AS I watched the disgraceful scenes unfold at Hampden on Saturday as Hibernian fans invaded the pitch and Rangers players were attacked, I couldn’t help but think of the 1980 Old Firm Scottish Cup Final.

I played in that game and it was frightening. It was a day nobody in Scottish football will ever forget. Saturday was an ugly end to the final and the repercussions for Hibernian could, and should, be severe.

We can all appreciate that it has been a long time since Hibs won the Scottish Cup and they were under a lot of pressure. It is understandable that the fans were delighted when they won the game.

But you just cannot, ever, behave in that manner. You can’t have thousands upon thousands of supporters running onto the pitch and heading for the opposite end of Hampden.

In 1980, we got off the park very quickly thankfully. When you have thousands coming on the pitch, there is very little that stewards can do. But the police should have had a tougher hand on it.

Watching the scenes on Saturday, it brought it all back for me to that day 36 years ago. It is a situation no player should ever be put in and I am sure the Rangers players will be shaken by the experience.

I could see it happening and I knew I had to get off the park. The fans were getting involved with each other and it turned really nasty.

On Saturday, there were a few Rangers fans that were out the stands and that didn’t help matters. But you have got to take your hat off to the majority who stayed in their seats. If more of them had got involved, we would have had a full-scale riot.

When it happened in 1980, I was off the park quickly. I was never the fastest runner, but I wasn’t hanging about that day.

When you see two sets of fans running on the park, you are off straight away. It was absolutely frightening, as it would have been for Mark Warburton’s side at the weekend.

I find it incredible that it got to the stage that it did. The police must have known that, if there was a win for Hibs, something like that was going to happen.

That is why they had the officers on horses outside, just in the chance that anything happened. So I am amazed that it was allowed to escalate into the trouble that it did.

The police have to have a look at themselves. These are the worst scenes we have had for a while, and we hoped we would never see it again after the 1980 game. But, here we are drawn back to that era again.

All the stewards are doing is standing in a line behind the goal. If you have got thousands of people coming over the wall at the same time, what are you supposed to do? I think the police were slow to react and that was a problem.

You have to ensure the safety of the players, but the Rangers players never even got a chance to get off the park because the fans were coming from both sides and behind the goal so they couldn’t reach the tunnel.

There were very few police in that area. Whether they were taken aback or not, I don’t know. But they certainly made mistakes.

Fans shouldn’t be on the pitch, but it is different if they are at their end and are celebrating. When they start assaulting and abusing players and goading opposition supporters then that is a completely different matter altogether.

It is a worry, a real worry, for Scottish football. Nobody is talking about Hibs’ win, which they deserved, but the headlines are all about the scenes at Hampden.

The SFA have to sit down with Police Scotland and determine where it all went wrong. It is a sad state of affairs when you can’t ensure the safety of players. It is a worry.

I do have some sympathy for the Hibs fans who only went to Hampden to see their team winning and then stayed in the stand at the final whistle. Everyone will get tarred with the same brush, but not every supporter at Hampden was goading Rangers fans on the park or assaulting players.

There were plenty that were just happy to see their side win the cup and wanted to celebrate. They couldn’t do that because of the actions of their fellow fans.

We don’t put them in the same bracket as those who stormed the pitch. But the idiots have to be highlighted and dealt with here.

I was absolutely disgusted with the comments of Rod Petrie after the game as well. He should be hauled up for the way he handled it.

It was a load of utter nonsense. I am not surprised he didn’t have a real go at his own fans because he is under enough pressure from them already, but what he said was an absolute disgrace.

For someone in his position, I thought it was a shocking way to handle a very serious situation.

When your fans are attacking players and abusing them, they have to be dealt with. The SFA have to come down hard on Hibs.

They have waited a long time to win the cup and they were worthy winners, but you can’t have fans doing that. It was absolutely ridiculous and it is a huge test for the SFA now.

When it happened at Fir Park, it took months and months for anything to be done and Motherwell got a slap on the wrist. So, what do we do now?

Did the Hibs fans think ‘well, they were allowed on the pitch so we will have a bit of that as well’? They have taken chunks out of the pitch and broken the goalposts. It is just malicious damage.

It is not kids we are talking about here, either. It is grown men that are running about causing damage at the National Stadium, goading the Rangers fans and assaulting Rangers players and staff. It is completely and utterly unacceptable.

These pictures will go out all over the world, and what does it say about Scottish football? It is one thing being on a pitch and being excited after winning a cup.

But when we are talking about players being spat on and assaulted then that is another matter entirely.

It is a real problem and something has to be done about it. It should have been a great day for Hibernian, but their fans ruined it for them.

Also, the disrespect shown to the Rangers players is staggering. Someone came down with all the medals, didn’t even go in the dressing room, and handed them to Ryan Hardie to give to the players. That is an absolute disgrace.

There was no way they could go back out due to the safety concerns, but there should have been a bit more respect shown.

The medals should still have been presented, not just handed to a young lad. It was pathetic and the SFA have to look at themselves.

They are not the only ones after a sad day for Scottish football.