My Celtic Scottish Cup final heartbreak after Alex McLeish picked easy option but Hibs pal use experience - Tam McManus

The walk to the Cameron House Hotel library became known as the green mile. It’s the room where Hibs boss Alex McLeish would break the most dreadful news.

I was invited on such a walk on the morning of the 2001 Scottish Cup Final and I knew what was coming, I could read him like a book. Sombre, slowly strolling towards that library knowing I was about to be condemned to watching the biggest game of my career against Celtic from the stands.

To this day I can recall the silence after Big Eck told me he was going for experience on the bench – I was the easy option to miss out. Ian Murray spoke this week about the mixed emotions of having to share a room with me. Two 19-year-olds, Ian had been on his own walk that morning and was on cloud nine. He was playing from the start and there was me, inconsolable and in floods of tears.

I had expected to be involved, I’d scored the winning goals against Stirling then in the last minute in the quarter-final against Kilmarnock. We’d beaten Livingston in the semi and I was involved so to be thrown a custard pie ahead of the Celtic game was a shock.

I know Big Eck would have hated this part of the game, he knew he was breaking my heart. After he’d delivered the bombshell I ran back to my room and burst into tears. I’d left tickets for my family so I called them and could barely speak on the phone.

Ian just sat there trying to find the words to console me but all I saw was my mate bursting inside that he was about to play in a Scottish Cup Final against Celtic. Quite right too, I’d have been the same. I cried from 11am all the way through to 2.15pm. I’d made my way on to the team bus with a pair of black sunglasses to try and hide the distress I was in. We would go on and lose 3-0 to