“The players ran out of legs, but they didn’t run out of heart,” said a disappointed Dunfermline Boss, Stephen Kenny after his side went down fighting against Celtic in this year’s Scottish Cup Final.

For Celtic fans this was meant to be the crowning glory on an eventful season, a second successive SPL Title– a league and cup double giving the perfect send off for Captain Neil Lennon.

And they duly delivered, but only just, as the winning mentality came through for the Parkhead side, giving Boss Gordon Strachan his fourth trophy as manager.

Whilst no one can take away the achievements of the Hoops this season which saw them reach the last 16 of the Champions League and two domestic trophies would be enough to satisfy any manager.

However the fans and the pundits were anything but satisfied in a final where the reigning champions were running on empty, turning in the poor form that has been digging them for these past couple of months.

Despite being outplayed by the Division One bound, Fifers during the first 45 minutes, the Champions manage to dig into their reserves and wear Dunfermline down.

And with the man of the moment, Lennon, being surprisingly substituted for Gary Caldwell, the game eventually started to turn in Celtic’s favour.

Despite creating some clear cut chances, they had to rely on a toe poke from on loan Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe six minutes from time to bring the Silverware home and possibly a new contract for the Cameroonian.

And as Lennon said his final goodbyes to the fans, it was also a day to remember for Steven Presley, who became the first player to win three Scottish Cup medals with three different clubs.

And whilst many Celtic fans, left the stadium, pleased with the result, but less than impressed with the performance, Strachan was more than delighted about the whole day.

“I thought it was a good game,” he said. “Here you saw two teams not trying to get beat, but two teams trying to win a cup final.”

“We had far better chances in the second half and I don’t think our goal keeper had one save to make. As the game went on, our substitutes became big players,”