What it's like to score for Celtic in the Scottish Cup final

Andy Lynch achieved every schoolboy's dream by doing just that. The former Celtic defender slammed home the decisive penalty in the 1-0 Scottish Cup triumph over Rangers at Hampden Park in 1977. It's 47 years since Lynch's finest individual moment of his career. Ironically Lynch wasn't even meant to be on spot-kick duty. That honour was supposed to go to Celtic captain and club legend Kenny Dalglish.

King Kenny had missed a few efforts from 12 yards in the run-up to the end-of-season showpiece and iconic and legendary Celtic manager Jock Stein made the team practise penalties the day before at their traditional hotel retreat at Seamill on the Ayrshire coast. Lynch duly won the spot-kick competition and was designated the penalty taker should one arise in the final. Lynch takes up the story. He said: "When you were growing up every schoolboy dreamed of scoring the winner in a Scottish Cup final.

"If you're a Celtic supporter, then you dream of doing it against Rangers, which happened to me. It was good fortune for me at the time. There is a cracking story attached to how it all came about. Jock Stein took us down to Seamill which was our usual base before big cup games or European matches. We finished training and Jock decided to have the players take part in a penalty kick competition.

"We had never had a penalty kick competition before but Jock was adamant that he wanted to do it this time. There was both a fun and serious element to it. Kenny Dalglish had missed a couple of penalties before the cup final and Jock wanted to see who else was good at taking them. I won the competition and I never thought much about it. We went for dinner that night and a couple of the boys started talking about the penalties. I put my tuppence worth in as you do.

"Big Jock who was a clever man told the boys to stop moaning and bickering about who was going to take a penalty against Rangers in the cup final if Celtic got awarded one. Jock said to the players: 'I wish it were me.' What an honour it would be not only to take a penalty in the Scottish Cup final but to do it against our greatest rivals.' He planted a seed in my mind. I remember having a conversation with Kenny the next day about the penalties and I told him I would take one in the game if we got a penalty.

"It was Jock's words the night before the match at the dinner table that filled me with positivity. Jock made all the Celtic players think about winning the cup rather than losing the game."

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Lo and behold, Lynch's dreams all came true within 20 minutes of the first half. Celtic were awarded a penalty kick that is still hotly disputed to this day. Celtic centre-half Roddy Macdonald powered in a header following a corner kick from the left and Rangers goalkeeper Stewart Kennedy went down to smother. However, the close attention of Celtic's towering Icelandic defender Johannes Edvaldsson saw the ball squirm out of Kennedy's grasp and pop up towards the goal.

Rangers striker Derek Johnstone then handled the ball with both hands on the goalline following the stramash. Johnstone still denies using his hands to prevent the ball from going in and insists that it came off his knee. In the aftermath of it all, it prompted Stein to utter one of his many football career witticisms in such moments: 'The eye sees what it wants to see'. Fortunately for Celtic, match official Bob Valentine had seen enough and pointed to the spot after the controversial flashpoint whereupon the referee was surrounded by the entire Rangers team who protested in vain to try and get the whistler to change his mind.

All this time Lynch was waiting anxiously by the penalty spot. His big moment had arrived. Lynch knew he could enter into Celtic folklore and history with one swish of his trusty left boot. It was Rangers shot-stopper Kennedy's antics that convinced Lynch he would score. He did so by sweeping the ball into the right-hand corner of the net. Despite Kennedy guessing the right way, Lynch's kick was hit with power, precision and accuracy for what turned out to be the solitary counter in a poor contest. No wonder Lynch jumped up and punched the air with delight.

Amazingly the goal that Lynch scored was the first time he had ever taken a penalty in his professional career. Thankfully for him, it ended up being the winning goal in the Scottish Cup Final and put Lynch's name in the annals of the Scottish Cup and Celtic history. Lynch said: "You couldn't make it up.

"Celtic got a penalty kick after 20 minutes of the Scottish Cup final. I was going to take it. The Rangers players chased the referee. The whole team chased him all around the place. Eventually, calm was restored and I was standing on the penalty spot and looking at the Rangers goalkeeper as he had the ball in his left hand. I preferred to have it in my hands. Kennedy was on his goalline and he just shrugged his shoulders when he saw me and he very gently rolled the ball to me.

"I couldn't believe it when he did that. I don't know why he did it because if he had held onto it for a while longer then he would have prolonged the tension and the build-up to the penalty. My nerves may well have got the better of me after that. He didn't do that. He gave me the ball and in that moment, I knew then I was going to score. I was just full of positivity and I was mindful of what Jock had said at the dinner table the night before and how he would have loved it to have been him taking the kick.

"I knew I was going to tuck it away so I said to myself as I ran up to hit the kick, 'I'm going to sink this'. That was it. Kennedy took the right decision and guessed which way it was going but it was hit with accuracy and right in the corner that he would never have saved it. It was too much for him. You could say it was the perfect penalty on such an occasion. That was the start of my penalty-taking career as I also hit them when I played in the USA and Canada. It is not the worst thing to be remembered for from my playing days, is it?

"It is a great story for me and I will never forget it."

Lynch has a treasure trove of memories from his Celtic career. He was a part of the 'Ten Men Won The League' Celtic side that landed the title on the last day of the 1979 campaign by beating Rangers 4-2 in a classic Glasgow derby encounter. However, when it comes to Lynch, it's 1977 that marks him down as a bona-fide Celtic legend. The 1977 Scottish Cup final turned out to be Jock Stein's 25th and final trophy that he would deliver to Celtic Park. It also turned out to be Kenny Dalglish's last ever game for Celtic as he signed for Liverpool for a then-record fee of £440,000.

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Lynch said: "The number of people who come up to me to this day and say they still remember my goal in the 1977 Scottish Cup final is frightening. It's a good thing."

So what is it like to score the winner for Celtic against Rangers in the Scottish Cup final? Lynch said: "I went to play my football in the USA in 1980 and I played in the North American Soccer League (NASL). I travelled extensively throughout the country. I was on a flight one day and I had disembarked the plane and I was walking in an airport in America and a younger lad walked past me.

"He then did a double-take and came back and asked: "Are you, Andy Lynch?" I replied that I was. He shook my hand. He hugged me warmly and said: "I will never forget that penalty in the 1977 Scottish Cup final for Celtic against Rangers. Thanks for the memories, Andy."

In a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen, that's what it's like to score the winner for Celtic against Rangers in the Scottish Cup final. Every schoolboy dreams of scoring the winning goal in the cup final.

Andy Lynch lived the dream.