The Cups were played between the usual suspects. Aberdeen and Celtic competed for the Scottish FA Cup. Aberdeen prevailed in overtime 2-1.
Aberdeen with a double – their strongest season of this wonderful period. Third consecutive FA Cup. Champions in 1979-80. Cup Winners Cup in 1983. But champions and cup winners in the same season seemingly topped everything achieved so far.
The Scottish League Cup final opposed Glasgow Rangers to Celtic. The classic derby, needing no special motivation for either team. The final went into overtime as well and only then Rangers prevailed 3-2.
This was the first trophy Celtic lost this year, for League Cup final was played much earlier than everything else, in March. It was bitter loss, but still there were other chances yet. Only after the season finished the full bitterness was swallowed: Celtic finished 2nd in everything! Empty handed. Nothing. Zero. And they had – as individual names go – stronger players than both Aberdeen and Rangers. Terrible failure.
Given the circumstances, Rangers would have been relieved, if not satisfied: at least they finished with a trophy. And it is always sweet to beat Celtic. Rangers had quite a poor squad – Ally McCoist and the Swedish star Prytz were not enough to keep the team really competitive. And it was not sure at all Rangers could be able to keep them. This was not a squad able to win long grueling championship, so it became more of a cup specialist – really, the most such shaky selection could achieve. It was nothing to brag about, of course, but there was no trophy at all in the previous season. Now they at least came ahead of Celtic, leaving them without a trophy.