Hibernian, like most Scottish clubs, have had their fair share of abandoned matches. These usually result in re-arranged fixtures, but in August 1950 Hibs played in an abandoned match where the result was allowed to stand.
  The 1950/51 League Cup campaign saw the Scottish Football League decide that an incomplete tie between Dundee and Hibernian needn’t be replayed. The reason was that Hibs were well ahead not just in the game but in the four club sectional group too. Having beaten Dundee (2-0), St Mirren (6-0) and Falkirk (5-4) it was likely that Hibs were going to win their group when, after just over an hour, they led Dundee 2-0 at Dens Park on August 26th. Confirmation came when Hibs won their remaining two games in the group and thus replaying the Dens Park game was meaningless and the league sensibly decided to let the result stand.
  Other abandoned matches have usually resulted in a match being rescheduled for a later date.
  Easily the most controversial of those was a match played in October 1975 between Celtic and Hibernian. The league clash at Parkhead had only seven minutes remaining when it was abandoned with Hibs winning 2-0 thanks to goals by Joe Harper and Des Bremner. Thick fog had descended on the East End of Glasgow, partially obscuring visibility. Stopping the match may have made sense but replaying it did not. Hibs ire was raised because Celtic fans had invaded the pitch earlier and without that stoppage the match would probably have been completed. Moreover, one fan had tried to attack Joe Harper and Hibernian couldn’t help but feel a sense of injustice. It seemed to most observers a rather harsh decision in this instance not to award the match to Hibs. The rescheduled fixture ended up being drawn 1-1.
   In February 1984 an Easter Road meeting with Dundee was abandoned due to fog. Fourteen years earlier an early October clash with Morton at Cappielow Park was abandoned amidst heavy rain and a waterlogged pitch.
  There was an element of the bizarre about the 1962 abandonment of a pre-season friendly match when Hibs were on tour in Czechoslovakia. Leading in a match against Vitkovic Ostrava 2-0 the players were stunned when officials marched onto the pitch to erect a stand for a cycle event due to take place later that day. Gerry Baker had scored both Hibs goals before the game was abandoned in what were by any standards peculiar circumstances.
  In 1955 Hibs were leading Queen of the South 3-0 at Easter Road, with Bobby Johnstone having scored a hat-trick. Hibs were denied victory when the game was abandoned because heavy snow had obliterated the lines. This January clash is remembered by many supporters for one funny incident. Gordon Smith fired in a pile-driver which rattled the Queen’s snow-encrusted crossbar, to the extent that Queen’s goalie Henderson was showered in snow on his goal-line!
  On February 2nd, 2003 Hibs’ game at Dundee’s Dens Park was abandoned after 26 minutes play. The Sunday fixture kicked off in bright sunshine but was hit by a blizzard which covered the pitch markings in snow. At the time Dundee were a goal to the good, the Dens Park stadium announcer showed good grace and humour despite his disappointment by playing ‘Let It Snow’ over the tannoy as fans filed out of the wintry stadium.
  The first post-war league season saw Hibs game at Falkirk’s Brockville Park on April 5 abandoned. The match was notable for Hibernian supporters as big-money signing Leslie Johnstone made his ‘debut’ in this truncated fixture. One week later he made a complete debut against Celtic and scored in a 2-0 win.
  There is, therefore, a long history of matches being abandoned and whilst weather is the usual reason in the modern era it was not always so. Celtic were founded in 1888 largely on the back of having poached Hibernian’s best players. Thus in the years immediately after this mass defection there was tension and trouble at matches between the two sides. A game in October 1888 suffered particularly badly from crowd invasions and, with the likelihood that Celtic players would be harmed on the conclusion of the match, the game was finished early with Celtic leading 3-0 and the players all within ‘dashing distance’ of the pavilion.

Nicknamed ‘the daddler’ Johnny was a tricky outside-left. Signed from Queen’s Park in 1945 he could well have been a Hibernian legend had his spell at Easter Road not coincided with the forward line known collectively as ‘The Famous Five’. It also has to be said he was very unlucky with injuries. In the first official post-war season he was ever present until breaking his ankle at Paisley in November 1946. He missed the remainder of the season and thus the Scottish Cup final of 1947.
  Johnny returned to first team action at Third Lanark in February 1948 but largely due to the fact that the man who had replaced him – Willie Ormond – was injured. Aitkenhead made good use of the opening offered by Ormond’s absence and he scored twice in the 5-2 win over East Fife that started the 1948/49 season, but when Ormond himself returned from injury in January 1949 it was clear that Johnny was going to struggle to hold down a first team spot.
  Transferred to Motherwell in 1949 there was some irony when Johnny played in the ‘Well side which beat Hibernian comprehensively in the 1950 League Cup final at Hampden Park. He missed out on a remarkable cup double that season as his new club lost 0-1 to Celtic in the Scottish Cup final. However, he made up for the disappointment by playing in the 1952 team which won Motherwell’s first ever Scottish Cup. In switching from Easter Road to Fir Park he clearly avoided Hibs dreadful cup-luck, but lost out on league championship medals.
  Capped three times by the Scottish League (one game being a 7-0 demolition of the League of Ireland in which both he and Lawrie Reilly scored twice), Johnny was a penalty expert and enjoyed a spell in which he netted 40 consecutive penalties. He brought the curtain down on his senior career with a brief spell at Hamilton Accies.

Hibs only competed in this tournament twice. It took the place of the sponsored trophy – the Texaco Cup– which had brought together in essence the best British clubs that had failed to qualify for Europe. The Texaco Cup had been discontinued in 1975. A key difference was that the Anglo-Scottish Cup (as the name suggests) was only contested between English and Scottish clubs.
  Hibs commenced their involvement in 1978 with a two-legged match against Ayr United. A 2-1 victory at Easter Road (with goals by Bobby Smith and Ally Scott) was followed by a 2-2 draw at Somerset Park. The next round pitched Hibs against the then English Second Division side Blackburn Rovers (for whom generous benefactor Jack Walker had not yet arrived) and Hibs won both home and away to achieve a 3-1 aggregate victory.
  This carried Hibs to the semi-final stage and a tie with Bristol City. A 1-1 draw in October at Easter Road owed much to the powerful wing-play and a goal by Arthur Duncan but come November in Bristol Hibs were shot down 5-3 despite a double by Ally MacLeod and a goal by on-loan Rangers’ striker Martin Henderson. Bristol City went on to win the tournament by beating St. Mirren in the final.
  In the 1980 tournament Hibs bowed out at the pre-qualifying stage which meant that they never met Anglo opposition. Hibs were preparing for a campaign in the First Division after their relegation and the tournament was viewed as a measure of how far they had slipped from an acceptable standard. Drawn against Premier Division St.Mirren they shared six goals in Paisley and appeared to have done the ‘hard bit’ of the job. However, at Easter Road they slumped badly and were beaten more comfortably than the 1-0 scoreline suggests.

Arthur Duncan  (1969-1984) 448
Pat Stanton  (1963-1976)  399
Willie Ormond  (1946-1961)  349
Eddie Turnbull  (1946-1959)  346
Gordon Rae  (1977-1990)  348
Gordon Hunter  (1983-1997)  339
Pat McGinlay  (1988-2000)  322
Alan Sneddon  (1980-1992)  312
Gordon Smith  (1946-1959)  310
Eric Schaedler  (1969-78; 1981-85)  299
Jock Paterson (1948-1959) 283
John Blackley (1967-78; 1983-84) 279
Graeme Mitchell (1986-1996) 265
Bobby Combe (1946-1957) 264
Eric Stevenson (1960-1972) 256
Lawrie Reilly (1946-1958) 253
Paul Kane (1983-1991) 247
Gareth Evans (1987-1996) 247
Willie Miller (1989-1998) 246
Jackie McNamara (1976-1985) 236
Tommy Preston (1953-1964) 228
John Grant (1954-1964) 225
Joe Tortolano (1985-1996) 222
Ralph Callachan (1978-1986) 219
Jim McArthur (1972-1983) 217
John Brownlie (1969-1978) 211
Jimmy O’Rourke (1962-1974) 210
John Baxter (1957-1966) 209
Ally MacLeod (1974-1982) 208
Archie Buchanan (1946-1957) 205
Mickey Weir (1984-1997) 203
Ally Brazil (1976-1986) 202
Des Bremner (1972-1980) 200
Peter Cormack (1962-70; 1979-81) 200

Huge crowds have watched Hibernian over the years, particularly in the immediate post-war period. The list below shows the biggest attendances Hibs have played before, all four matches took place at Hampden Park.

The record crowd at Easter Road is unlikely to be broken with the current build of the stadium. It was set on Monday, January 2nd, 1950. On that date 65,840 (according to manager Hugh Shaw in the next home programme) crammed in. There was a 10 minute delay when the crowd spilled over the wall at the north end of the ground. Hibs lost 1-2 with Gordon Smith scoring the Hibernian goal.
  Some reports suggest the crowd was even larger as a gate was broken down and many fans scaled walls to enter the ground. Much the same had happened in 1932 when a Scottish Cup tie against Rangers in February drew an attendance of 53,490; which was considerably beyond the ground’s reported capacity.
  Since the Ibrox and Hillsbrough disasters football grounds have changed significantly and at top-flight clubs all seater-stadia are now the norm. This has placed a very real capacity on stadiums; one which is significantly down on previous potential maximums at all clubs.  Thus even crowds such as the 48,544 achieved when Celtic visited Easter Road for a vital league clash in February 1974 are unlikely to be reached again in the foreseeable future.
  Away from Easter Road in the years immediately after the Second World War Hibs were ‘a big draw’ at the gate. In August 1947 Hibernian travelled to Aberdeen for a quick rematch of the Scottish Cup final. Interest was so high that many fans were locked out and others viewed the match from the roofs of the Pittodrie stadium. The official attendance was given as 40,000; a new mid-week record for Aberdeen.
  At Rangers in a 1951 Scottish Cup tie a crowd of 102,342 witnessed a classic cup tie that Hibernian won 3-2 in what was arguably their finest cup performance of the post-war era.

Low attendances:
In April 2007 Hibernian played their part in gaining an unwanted attendance record. Only 8,536 fans paid to watch the Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Dunfermline at Hampden Park. There was widespread criticism by supporters of both sides that the neutral venue of Tynecastle Park hadn’t been used. The crowd of less than 9,000 was the lowest ever for a semi-final tie in the premier domestic cup competition.

Recent average attendances:
The attacking style of football introduced by Alex McLeish and built upon by Tony Mowbray and John Collins has seen attendances at Easter Road improve in recent years as the table below displays:

Although Bertie Auld played only a handful of matches for Hibernian, he earned his place in the club’s history as a resolute, if rather cautious, manager. Nevertheless, for all his lack of managerial flair he did succeed in helping Hibs retain their top flight status.
  His playing career was as impressive as any. Associated most readily with Celtic on account of his membership of the Lisbon Lions European Cup success he was nevertheless a noted figure at other clubs too. He enjoyed a spell in England with Birmingham City in the early 1960s that reaped well over 100 games and gave him his first taste of European football. In all he had 313 league matches to his name, the last eleven of those achieved as a Hibee.
  Signed by Eddie Turnbull in May 1971 he was viewed as a ‘tutor’ for the younger players at Easter Road and he did this job well. So well in fact that Partick Thistle made him their manager in 1974. He kept the Glasgow club in the top flight for a six year period which was testimony to his talent and the benefit of having Alan Rough as his goalkeeper.
  In November 1980 he was appointed Hibs boss and he remained manager until September 1982. His departure came after a disastrous start to the season which saw Hibs win only one of their League Cup sectional ties. A contributory factor however was his managerial philosophy which was rather negative and didn’t endear his tenure to a support bred on attacking football.
  Bertie later managed Partick again, Hamilton and Dumbarton. However, it is a cheeky and slightly combative player that he will be remembered. Great stories abound about him, like his 1963 fight with Fulham’s legendary Johnny Haynes when Auld flattened the England man and then dispatched another Fulham player before being sent-off. In the 1967 World Club Champions final Celtic and Racing Club played in a brutal match that saw five players sent off … Auld being the fifth but refusing to leave the field and playing on!  But despite Auld’s reputation as a fiery character he was a great player, scoring twice in the 1965 Scottish Cup final.
  His Hibernian connection may have been short but it was typically of the man nothing if not interesting.