Rioch Beats Hibs at Easter Road

[boris]

Probably giving away my age here but when Bruce Rioch brings his Odense side to the Leith San Siro this Saturday it won't be his first visit to Easter Road. At the start of the 75/76 season we played Derby County at Easter Road in the club's centenary match. Might seem a strange choice of opposition but I think they were English champions at the time and were managed by Dave Mackay (ex Hearts). As I recall it they beat us 1-0 and Rioch, who I think was their captain, scored the goal. Here's hoping for a different result on saturday!!!

[Stu]

I liked Bruce Rioch - a superb midfield player who performed very well for the national side as well as at club level. Bruce, though very left-footed, he preferred to play on the right of midfield from where he would often cut inside and unleash an absolute cannon of a left foot shot. Very strong and robust in the tackle, Rioch was a formidable player indeed in the mid-seventies.

Derby County were indeed English First Division champions in 1974/5. The team had been inherited by Dave Mackay from Brian Clough who also won the Championship with Derby in 1971/2. No mean feat with a team he had brought up from the second division. A driving figure in that team had bean the great Dave Mackay himself.

Both teams were terrific footballing sides who were a credit to the game in that era. Suitable opposition indeed for Hibs' centenery.

[Hampden_Hibby]

Aye a look at the programme shows Derby County had no a bad side in those days...

Colin Boulton
David Nish
Roy McFarland
Colin Todd
Archie Gemmill
Bruce Rioch
Kevin Hector
Francis Lee
Alan Hinton
Charlie George

5 days after that game Derby beat West Ham 2-0 at Wembley in the Charity Shield.

And several weeks later the pishy Premier League began.

[Seven Tattoos]

Good point. Sorry to hijack this thread but is it no about time 'the pishy premier league' was disbanded and we returned to playing teams just twice a season in the league? Hibs would benefit and so would every other team in Scotland, Scottish clubs' performances in Europe and the national side.

Okay, so Rangers would probably beat the likes of Morton 8-0 from time to time but scores like that are not uncommon in the likes of the Dutch league.

Amongst other things, if Hibs finished, say, seventh in a 16 team league we'd probably have won more than we'd've lost and there would have been more open games. Therefore more spectators would turn up and (that word that is anathema to Bawbag Billiamson but part of a classic song by The Jam) ENTERTAINMENT would be the order of the day.

Oh, and while I'm ranting, that split's a load of old w@nk n all.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Hampden_Hibby

Aye a look at the programme shows Derby County had no a bad side in those days...

Colin Boulton
David Nish
Roy McFarland
Colin Todd
Archie Gemmill
Bruce Rioch
Kevin Hector
Francis Lee
Alan Hinton
Charlie George

5 days after that game Derby beat West Ham 2-0 at Wembley in the Charity Shield.

And several weeks later the pishy Premier League began.

Roy McFarland and Colin Todd there must have been as fine a centre back partnership as there has ever been. A classic pairing of a commanding centre half in MacFarland and a tremendous sweeper type in Todd.

Nish was an extremely cultured full back who was an England internationalist.

Archie Gemmill's class is not in question. A human dynamo and a very influential player who was always in the thick of the game.

Kevin Hector was a superb poacher and much underrated. Possibly because he never moved to a 'big' club.

Alan Hinton found his feet at Derby after a patchy time at neighbours, Forest. Quite simply he was one of the two best crossers of the ball I've ever seen - the other being John Robertson of Forest.

Mackay never really got too much credit locally for his achievement in taking this team to the Championship. Many claimed he was riding on Clough's coat tails after the master manager left Derby in controversial circumstances. I guess there was a little truth in that as Clough (and Peter Taylor) built and left behind a tremendous team and club, all in a relatively short time.