The enduring images of the Scottish Cup Final should have been Hibernian fans celebrating a win they had dreamed about for more than a century, the team’s lap of honour, and replays of the best moments of what was an extraordinary and thrilling game of football.

But sadly for the Scottish game, the match will be remembered for entirely different reasons: fans punching and kicking players, the fights between rival supporters, mounted police on the pitch trying to regain order. It was a disgraceful and shameful end to what should have been a day of glory.

The post-game chaos was particularly galling for the vast majority of Hibs fans who had peacefully enjoyed one of the best finals for years.

Some of the more superstitious ones believed that after 10 failed attempts, there was a curse at work, but if there was the players broke it in spectacular fashion and won the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1902.

If only that could have been the whole story. Instead, the chaos and fighting brought to mind another infamous game in Scottish football: the cup final between Celtic and Rangers on May 10, 1980. Like the match at the weekend, that final 36 years ago also ended in running battles between fans and mounted police being called in. It also resulted in the ban on alcohol at football grounds – a ban which is now likely to stay for good.

The problem with Saturday’s game was that, despite it being categorised in advance as one that carried an increased risk of trouble, the authorities failed to anticipate what happened and were too slow in reacting when it did.

After 10 minutes or so, mounted police did arrive to restore order, but the fact the pitch invasion and fighting seemed to take the police and stewards by surprise raises questions for everyone who is involved in maintaining order at football games, including the Scottish Government.

The most important question is whether increasingly handing

security at games over to private firms is the right way to go. It is not long since G4S took complete control over an international game in Scotland for the first time and on Saturday the stewards vastly outnumbered the police. We need to know what role the stewards played in the breakdown of control and what can be done to prevent it happening again.

The Government should also instigate a full investigation. Rather strangely given her social media prowess, the First Minister’s only comment on the game to date was a tweet congratulating Hibernian on their victory. Many football fans may well be asking why she had no comment to make on the worst scenes at a Scottish game in years.

The Government now needs to explain what action it is going to take and must ensure there is a plan in place to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s chaos. Some form of sanction must be imposed on Hibs – sometimes that is the only way to get through to fans who behave the worst – but the main question for the review is why the security measures failed.

Saturday was an embarrassing day for Scottish football, and has sadly taken the gloss off a fine victory. The aim now must be to prevent a repeat of such violence.