John Brown still bitter over Rangers 1989 Hampden loss to Celtic as he tells current crop anything can happen

John Brown knows from bitter 1989 experience that one tiny moment can turn a Scottish Cup Final.

Now 35 years on, the former Rangers hero says it’s proof Philippe Clement’s team can upset the odds and win the trophy at the National Stadium. Brown is still irked at being the unfortunate victim of the officials' blunder that led to his team’s Final loss to Celtic. On that May day three-and-a-half decades ago, Brown was part of Graeme Souness’ Hampden side looking to seal a Treble.

Rangers had dominated the league matches against their city rivals in the campaign and were huge favourites to complete a clean sweep. But Billy McNeill’s men rocked them with Brown feeling deep injustice. The Rangers defender appeared to clearly win a throw-in during a jostle with Roy Aitken at the touchline, but the Celtic skipper quickly picked up the ball and threw it to Peter Grant to mount an attack. Play was waved on and Joe Miller scored at the end of the resultant move after Brown’s team-mate miskicked an intended backpass to keeper Chris Woods. It was the game’s only goal and Aitken went on to hoist the trophy.

Now Rangers are the underdogs with Celtic having bossed the fixture this term, but Brown says 1989 proves anything can happen. He recalled: “Bob Valentine was the referee. I could have done with VAR then.

“To be fair to Roy, he was right at the ball and the referee allowed him to take it. The thing about it was that we’d done a Double [League and League Cup]. To this day, it still grates with me that we lost that. I’ve still got a bitter feeling about it.

“That season, we’d beaten Celtic 5-1 and 4-1 at Ibrox. Celtic beat us 3-1 over there and it could have been five or six. Then we managed to win the last league game 2-1 at