Following the hat trick at Easter Road yesterday it seems appropriate to look at others!
Incredibly Florian Kamberi’s hat trick against Hamilton was Hibs first time in the top flight since Colin Nish scored three against Motherwell in the infamous 6-6 draw at Fir Park in 2010.
Here I take a look back at other memorable trebles by Hibs’ players.
In 2005, few football fans had heard of Northern Irishman Ivan Sproule who joined Hibs from Institute for £5,000 but three second half goals in the space of 23 minutes at Ibrox secured his place in the history books. Ironically Ivan grew up supporting Rangers.
Five years earlier Mixu Paatelainen earned legendary status amongst the Hibs’ fans with a treble against Hearts in the 6-2 ‘Demolition Derby’ at Easter Road. Hearts took an early advantage but a double just before the break by Mixu gave Hibs the lead at half time. In the second half Hibs destroyed their rivals with a sensational performance and Mixu completed his hat trick from close range against his close pal Anti Neimi.
In October 1974 Joe Harper scored a hat trick in the League Cup final against Celtic but unfortunately Dixie Deans did likewise and Jock Steins men ran out 6-3 winners. Joe joined Hibs from Everton for £120,000, the biggest fee ever paid by a Scottish team at the time but despite having a good goalscoring record, the supporters never took him to their heart.
The 1972 European Cup Winners Cup will live long in the memory of Hibs’ supporters of a certain generation and three hat trick were scored during the competition. Jimmy O’Rourke scored three times against Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon, overturning a 2-1 deficit by winning 6-1 at Easter Road. In the following round against FC Besa Jimmy did the same as Hibs ran out 7-1 winners.
Before the quarter finals, Hibs beat Celtic to win their first cup for 70 years then then disposed of Hajduk Split 4-2 in the first leg with Alan Gordon grabbing three goals. Hibs Chairman Tom Hart famously predicted that the club would win the trophy and also the league title but after beating Hearts 7-0 at Tynecastle, talisman defender John Brownlie suffered a broken leg against East Fife in the next game. Midfield genius Alex Edwards was booked in that match as was given a lengthy suspension which ended Hibs hopes of a remarkable double.
Joe McBride was another player who enjoyed a European hat-trick. In 1970 he scored three and made two against Malmo having did the same against Locomotive Leipzig two years earlier. Joe joined Hibs from Celtic for a bargain £20,000 as a replacement for Colin Stein who move to Rangers for a record £100,000.
A few years earlier, Pat Quinn scored a memorable hat-trick in a 4-1 victory against Hearts at Tynecastle. Remarkably these goals were Pat’s first for almost two years and the Hibs’ fans waited outside the dressing room at ful-time chanting “We Want Quinn.”
Prolific goal-scorer Neil Martin decided to repay former manager Jock Stein for leaving Hibs for Celtic with a league and couple a distinct possibility by scoring a first half hat-trick at Parkhead. To this day Neil is still convinced that Hibs would have won both trophies had big Jock stayed until the end of the season and a he made his feeling known with a ‘victory’ gesture toward the Celtic dugout.
The late great Joe Baker also loved hat-tricks and actually scored three in one game against Peebles Rovers in the Scottish Cup. The match was sandwiched between two games against Barcelona. Joe left the field deflated however as he had not matched his brother Gerry’s 10 goals for St Mirren against Glasgow University in the same competition the previous year.
In total Joe scored 16 hat-tricks for Hibs but and his quadruple at Tynecastle on 1st March 1958 to help Hibs win the game 4-3 will never be forgotten as long as football is played in the capital. Incredibly Joe was only 17 when he completed this feat.
Another remarkable statistic concerns the Famous Five. Between them they scored an incredible 46 hat-tricks.
Gordon Smith scored 16, Bobby Johnstone scored 4, Lawrie Reilly scored 17, Eddie Turnbull scored 7 and Willie Ormond scored 2.
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.
