referee’s mind because, at the end of the day, his decisions come down to interpretation. But in that instance I knew that he thought I had assaulted him. If I went off it was almost as if I had accepted that I had. It was so evident a coin had come across and hit him.”
But Hay remained incensed after his team lost the match 2-1. “If it was up to me our application to join the English League would be made tomorrow," he said. "When Celtic play top teams there are always controversial decisions against us.”
“I had the utmost respect for Davie,” said Shepherd. “He was one of the best managers I ever played under. He was a very clever guy. Football wise, he was astute. But he was guilty of wearing his heart on his sleeve sometimes.”
Celtic, who had seven booked and one, not two, sent off, were fined £5000 by the SFA while Hay was fined £350.
“The 1980 Scottish Cup final riot was fresh in the memory of the establishment,” said Shepherd. “That game had all the ingredients needed for there to be a repeat.
"The match that had the riot probably had less incident than that final. It was a unique game. I miss that white-hot atmosphere.”
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