One of the most famous games ever played in the capital took place at Tynecastle Park exactly 60-years ago today.
The draw for the third round of the 1958 Scottish Cup paired Edinburgh rivals Hearts and Hibs at Tynecastle with the Gorgie side red-hot favourites, not only to win the game but also to complete the league and cup double.
Hibs on the other hand were a team in transition with three of the Famous Five missing.
Bobby Johnstone was now at Manchester City, Gordon Smith out with a long-term injury and Lawrie Reilly still struggling to fully recover from a cartilage operation during the summer, leaving only Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond available.
Normally Reilly’s absence would have been a major concern but Hibs had a secret weapon in 17-year-old Joe Baker who would go one to become one of the finest players ever to grace Scottish Football.
Such was his talent that he was capped by England whilst still a teenager and became the first player ever to represent that country without having played in the Football League, an unbelievable achievement.
Hibs started brightly but Hearts opened the scoring against the run of play after ten minutes when a Hamilton shot just crossed the line.
One minute later Baker scored from close range after a Willie Ormond’s shot rebounded off the bar into his path.
The atmosphere inside the ground was so intense that the crowd at the south east corner spilled over onto the running track and the police had to force supporters back onto the terracing.
Baker was causing Hearts centre-half Jimmy Milne problems with his speed and skill scoring twice from outside the box.
His second goal came after he left a trail of defenders in his wake before firing a tremendous drive past Gordon Marshall from all of 20 yards.
Jimmy Wardhaugh pulled one back for Hearts only for Baker to score again after a pass from John Fraser to make the score 4-2.
Murray scored for Hearts in the dying seconds but Hibs’ goalkeeper Lawrie Leslie performed heroics to deny Hearts as the home side went all out for an equaliser.
At the final whistle, Leslie was carried shoulder high from the field by the ecstatic Hibs fans, but the real hero of the hour had been the teenage striker Joe Baker.
Hibs went on to reach the Scottish Cup final that year but lost to Clyde whilst hearts were crowned first division champions.
The teams that day were as follows:
Hearts: Marshall, Kirk and Thomson, MacKay, Milne and Bowman, Hamilton, Murray, Young, Wardhaugh and Crawford
Hibernian: Leslie, Paterson and McClelland, Turnbull, Plenderleith and Baxter, Fraser, Grant, Baker, Preston and Ormond
Referee: Jack Mowat (Rutherglen)
Attendance 41,666
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
