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Q Bert Lee e-mails from Niagara Falls, "Can you name the Hearts team who won the Scottish cup in 1896 ? "
A Fairbairn, McCartney, Mirk, Begbie, Russell, Hogg, McLaren, Baird, Michael, Walker, King were the men who won the only all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup Final on March 14th 1896 when Hearts beat Hibs 3-1 thanks to goals from Davie Baird, Alex King and Willie Michael. O'Neill scored a late consolation for Hibs.
There is some dispute over the first goal which resulted from a free kick which took a deflection off a Hibs defender. In some books, Bobby Walker has been credited with the kick and the goal. I have also seen one publication which claims the scorers were Baird, Walker and Michael.
The match was played in front of a crowd of 17,034 at the Logie Green ground of Cup holders St Bernard's, adding to the Edinburgh flavour. It remains the only Final played outside Glasgow.
Q Bert also asks "Did an Andrew Lee ever win a Scottish Cup Medal playing with Hearts,in the 1890s?"
A No. Hearts played in five Finals between 1891-1907, winning four. There was no player of that name in any of the teams.
They had a player named ANDREW LEES who scored in cup ties in 1878-79 and 1883-84 at least. I say 'at least' because records were not kept meticulously in the 19th century. For instance, Hearts won one cup tie around this time by 14-0 but there is no record of ANY of the goalscorers.
However, we don't give up that easily so we had a look at the magnificent London Hearts site which cites a player named Lees as scoring in both the semi-final and Final of the Rosebery Charity Cup which was won by Hearts in 1882-83. Our guess would be that this is the medal Bert is thinking of.
