The 2005

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and was the final of the 120th Scottish Cup. The final was contested by

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

. Celtic won the match with an eleventh-minute goal from Alan Thompson.

Background

Dundee United had had a difficult season and had dismissed manager Ian McCall in March with the club facing being relegated from the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

, appointing his assistant

Gordon Chisholm Gordon William Chisholm (born 8 April 1960 in Glasgow) is a Scottish professional football former player and manager. Chisholm played as a central defender for Sunderland, Hibernian, Dundee and Partick Thistle. After retiring as a player, Chis ...

as his replacement, initially on an interim basis. A week before the Scottish Cup final United went into their final league match against

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

knowing they needed a point to ensure they avoided relegation. Ultimately they avoided this fate, beating Inverness 1–0, while city rivals

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

lost their match and were relegated. By contrast Celtic had gone into the final day of the league season as league leaders. With minutes to go Celtic looked set to be champions as they were leading

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

1-0. However two late goals by Motherwell's

Scott McDonald Scott Douglas McDonald (born 21 August 1983) is an Australian former professional footballer and is the current head coach for National Premier Leagues club Gold Coast Knights. Originally a striker, McDonald could also play as an attacking mid ...

led to defeat for Celtic, which meant their arch-rivals Rangers emerged as champions. The final would be the last match in charge of Celtic for manager

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

who had announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.

Road to the final

Match

Summary

The match was decided after 11 minutes when Alan Thompson scored the only goal of the game from a free-kick which deflected off United defender Garry Kenneth. United had a chance to equalise shortly afterwards when a

Jason Scotland Jason Kelvin Scotland CM (born 18 February 1979) is a Trinidadian former professional footballer and current coach of Larkhall Thistle who last played for Scottish team Hamilton Academical. Scotland started his footballing career in his native ...

cross was narrowly missed by

Stevie Crawford Stephen Crawford (born 9 January 1974) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. Crawford started his career with Raith Rovers, with whom he won the 1994 Scottish League Cup final and played in the UEFA Cup. This earned him ...

. Thereafter Celtic dominated much of the match, but failed to add to their total. Celtic's best chance came when they were awarded a penalty, but

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit and commentator for BT Sport, regularly working on their coverage of Scottish football. He is now also a pundit ...

put the spot-kick over the bar. At the very end of the match United's

Alan Archibald Alan Archibald (born 13 December 1977) is a Scottish football coach and former player. Archibald, who played as a defender, has been associated with Partick Thistle for most of his career. Beginning his professional career with the club as a te ...

came close to equalising when his long range strike beat Celtic goalkeeper

Rab Douglas Robert James Douglas (born 24 April 1972) is a Scottish former professional footballer and current coach for Arbroath who played as a goalkeeper. He played for several clubs, including Livingston, Dundee, Celtic, Leicester City and Forfar At ...

, but it rebounded off the crossbar and shortly afterwards the final whistle was blown.

Match details

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Cup Final 2005

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Scottish Cup Final 2005 Scottish Cup Final 2005

Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

2000s in Glasgow May 2005 sports events in Europe