WHEN you combine Colin Cameron’s backstory of cup shocks with the famous one pulled off at Rangers’ expense in 1967 by the club he now manages, you have a pretty potent cocktail to extend Hibs’ Scottish Cup curse this afternoon at Easter Road. Cameron was there, beavering away in midfield, when Raith Rovers defeated Celtic in the 1994 League Cup final and also scored the opening goal when Hearts defeated Rangers in the 1998 Scottish Cup final. He could be there again today at Easter Road, a niggling thigh strain permitting, adding another chapter to his remarkable tale as the 42-year-old player-manager of Berwick Rangers.
As he sits in a hotel on the western outskirts of Edinburgh, sipping his coffee and holding court, Cameron recalls scoring twice on his first appearance at Easter Road for Hearts in September 1996, a 3-1 win, six months after they paid Raith £400,000 for him. “One was a lob when Jim Leighton kicked the ball straight to me and I lifted it back over him from five to 10 yards inside their half. To have your first experience of an Edinburgh derby there and for it to go so well, it was easy for that one to stick out. On the other side, I can’t even remember the goal I scored when we lost 6-2 there [in October 2000]. You don’t remember goals when you are on the end of a hiding. While I had two or three good victories there, Hibs fans are always keen to put me right with the 6-2 game. So they should.”
If not on the pitch, then Cameron will certainly be in the away dugout today directing his team of part-timers, including four players released by Hibs, and hoping by the end to have another memento for the summer house in his garden, which has become something of a shrine to his long career. “My wife got me the summer house as a birthday present last year, so it’s been great to get some caps up, strips from successful times with Raith, Hearts, the playoff final [with Wolves], the Football Trophy with MK Dons, my first Scotland goal. You’ve achieved it, so why not be proud of what’s there? That’s my own wee hideaway… that the wife puts me into.”
He only gets to train a couple of nights a week with his players, but this weekend had the luxury of an extra session with them yesterday and a chance for a final check on that thigh strain, too. He laughs when recalling how his squad were asked to list their occupations for Sky. “Funniest one was wee Ross Gray. He sells mashed tatties from a van and put in ‘potato salesman’. We have gas engineers, quantity surveyors...” Stevie Notman, meanwhile, has the perfect day job for a would-be giant-killer. “He cuts down trees,” says his manager.
Berwick’s last Scottish Cup quarter-final was in 1980, when they drew 0-0 against a Hibs side that featured George Best before losing the replay 1-0 at Easter Road. “I’d have been surprised if it hadn’t been on TV,” responds Cameron, indignantly, when asked if he was surprised by Sky’s interest. “We’re the lowest ranked team left in the competition and people want to see an upset.”
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The presence of the cameras means revenue from the game will come close to Berwick’s annual budget, hopefully assisting him in transforming them from second bottom of the League Two at present into promotion contenders next season. “It has massive implications. Had we not progressed, I was probably going to have to cut my budget. As it is, I’ll hopefully get a bit more than I got this season.”
The build-up reminds him of his early days as a player, when Jimmy Nicholl’s happy-go-lucky style of management allowed a relaxed Raith Rovers to claim notable scalps in Scotland, including Celtic’s, before going on to joust with the mighty Bayern Munich in a Uefa Cup tie. “Even in the build-up to big games he would still let you go out and have a few beers. He loved playing cards and doing tricks and would tell great stories about his own playing days and it certainly helped us. It relaxed everyone and let them take a wee bit of pressure off, although I put pressure on myself personally because I thought it brought out the best of me. I was nervous before the game but always felt that was a good thing because you play on your nerves. At the same time, you’ve got to watch you don’t overdo it and use up all your energy in the first 15-20 minutes.”
His career included 28 caps for Scotland and took him from Kirkcaldy, his home town, to Hearts, Wolves, Coventry, MK Dons and Dundee before a reunion with Nicholl at Cowdenbeath, followed by his first foray into management there. It ended in an amicable split agreed with Donald Findlay, their chairman, after a poor run of results towards the end of 2013 but, within two months, he had succeeded Ian Little at Berwick.
“I would have liked to have stayed longer, but it was a mutual thing between myself and Donald. We both felt that our relationship was really strong, and we didn’t want that to change. We felt that other parties, because of the financial implications, were starting to get itchy feet and wanted change. The longer the run of results went on, the worse it would get, so we felt it was the right time to part company.
“It makes you stronger as a person to get the knocks and then be able to bounce back. One thing I will say, I left Cowdenbeath in a better place than what I took over. We were in League One when I took over and I got them into the Championship and we were able to stay in the Championship, which was a massive achievement for that club. I didn’t have to wait too long, thankfully, to get another opportunity. I have enjoyed my time with Berwick, it has flown by because it has been over a year now.”
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While Hibs struggle to move on from 1902, the year of their last Scottish Cup triumph, Berwick would also like turn a page in their history today from that famous win over Rangers in 1967. “There’s plenty of photos around, but that was a long time ago,” says Cameron. “It would be nice to see some colour photos now.”