VERY few cup finals are serene in nature.
The prize at stake for teams often turns the winner-takes-all contest into a battle between mind and body, of navigating anxiety, heavy legs, and the dreaded fear of failure.
It is that very reality which makes the events of March 20, 2005 - 20 years ago today – all the more fondly remembered.
The League Cup – then branded as the CIS Insurance Cup – pitted Alex McLeish’s Rangers with Terry Butcher’s Motherwell in an emotionally-charged affair almost ten years to the day since the tragic and sudden passing of the great Davie Cooper.
The two teams were foremost in the dazzling winger’s career. At Rangers, he represented the club over 300 times and won every domestic trophy on offer; at Motherwell, he helped deliver the club’s most famous day in lifting the Scottish Cup in 1991.
It was only fitting, then, that the 2005 showpiece between the two clubs was dubbed ‘The Cooper Cup Final’, an encounter befitting of the great man as Rangers produced a scintillating display of attacking football.
The contribution of Gers full-back Maurice Ross, then 24, was worth its weight in gold that afternoon.
Indeed, it had been almost two years since Rangers last climbed the steps at Hampden to collect silverware – a 1-0 Scottish Cup Final success over Dundee in 2003 to be precise – but, according to Ross, it wasn’t a drought which was hanging in the players’ minds.
Speaking exclusively to the official Rangers website, Ross reflected: “There’s always the pressure of being at Rangers that you need to win every trophy.
“The last time that we won a trophy sort of fell into insignificance as such. But going into the game, with the players that we had, we were in no doubt that we were going to win that match.
“There was also the emotional charge of it being the Davie Cooper Final added to it.”
Ross had found himself in the team after Alan Hutton suffered a nasty leg break a month previously in a 2-1 league victory over Kilmarnock at Ibrox, an injury which kept the then 20-year-old full-back out of action until the end of the year.
He continued: “I think Alan Hutton came into the team but got injured. He broke his leg, which opened up that position for me again.
“Fernando Ricksen was also playing his best football in midfield and I always felt he was better in that position than at full-back.
“It lent itself to us having great legs in the middle of the park as well.
“Alex McLeish had previous for changing his team from the day before to the next day, so I found out [I was starting] on the morning of the game.
That buzz soon turned to elation for Ross as, with just five minutes on the clock, he cracked the contest open with his first goal of the campaign.
Shovelling a pass inside to Thomas Buffel, Ross continued his run through a pocket of space in the Motherwell backline. The Belgian’s clipped return pass was on the money and, once Motherwell goalkeeper Gordon Marshall advanced out of his six-yard area, the full-back’s mind was made up already and he arced a delicious lob into the back of the net.
“It’s a surreal moment to score the opener in a cup final,” Ross continued.
“I’ve still yet to receive my flowers and thanks from William Hill for making them an absolute fortune that day because there is no chance that anyone had me on at 50/1!
"I was just praying that I played well and that I didn’t make a mistake or I was sent off.
“It’s always negative in the sense that you’re scared of those things.
“I’m not sure what it was, but I just had a really good record at Hampden.
“Before I knew it, we were 1-0 up and I had scored the opener. It was a special moment for me and my family.”
The Rangers support occupying their traditional Mount Florida end of the national stadium were buoyant, and things would only get better five minutes later when McLeish’s side doubled their advantage.
Ross was at the heart of it again, winning a corner that Gregory Vignal played short to the unmarked Barry Ferguson.
His deep cross seemed destined for the waiting arms of Marshall until Phil O’Donnell inexplicably leapt to glance the ball away from his keeper and into the path of Sotirios Kyrgiakos who nodded into the unguarded net.
“He was a quiet leader and a good, solid individual who knew his job,” Ross said of the Greek defender.
“He was always a big set-piece threat and decent on the ball. You don’t end up going to Liverpool and playing in the games that he did if you’re not a good player.
“When you have someone like Kyrgiakos who is 6 foot 3, and he’s athletic too, which means when he runs and jumps he’s always going to gain height.
“He was always going to be a threat with the good deliveries that we also had in the team through Thomas Buffel and Fernando Ricksen.”
However, just as Rangers were threatening to run away with the final, Motherwell injected a sense of jeopardy when Steven Hammell curled in a free-kick and David Partridge was able to squeeze between the two Gers goalscorers, Kyrgiakos and Ross, to thump a header past Ronald Waterreus.
The Steelmen would certainly have counted it a victory if they were able to get in at the half-time interval with only a one goal deficit to overcome, yet Rangers quickly regained their composure to strike a third of a rampant first-half on 33 minutes.
Ricksen, the set-piece specialist for the Light Blues, was the architect as the Dutchman swept home a 25-yard free-kick which caught out Marshall at his near post.
The words of Barry Ferguson, who marked his return to the club in the 7-1 rout of Dundee United in the last four of the competition and joked that he wouldn’t be allowed to resume free-kick duties due to Ricksen’s brilliance, certainly rung true.
“I thought Fernando was phenomenal in that final; mobile and he scores his free-kick,” was Ross’ verdict of the late Dutchman’s commanding display that afternoon.
Still, Motherwell harboured hopes of striking a blow to Rangers’ increasing procession as the two teams emerged for the second half.
By that point the sun was beginning to fully emerge from behind the dotted clouds in Glasgow’s southside.
And it was the sky that Motherwell goalkeeper Marshall was left gazing into as McLeish’s side darkened their opponents’ misery inside two minutes of the restart when Nacho Novo latched onto a Gregory Vignal floated pass and, like Ross before him in the first half, clipped a delicious finish over the advancing Marshall.
Even those in the Motherwell ranks that day would find it hard to protest that Rangers had one hand on the trophy at that juncture in the contest.
It meant Ross and those in blue that afternoon could experience the rare feeling of a cup final where they were able to savour the adulation from the crowd.
Ross added: “A calmness comes over you and you start absorbing the atmosphere.
“If it’s 1-1 or 2-1, you’re wired because you’re so focussed to be switched on. It was more like the realisation that this was a nice football game, we were in full control, passing it around, and the sun was shining.
“It just felt like we were in full control and there was no danger we were going to give up that lead.”
Just over half an hour passed thereafter without a Rangers goal – much to the relief of those of a Motherwell persuasion – but a fifth goal was rung up before the end of the contest.
Again, a set-piece move bore fruit for McLeish’s men as Ricksen’s arrowed corner was met flush on the forehead of Kyrgiakos whose header crashed off the inside of the upright and over a helpless Scott Leitch manning the post.
If not already then Rangers could begin to plan their victory celebrations, of which nine players in the squad were in line to collect their first piece of silverware for the club.
Was it something that was discussed among the squad before the final?
“It’s not something we would really talk about,” Ross continued. “Even when it came to things like winning trebles, it was never spoken about in fear of jinxing it or getting carried away.
“It was just business. When you wake up in the morning and your name is on the team sheet, it’s straight down to business.
“This is Rangers and we need to win today.”
It was a much-needed shot in the arm for McLeish’s side as they continued their title tussle with a Celtic side eyeing their second successive SPL crown.
Such is the unique nature of football that, on the Gers’ return to league duties following the international break, they made the trip to face their vanquished League Cup final opponents at Fir Park.
Three goals to the good by the 51st minute mark, Rangers were cruising in similar fashion to their national stadium exploits a fortnight earlier.
Yet a Barry Ferguson red card, coupled with two Motherwell goals inside the final ten minutes, left the nerves jangling in the away end.
“Every time that I won a trophy there was always a day that you felt ‘this is a nice feeling’ and it kept the wolves from the door,” Ross concluded.
“But then, before you know, there’s a next game. You’re then looking at when the next Old Firm is coming; Aberdeen away too.
“You get to enjoy the night, then it’s straight back to work a couple of days later and preparing for the next game.”
Although McLeish’s men clung on that afternoon in Lanarkshire, back-to-back home defeats to Dundee United and Celtic left the Ibrox side five points off the pace.
What followed was a run of four successive victories, including a memorable final day triumph at Easter Road which capped off an unforgettable double for the Gers.
Looking down on that afternoon at Hampden 20 years ago today was sure to have been Cooper, who, above all else, would have been proud at the spectacle on display.
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