In Saturday’s Scottish Cup edition of Red Matchday Magazine, 74 pages packed with interviews and cup features as the Dons enter the competition at home to Stenhousemuir.
Man of the moment Sam Cosgrove spoke to the AFC media team last week in Dubai:
“The first time I heard my song, we were down in Burnley and all my mates were there joining in. It is quite funny and it’s a catchy tune, so I enjoy it. It’s good fun as long as it comes out at the right time!” Cosgrove knows how fickle football is. That’s why he’s working away on a course which would be something to fall back on if the whole Ballon D’or thing doesn’t work out. Accountancy might not be as exciting as the beautiful game but it’s a steady job. For so many, football is certainly not that.
“I did my A-Levels at Wigan, alongside my football, and I’ve kept my studies going. I’m doing an accountancy course and I’ve always felt education is important, so I’ve topped that up. It’s the AAT course – it’s self-taught and not quite a degree, but by the end I’ll be qualified.
“I’d always have that as a potential fall-back. A football career can be over within the click of a finger – a bad tackle or fall and you can be out of a job. I enjoy it at times as we’re normally finished training by 2pm, so it keeps my mind active. I think it helps.”
Plus you can read interviews with Michael Devlin, Tommie Hobban and skipper Graeme Shinnie
“We’re coming into the game in good spirits. The training camp in Dubai was great once again. The weather and the facilities were first class as usual, but on top of that, it was good for the boys to get away together. It gave us an opportunity to talk through what we are looking to achieve in this second half of the season and to think about how we are going to do that, so it was a good break mentally as well as physically.”
In our Developing Dons series, we spoke this week to midfielder Seb Ross who is of course currently on loan at the League One side:
Former manager Brown Ferguson brought Seb in at the start of the season, but he has since left the club, with experienced player Colin McMenamin taking over. Seb holds both men in high regard and credits them for helping him through the opening months of the campaign.
“Coming in from being a teammate, Colin knows the boys really well and is very good. I really liked Brown Ferguson and I’m really thankful to him for taking a chance on me. Now under Colin, we are performing better, but just not getting a lot of results. I’m sure that will change because there’s so much fight in that changing room. We’re not a million miles away and it’s so tight that a couple of wins could see us move up the table.
“It’s a different challenge compared to Reserve or Development football and a year ago, I might have been a bit shaky walking out in front of a couple of thousand fans. Now I take it in my stride.”
“When I’m down there I stay with one of the directors of Stenhousemuir in digs and he has a son who I know from my experience in Scotland squads. He’s left football now after playing with Hearts to pursue a career in marketing and they have made it really easy for me being away from home
Everyone at the club will give a warm welcome back to a very popular former player this afternoon as he returns to Pittodrie.
Kieran Gibbons captained the Development squad in 2014/15, an inspirational leader who helped the side lift the league trophy. He also made his Aberdeen first team debut in November 2014, coming on as an 86th-minute substitute for Cammy Smith in the Dons’ 1–0 win at Partick Thistle. After leaving the North-east Kieran, who is the cousin of Scotland star John McGinn, went to Livingston in the Championship and more recently joined East Kilbride in 2016, spending two seasons there before moving on to Stenhousemuir in May 2018.
“I was buzzing when the draw was made. I text kitman Jim Warrender straight away and told him to get the kettle on! I’m coming up for the weekend regardless of if I play, so it will be nice to see some old faces again around the stadium.
“Wherever my career takes me, I will always have the memories of my time at Aberdeen. My greatest moment was making my debut at Firhill. Even though I only played once, I can always say I played for a great club like Aberdeen. It’s something I treasure very much. I will never forget the moment of shock when the Manager turned round and said I was going on!
“Lifting the Development league trophy on the Pittodrie pitch is something I will always remember too. I think it was something like 25 years since the Dons had last won a youth league. That game against Dunfermline when I got presented with the cup, I remember the build up and then that night, over 1,000 fans turned up. It shows the size of the club when you have that many turning up for a youth game. “I still have the shirt from that game as Jim let me keep it. It is a nice memento to have – he normally didn’t let you keep anything!
Today’s game will act as a nice distraction from the league campaign for Kieran and the rest of the Stenhousemuir players. Although they sit bottom of the League One table, under new manager Colin McMenamin there are high hopes for the rest of the season, especially after a terrific result in the last round of this competition.
“This Scottish Cup tie is a bonus game. That’s the way we will approach it. It’s a game we are looking forward to and at the end of the day it is a window for us to try and impress. The confidence is high after our victory in the last round over Falkirk. I never realised how big a derby game it was between the two sides until the day of the match. I still have young fans saying to me it is the best result they have seen since they have been following the club.
“It came at a good time for us as well. The manager had just been sacked. We were looking to appoint a new manager and Colin was the interim boss. We all wanted him to get the job as we were all impressed with the way he was handing himself. He set out the tactics that day that we followed and it got us the result. Recently, league results have not gone for us, but I feel we are playing well and the league is still so tight.
“We can forget that this weekend though and just focus on what should be a great experience.”
Columnists this week include Chris Crighton
Competitive matches between Aberdeen and Stenhousemuir have been very few, and uniquely far between, but they have tended to be ones of great significance to our club.
Doubtless today, like the weeks since the draw paired these sides together, will be stuffed with references to that remarkable day in 1995, and names that even now still give Dons fans palpitations – and that’s just the ones who were on our team. Mention Tommy Steel to any Aberdonian who was around in those dark days and it will send a chill right down them like an ice-cold glass of milk he would have produced in his day job as a dairy farmer. He certainly squeezed every last drop out of the teats he encountered that afternoon at Ochilview.
But that is a page in Aberdeen’s history which we would generally rather skip over, and it is a different meeting with Stenhousemuir which we prefer to commemorate here. For it is the very same club visiting us today who provided the first ever official opposition to Aberdeen FC as we now know it, in a Northern League fixture at Pittodrie on August 15, 1903.
Peculiarly, with the Dons quickly ascending to their permanent place in Scotland’s top flight and cup draws largely keeping the pair apart in the intervening century, this is the Warriors’ first peacetime return to Pittodrie since that afternoon more than 115 years ago, when their greater senior experience eventually saw them erase an early deficit and secure an amicable 1-1 draw.
In the history section there is a match report from that very game first game:
The new Aberdeen opened their first football season on Saturday at Pittodrie with a match against Stenhousemuir. Probably not since the Welsh International football match was played in Pittodrie Grounds in February, 1900, has such a large gathering been seen in what is now the home of the Aberdeen Football Club. The game was a Northern League fixture, and although the weather was gloomy and threatening, a huge crowd gathered to give the combined team a hearty send off. The home team, on winning the toss, elected to play towards the City. After some midfield play, Johnstone got away on the left for the Whites, but his parting shot just missed. The Muir had now a look in, and they certainly made good use of their chances, for Barrett had to save one or two dangerous tries from their left wing.
Also in the history section there is a look back to some classic early round Scottish Cup games:
As much as some of the media south of the border like to hype the FA Cup when the ‘big teams’ enter the competition, it’s in Scotland where the national cup competition really retains its historical position within the context of the football season. There is no doubt that when the opening round of the Scottish Cup comes around, there still is a special feel to it. Red Matchday has selected some early round Scottish Cup ties that Aberdeen have competed in through the years, albeit with contrasting fortunes.
Elgin City 1971
As Scottish Cup holders, the Dons landed Highland League giant killers Elgin City at Pittodrie in 1971. Elgin had forged their own piece of Scottish Cup history by reaching the quarter-finals in 1969, the first Highland League side to do so. There was also interest locally with former Dons captain Ally Shewan now in the twilight of his career plying his trade with the Borough Briggs side, but sadly, the original game was postponed on the Saturday due to heavy flooding in the Aberdeen area. Even so, a huge crowd of 24,136 turned up for the rescheduled tie. As cup holders, the Dons were the team to beat that season and with Aberdeen also going for the league title, there was every hope that the double was a possibility. On the night it was the power and pace of the Dons’ front line that proved decisive. Jim Forrest was enjoying getting in behind the Elgin defence, although Ally Shewan had marshalled his side well and at times made it difficult for the Dons. Eventually, experience told and Forrest (2) and Joe Harper (2) helped Aberdeen to a convincing 5-0 win over their part-time opponents.
Scottish Cup 1971-01-25Aberdeen 5 v 0 Elgin City.Former Dons’ favourite Ally Shewan makes a big effort to score a consolation for Elgin City, but Bobby Clark gets to the ball before him to punch clear.
Scottish Cup 1971-01-25Aberdeen 5 v 0 Elgin City.Former Dons’ favourite Ally Shewan makes a big effort to score a consolation for Elgin City, but Bobby Clark gets to the ball before him to punch clear.
Red Matchday Issue 15 |
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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 [email protected]
