Raith Rovers: Colin Cameron recounts 'dream come true' of winning Coca-Cola Cup

Cameron, 50, a lifelong Raith fan who was brought up near Stark’s Park in the Links area and had been a ball boy at the club, scored one of the spot kicks as second tier Raith – whose squad had been assembled for just £215,000 compared to the Hoops’ £5.17 million – triumphed when Scott Thomson saved Paul McStay’s penalty to earn the club their one and only League Cup.

"It’s unbelievable we won when you actually think about it,” current Raith Rovers assistant manager Cameron told the Fife Free Press. “We were an old first division team at the time against Celtic, with the great players that they had.

"Nobody apart from people connected at our club thought we stood a chance.

"But we knew that if we played to our capabilities and Celtic had an off day, which kind of had to happen, we had a right good chance of causing an upset.

"I honestly felt that in extra time we were the stronger of the two teams.

"If anybody was going to nick it, it was going to be us.

"Going into penalties, we had beaten Airdrie in a shootout the round before. And we had also got knocked out on penalties by Airdrie in the Challenge Cup earlier that season.

"We kind of knew who was going to be taking penalties and there was probably more pressure on us in the semi-final than what there was in the final.

"It was more: ‘Wow, what an opportunity we’ve got here’. Whereas before the semi-final shootout we’d been thinking we didn’t want to get that far then just miss out at the final hurdle.

"I wasn’t really nervous taking my penalty in the final. I felt confident.

"Jason Dair and Stevie Crawford were either side of me, taking the second and fourth penalties and both their penalties squirmed under Marshall’s arm.

"I was focused for my penalty. I just thought: ‘This is where I’m going to put it’ and I stuck to it.

"Marshall went the right way but I hit it into the side netting and if you do that there’s not many keepers going to save them.”

Raith – whose other shootout scorers were Shaun Dennis, Stephen McAnespie and Jason Rowbotham – had gone into the final as rank outsiders under their charismatic Northern Irish manager Jimmy Nicholl, a former Rangers defender.

Despite their heavy underdog status against Tommy Burns’ Celtic outfit, they went 1-0 up on 19 minutes in Govan when Crawford shot home emphatically.

But things appeared to be going to script when Andy Walker (32 minutes) and Charlie Nicholas (84 minutes) scored to send the huge Celtic support in the 45,384 crowd into raptures.

However, a late twist saw Gordon Dalziel nod home for Raith on 86 minutes to save their skin to set up extra time and penalties.

Cameron recalled: "When Celtic went 2-1 up so late we were disappointed because we had put so much into the game.

"Into the last 10 minutes we thought we were taking it to extra time and then they scored. But if you actually look back at it, I’m sure we equalised directly from the kick-off.

"We kept the ball well, worked it out to the right where Jason Dair was and he cuts inside onto his left foot.

"There’s wee things where you just think it was going our way. Jason hits a decent shot but it’s straight at Gordon Marshall (Celtic goalkeeper) and I would say 99 times out of 100 Marshall gathers the shot because it's straight at him.

"But for whatever reason he parries it, knocks it down and Gordon Dalziel does what Gordon Dalziel does, he was always in the right place to get a tap in and he got us level pegging.

“With Gordon’s equaliser and the way our second penalty went in, I just had a feeling it was going to be our day.”

Understandably, Raith's stars later partied hard into the night in the wake of their incredible final success.

"The celebrations after that game were very enjoyable but as per usual, I can’t remember half of it,” Cameron said.

"The bus was bouncing on the way back to Kirkcaldy. We were up at the Dean Park Hotel and that was rammed at a party there.

"Then we ended up down at Jackie O’s (famous Kirkcaldy nightclub which subsequently closed in 2010). I remember being on the dancefloor, the place was rammed and your feet weren’t touching the ground, we were just getting carted about everywhere.

"Then later on we had a fuction at Kirkcaldy Town House when we were up on the balcony.

"That’s what you’re in football for, to be successful and have days and experiences like that. It was great because I was only 22 at that time and I thought: 'I want a wee bit more of this, this is a great feeling’.

“It meant the world to me to win that final. To even play for your local team is great and then obviously to be part of a team that was successful is kind of what you dream of as a kid.

"To achieve that was a very proud moment.”

Cameron, who also won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in 1998 and earned 28 Scotland caps, added: “I consider myself fortunate to have the career I did. You need to be lucky as well in this game.”