Former Glories and New Beginnings: Aberdeen FC, 2022-23

By Pitch Publishing Ltd

Former Glories and New Beginnings takes us on a nostalgia-filled journey through Aberdeen FC' s glory years, while looking ahead to a promising future.

The mere mention of the word Gothenburg' to older Dons fans instantly conjures memories of European nights under the floodlights, of Simpson and Strachan, McLeish and Miller, of Munich and Madrid. Mention Gothenburg' to younger fans and they know it is a story etched in the annals of Scottish football.

This book recreates not just one magical European trophy-winning night in May 1983, but the club' s trophy-laden golden era of the late 1970s to mid-80s. The moment a young manager called Alex Ferguson arrived, the balance of power began to shift. Only the best win championships, only the best win trophies at home and abroad.

Forty years on, Aberdeen has been away from the top table for too long. Under the stewardship of Dave Cormack, the club is entering a new era, giving fans high hopes for the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Oct 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781801506236

Book preview

PROLOGUE

I HAVE a confession to make. I am not an Aberdonian. Neither am I Scottish at all.

Okay, it turns out that it wasn’t much of a confession after all as, on further research, it seems I am not alone in my geographical hailing. It appears that there are other places aside from Aberdeen, even Scotland, that people can come from. I do, though, have a fondness for Aberdeen Football Club. Obvious next question – why? To answer this question, take a little trip back in time with me to 1982 …

The ten-year-old me, like every other lad I knew, was collecting the Panini football stickers and, for some reason, and I just do not know why, I always liked the Aberdeen page of the sticker album. Maybe it was the kit, maybe it was the badge, maybe it was the players’ names, who knows? Being brought up in London (and being only ten), I didn’t know an awful lot about the Scottish game and didn’t even know if Aberdeen were any good or not. Nevertheless, I decided they would be the Scottish team that I would support. As it turns out, it was pretty decent timing on my behalf. They had won the Scottish Cup the season before and were riding high in the league, threatening the traditional Celtic/ Rangers dominance. As a consequence, they were featured quite heavily on the Football Focus slot of BBC’s Grandstand, hosted by former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson, and ITV’s equivalent magazine show On the Ball, presented by Ian St John (it would later be replaced by Saint and Greavsie). I would also often ask my dad after Football Focus had finished if we could go to Aberdeen to watch their match that afternoon. The reply would always be something along the lines of ‘it’s a bit far, really, we’ll miss the kick-off ’. Of course, I didn’t understand just how far it was from our home to Pittodrie Stadium, but a map will tell you it was about 530 miles. Given that my request would be made at about 1pm, that would have meant my dad drive at 265 miles per hour if we were to get there for 3pm. Therefore, I had to rely on any television coverage and articles in the football magazines Match Weekly and Shoot! for any Aberdeen news.

As that 1982/83 season progressed – and remember, this was long before the days of every other match being shown live on cable channels and internet stations, etc. – I noticed that Aberdeen were being shown quite regularly on highlights programmes like Midweek Sports Special or Sportsnight. I used to get my dad to record it on our VHS player and I would watch it back the next morning before going to school. The reason that they kept being on was, it turns out, due to their run in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. As they progressed through the rounds, the coverage became more and more and then, suddenly, they were in the final. I can remember watching the final, and assume it was shown live as my memory is of sitting in our lounge in front of the television with my dad. I can clearly remember John Hewitt scoring the winner, connecting with a left-wing cross, getting there just before the Real Madrid goalkeeper Augustín Santiago could punch it clear. It is difficult to say what else from that night I actually remember as, of course, the pictures have since been shown over and over again and the highlights are everywhere across the internet.

One other particular memory I have of watching Aberdeen on television, incidentally, is from the 1986 Scottish League Cup Final. Highlights were shown of the Dons’ 3-0 triumph over Hibernian and, as the third goal went in to seal the victory, I leaped up off my seat, flinging my arms in the air in celebration, landing back down on the seat and, in doing so, knocking a plant off the mantlepiece. There was soil all over the living room, leaves scattered everywhere, a none too pleased mother and a father who was trying his best not to laugh!

As I got older, it began to dawn on me just what an astounding achievement it was for Aberdeen to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Firstly, and most obviously, they had to win the Scottish Cup the previous season. During their cup run they overcame both Celtic and Rangers, so no mean feat there. Also not to be overlooked is the recent history (then) of the competition. Yes, the cup competitions are a bit more random than predicting the outcome of a whole league season but, by and large, it still does tend to be the bigger teams that win the silverware. Leading up to 1982, the previous 11 Scottish Cups were won by either Celtic or Rangers. Just how dominant, though, have the two Glasgow giants been in Scottish football? The statistics are, quite frankly, astounding. As of May 2022, there have been 126 league seasons, but only 11 different champions – Rangers have 55 championships; Celtic have 52; Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs have four; Dumbarton two; and Dundee, Dundee United, Kilmarnock, Motherwell and Third Lanark one each.

That is how difficult it is to break the Celtic/Rangers monopoly, having 85 per cent of all championship trophies between them. The cup competitions are pretty much the same story. There are more cup winners than there have been league champions, but many of them have only one or two trophies to their name …

Rangers have 61 Scottish Cups and League Cups; Celtic 60; Aberdeen 13; Hearts 12; Hibernian six; Dundee, Dundee United, East Fife, Kilmarnock and St Mirren four each, Clyde, Motherwell, St Johnstone and Vale of Leven three; Dunfermline, Falkirk, Partick Thistle, Renton and Third Lanark two; with one each for Airdrieonians, Dumbarton, Greenock Morton, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Livingston, Raith Rovers, Ross County and St Bernard’s.

Out of the 327 competitions that have been played, Celtic and Rangers have won 227 between them.

As for European competition, it was the third time a European trophy made its home in Scotland, following Celtic’s European Cup triumph in 1967 and the Cup Winners’ Cup won by Rangers in 1972. Since then, there have been four Scottish runners-up in European competitions, all in the UEFA Cup or, as the competition has morphed into, the Europa League – Dundee United in 1987, Celtic in 2003 and Rangers in both 2008 and 2022.

The brilliance and, as time continues to pass, mystique of that Aberdeen team of the early-mid-80s, and the work done by Alex Ferguson and his staff, will live on as long as there is football being played in Scotland. Legendary names like Leighton, Miller, Cooper, Simpson, Strachan, etc. (with apologies to all those others) will just live on and on.

I finally got to watch Aberdeen play live at Pittodrie for the first time in 2017. Why I left it so long, I really don’t know. I guess life just happens, doesn’t it? I grew up, went to college, got a job, got married, had kids and then suddenly – bosh! – it was 35 years since I had first asked my dad if we could go! That was five years ago, and it is now, amazingly, 40 years since the Dons won that famous European trophy. How are things at Aberdeen currently? I think it is safe to say that they have been better. The 2021/22 season ended with Aberdeen in tenth position, having appointed former St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin as their new manager in the February, taking over from Stephen Glass who had himself replaced Derek McInnes. It is now eight years since the club last won a trophy – the 2014 Scottish League Cup – and previously to that it was 14 years since the last piece of silverware, the 1990 Scottish Cup.

With the club exploring different avenues for a potential new home stadium, a new management team having recently put in place and the 2022/23 season being the 40th anniversary of the greatest night in Aberdeen’s history, it seems an appropriate time to look at former glories and new beginnings …

FORMER GLORIES: 1978/79 SEASON

IT’S ALWAYS exciting when a football club gets a new manager. That sense of jeopardy is what gets the supporters all keyed up. Will he be any good? Is this the one who will lead us to glory? Or will he be just as bad as the old guy?

As is the nature of the business, it is generally that the previous incumbent was given the old heave-ho. Whether he had enjoyed good times but then fallen on bad or if he was just no good, more often than not a football manager leaves a particular club at the request of the board of directors. However, at Aberdeen in June 1978, that was not the case.

Billy McNeill had been in charge the previous season and had done a pretty good job, too. The Dons finished runners-up in the league and were beaten finalists in the Scottish Cup. In fact, he did such a good job that when Jock Stein retired as Celtic manager that summer, he recommended that McNeill be the next in line. The Celtic board agreed, approached him and he made the journey south to Glasgow. As a player, McNeill had been a Celtic legend. Playing between 1957 and 1975, he had made 822 appearances – still a club record – and was captain when they beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon in 1967 to become the first British team to win the European Cup. To be fair to him, the chance to return to Parkhead was one he was never going to turn down.

This, though, left a hole at Pittodrie. Before McNeill had joined the club, the directors at Aberdeen had approached a young manager by the name of Alex Ferguson who was, at the time, plying his trade at St Mirren. He had been there since 1974 when he moved across from East Stirling, with whom he had cut his managerial teeth. Ferguson had done remarkably well at Love Street, transforming a team bottom of the Second Division into First Division champions. Ferguson turned down Aberdeen’s approach, leading them to turn to McNeill. Now, though, a year later, Ferguson had been sacked by St Mirren. The relationship between him and the club’s owner Willie Todd had broken down, the boardroom was split over which of the two men – Ferguson or Todd – should be backed to take the club forward and, inevitably, the team’s form slumped.

Things came to a head between the two and Ferguson was asked to leave. A bad time for St Mirren but perfect timing for Aberdeen. One year on after their initial approach they had got their man.

***

The 1978/79 season began with a new number one between the sticks. First choice Bobby Clark sustained a broken finger, so Ferguson’s first big choice to make was to choose between the reserve keepers, John Gardiner or Jim Leighton. The latter got the nod, made his debut on the opening weekend of the season – a 4-1 away win over Hearts – and gave the Pittodrie faithful a sign of things to come before Clark’s recovery restored him to the team. The Dons stayed unbeaten for the first six matches, four in the league and two in the League Cup, before their first defeat of the season was inflicted by Marek Dimitrov in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Even though they were Scottish Cup runners-up the previous season after being beaten 2-1 in the final by Rangers, they qualified for the Cup Winners’ Cup by virtue of the Gers also being league champions and going into the European Cup.

Joe Harper continued his goalscoring form from the previous season when he fired in 27, by notching nine in those first six games, including a hat-trick against Morton. Steve Archibald proved an able complement with six in six.

The first defeat of the season saw Marek win a tight game 3-2 in Bulgaria, their second and third goals both coming in injury time. The second leg at Pittodrie saw the Dons finish the job, however, with a comfortable 3-0 victory thanks to goals from Harper, Gordon Strachan and Drew Jarvie. The European adventure, though, would come to an end in the next round at the hands of German club Fortuna Düsseldorf. A 3-0 away defeat was followed by a brave but ultimately insufficient 2-0 victory at home in the second leg.

***

The two domestic cup competitions would provide more heartbreak as the Dons were eliminated in the semi-final of one and were beaten finalists in the other.

The League Cup run began with a 9-0 aggregate score against Meadowbank Thistle followed by an almost as impressive 8-1 two-legged victory over Hamilton. The 7-1 second leg saw Harper notch another four goals, three of which came from the penalty spot. The quarter-finals pitted the Dons against Ayr United. A 3-3 draw in the first leg was followed by a 3-1 win at home to set up a semi-final against Hibernian. A tight game failed to produce a goal and the match went into extra time, the only goal eventually coming from Stuart Kennedy.

The final against Rangers was controversial but, at the same time, a seminal turning point for Aberdeen. The Dons had taken the lead through Duncan Davidson but a John McMaster own goal levelled things up. Five minutes after the Rangers equaliser, Doug Rougvie was shown the red card after a clash with Derek Johnstone, the big defender insisting that Johnstone had dived in order to get Rougvie into trouble. With Rougvie off the pitch and Aberdeen down to ten men, Colin Jackson scored the winner in the last minute of the game to take the trophy to Ibrox. After the match, Ferguson backed Rougvie’s version of events and publicly stated that Aberdeen were being treated unfairly compared to the big Glasgow clubs. From that moment he instilled a siege mentality into his players and determined he would conquer and break up the Celtic/Rangers dominance.

The Scottish Cup run began with a win over Hamilton and then another tie with Ayr United. A 6-2 victory set up a quarter-final clash with Celtic, Davidson and Archibald scoring the goals in a 2-1 replay victory after the first game had ended 1-1. The semi-final saw the season’s second last-four match-up with Hibernian, this time Hibs winning 2-1 to thwart the Dons’ ambitions of returning to Hampden.

***

The league campaign proved to be very stop-start. Three wins and a draw from the first four games hinted that a challenge for the title could be on the cards but October proved to be a miserable month. Not only did the team exit the European Cup Winners’ Cup but the league form also took a dive, three of the four matches ending in defeat – the only bright spot being a 4-1 win over Celtic. November and December fared a little better, victories over Dundee United and Hibs interspersed with no fewer than five draws. It was the drawn games that cost the Dons dearly. They finished in fourth place, eight points behind eventual champions Celtic, having drawn no fewer than 14 games, the most of anybody in the division.

***

As the season entered its final furlong, Alex Ferguson made his first major signing as Aberdeen manager. Even though Harper had banged in 33 goals, striker Mark McGhee joined from Newcastle United. McGhee had started his career with Morton before crossing the border but, after being relegated, he struggled in the English second division and returned north to Pittodrie for a fee of £70,000. He made his Dons debut on 4 April against his first club Morton and scored the first of the century of goals he would go on to record ten days later, the winner in a 1-0 victory over Partick Thistle.

All in all, a satisfactory first season for Alex Ferguson, one in which he had been able to examine the merits of the squad he had inherited. There was obviously room for improvement, so how would this young manager put his own stamp on things next time around?

1979/80 SEASON

FOR THE 1979/80 season, the Aberdeen squad was a good blend of experience and enthusiastic young players. Goalkeeper Bobby Clark had been with the club since 1965 whilst, at the other end of the pitch, all-time top scorer Joe Harper and his strike partner Drew Jarvie were still useful options up front (all three were nearing the end of their Aberdeen careers). Stuart Kennedy, John McMaster and Gordon Strachan had established themselves in the team and the young Alex McLeish was announcing his arrival.

***

For the first game of the season, Alex Ferguson went with the new strike partnership of Steve Archibald and Mark McGhee. They, and everyone else, however, fired blanks as day one saw defeat at Partick Thistle by a single goal to nil. Two goals from McMaster and one from Archibald saw the Dons get their campaign under way against Hibernian the following weekend and another three were scored at Dundee United in the third league match, the front line of Archibald, McGhee and Harper all registering. The first two rounds of the League Cup campaign proved to be straightforward as Arbroath were dispatched 5-2 on aggregate and Meadowbank Thistle 7-2.

September proved to be a somewhat inconsistent month with two wins and two losses in the Premier Division. The victories came against Rangers and Dundee, Doug Rougvie gaining his own little piece of revenge over Rangers after what happened in the cup final the previous season by scoring the third in a 3-1 win. The losses came against Morton and Celtic.

***

Aberdeen’s European challenge was a short one but, in the long run, an important one. The Dons fell at the first hurdle, succumbing at the first hurdle to the German team Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 on aggregate. After Harper’s goal secured a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie in the first leg, a narrow loss by a single goal in Frankfurt signalled the end of the UEFA Cup adventure. Disappointing, yes, but Ferguson saw that his team could compete at the level. He was open in his praise for Frankfurt’s South Korean playmaker Cha Bum Kun who he saw as the difference between the sides. Cha Bum scored at Pittodrie and caused all sorts of problems in the second leg. He is to this day the youngest player, at 24 years and 139 days, to win 100 international caps. Ferguson claimed after the tie that what he had seen from his players on the European stage gave him optimism for the future and that Aberdeen should not be afraid of playing the big-name European teams as they themselves were there on merit. It was a message he would continually drill into his players on European nights, a message that would soon bear fruit. Frankfurt went on to win the trophy, triumphing over their Bundesliga rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final. In fact, the four semi-finalists were all German: Frankfurt, Mönchengladbach, Stuttgart and Bayern Munich.

***

The UEFA Cup might have been crossed off the list of potential trophies but the League Cup proved to be a different matter. Rangers were again put to the sword in the third round, a comprehensive 5-1 aggregate victory securing a two-legged quarter-final clash with Celtic. The first game at Pittodrie saw Archibald take the honours as he blasted a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory and McGhee’s solitary goal at Parkhead saw the Dons through to the last four. One downside of the victory was the knee injury sustained by Harper. He never really recovered properly and, although he would appear in an Aberdeen shirt again, it would prove to be the one that would end his glorious career.

The semi-final saw the Dons paired with Morton, a team that had proved to be a bit of a bogey side. Goals from McGhee and Strachan put Aberdeen in control but a late penalty saw a nervous end to the game. The Dons held on, however, and were through to play Dundee United in the final the following weekend. Despite having by far the greater share of the game at Hampden, Aberdeen just could not find a way through and the match ended in a goalless draw. The replay the following Wednesday was a different affair altogether. Being played at Dens Park, home of United’s neighbours Dundee, two goals from Willie Pettigrew and another from Paul Sturrock gave the Tangerines a comfortable 3-0 win. For the second time in successive seasons the Dons collected League Cup runners-up medals, having been beaten by Rangers the previous year.

***

Heading into the winter months, the league campaign hadn’t quite taken off. October saw three of the four matches ending in draws, against St Mirren, Hibs and Partick Thistle, with the lone victory coming at Pittodrie against Kilmarnock. Two straight losses at the beginning of November, at the hands of Dundee United and Morton, saw five goals conceded and the league campaign threaten to be one of mediocrity. A late goal from Archibald at Ibrox won victory over Rangers by a goal to nil, and in their only Premier Division match of December, McLeish and Derek Hamilton netted in a 2-0 win against St Mirren. The new year, however, began with another defeat, 1-0 at Morton.

The turning point came during the first home match of the new decade. The visit of Rangers saw another feisty encounter between the two teams, both of which were desperately seeking the upper hand and bragging rights in what was becoming a deadly rivalry. The match itself exploded into life merely two minutes in. McMaster played a free kick into the Rangers penalty area, only to see it headed clear by Tom Forsyth. His header only found Strachan, however, who smashed it back on the volley into the roof of the net, Gers’ keeper Peter McCloy a mere spectator. With the crowd roaring them on, the Dons pressed but were caught by a sucker punch, a breakaway ending with John McDonald touching home a Tommy McLean cross. The rest of the half was end-to-end stuff, both teams coming close but the Dons looking the more likely. Five minutes into the second period, however, it was the Glaswegians who took the lead. Another cross from McLean did the damage, this one headed home by Colin Jackson. Spurred on by the vociferous crowd, Aberdeen piled forward looking for the equaliser. Three times the ball was cleared off the Rangers line, their goal leading a charmed life. After 70 minutes, yet another goalmouth scramble led to the ball falling to Archibald who bundled it over the line for a well-deserved leveller. The excitement level, as well as the noise level, continued to rise in the last 20 minutes but the winner just would not come. Then, with barely a minute remaining on the clock, Derek Hamilton netted the winner to send the crowd into a frenzy.

After the game, Alex Ferguson was delighted with his players, labelling the match ‘a magnificent advert for Scottish football’. He praised the Pittodrie, crowd calling them ‘immense’, and uttered the prophetic words, ‘If we can keep that kind of passion up then who knows what could happen this season?’

With their confidence and belief suddenly reinvigorated, there was suddenly a spring in the step. Celtic were still ten points ahead, but Aberdeen had three games in hand. The Celts themselves were next up, the teams sharing a 0-0 draw. Jarvie was the hero against Dundee, bagging a hat-trick in a 3-1 away win, and the spoils were shared with St Mirren but then Kilmarnock spoilt things by coming to Pittodrie and taking away a 2-1 win. As the season entered March, the team knew that if they were serious about challenging Celtic