In this week’s RedMatchday Magazine we spoke to Gary Mackay-Steven who talked about his Scotland involvement.

“Getting called up by your country is always a big thing, you want to play for the national team and it is an honour when you do. It was a great feeling to come on and make a positive impact. The back heel was nice! I’ve always said it is a special moment when you pull on the blue of Scotland. It’s something you dream about doing when you are a young player. You can never get enough of those experiences.

“It was a late call up but I had the attitude that it was a chance for me to show what I could do. It was about making a positive impression. My game is to try and score, try and create, and thankfully I was able to do that. If I keep playing well for Aberdeen more of that will come along. Once you get one you get a taste of it you want to play more and more for your country”.

“As a winger you want to excite the fans. The way Aberdeen play suits me down to the ground. I like to play wide and the way we play gives me the chance to play one v one, that is what I relish. It’s a big part of my game. I want to take on the full-back and get crosses in. This is very important to the manager. We do a lot of work in training on the attacking third. We do a lot of work, one v ones, two v twos. I like dribbling with the ball, I like creating, so the manager here is perfect for me”.

Also in this week’s packed edition:

Graeme Shinnie

It has been a frustrating season so far but those three wins in a row over the last week have given us a chance to build some momentum. Confidence is high coming off the back of that semi-final win. It was important for the team, the squad and the club to get to another cup final and have the chance of winning silverware. Now we have secured two more good results since then and we want to keep that momentum going tonight. Our focus is now back on the league and trying to climb the table as much as we can.

Rachel Corsie

In Australia, the game was very early in the morning and so I missed the live emotion of it all (yes, I have been explicitly told how this makes me a terrible fan). When I woke, the missed calls and the many videos of the Red Army singing were greatly appreciated. One even captured Lewis’ header and the immediate aftermath. It’s an incredible feeling for any player to score the winner in front of the travelling fans, and on such a huge occasion, it will be remembered by him for a long time. His post-game comments about it all gave me goosebumps, hearing him relive the moment.

Lewis Ferguson

“I was just delighted then to get the winner again to help out the team. I checked the scoreboard to see how long was left to go once we had scored. Although we had a few minutes to see out, I had confidence in the defence. We have been really strong of late. So as soon as the ball hit the back of the net, I felt we could see the game through and that is a great feeling.”

 

Plus – Derek McInnes, James Wilson, Michael Devlin and Scott McKenna and also Stuart Duff.

 

In the back section of the programme we look back at the Summer Cup which was interrupted by the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak in 1964 …

The outbreak forced the Summer Cup final to be postponed. Aberdeen was effectively shut off from the rest of Scotland to prevent the spread of the disease. It took a high-profile visit to the city by the Queen in July 1964 to help restore confidence that Aberdeen was safe once more after the reputation of Aberdeen as a safe city to visit, live in and work in was briefly harmed by the media coverage of the outbreak. An official enquiry and report into the outbreak was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Scotland.

The outbreak was successfully handled, given the absence of fatalities. The outbreak drew attention to the need for better standards of hygiene, notably in the cleaning of food processing machinery.

The delayed Summer Cup final eventually went ahead in August, capturing substantial interest with an attendance of 27,000 at Easter Road for the second leg. With the teams level at 4-4 on aggregate, a third match was required. Aberdeen won the toss for choice of venue, so the final came back to Pittodrie.

Plus we continue our story on the history of AFC:

Not since 1911 had the Dons come so close to winning the title as in 1929/30. The side was buttressed by the formidable half-back line of Black, McLaren and Hill and at Pittodrie, the Dons were unbeatable. No visitors left Pittodrie with the points all season. The team blasted 85 goals, but they conceded too many on their travels, and that was to prove crucial. Aberdeen finished third behind Rangers and Motherwell. Plans for ground improvements had continually to be postponed on account of the club’s delicate finances. Gradually those finances improved, but at a cost to the team. Aberdeen sold their better players throughout the 1920s, though the sale of Alec Jackson at least provided funds to extend the grandstand the full length of the ground.

 

We look back at what was happening in the news in 1928:

GREEN FOOTBALL EXPRESS PROVES POPULAR – The Aberdeen Evening Express last week launched a new Saturday night newspaper. The Green Football Express proved so popular that the paper quickly sold out, leaving sports fans disappointed. The newspaper, which is published after the Saturday football, brings news of the day’s action immediately with no need to wait for the Sunday papers. Readers are being urged to order their copy this week as demand is sure to be high.

 

Also we pay tribute as AFC Remembers World War I on the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice:

At Pittodrie it was very much a case of picking up the pieces. Two years of closure and the ongoing conflict had left the club very much in turmoil. In an effort to reclaim some togetherness, a sequence of friendly matches were arranged before and after the club reconvened in May 1919. It was reported that most of the players who had served the club before the war had re-signed for Aberdeen. Of the 33 club officials and players who enlisted in the war effort eight had lost their lives.

 

All that plus much much more.

 

Red Matchday Issue 9 | to buy a copy online please click here

We have packed as much as we can into the 76 pages. Red Matchday Magazine is available to buy in and around the ground from the programme sellers for £3.00. You can pick up a copy from the AFC Club Shop and if you can’t make the match you can pick a copy by clicking on the link above.

As always, we welcome your comments and feedback on the programme this season. Please feel free to get in touch with the editor (Malcolm Panton) at redtv@afc.co.uk
Thank you for your continued support of the programme.

Finally a massive thanks as always to Dolly Digital for another superb retro cover design.