All week we are counting down to the Scottish Youth Cup Final where the young Dons will look to take their place in the club’s history books when they face Hibernian. Aberdeen are chasing a fourth Youth Cup in their first final since 2003.

One of the players from the first ever Youth Cup win, Rob McRobb sat down with AFC Media Team to talk about his memories of the occasion. And what an occasion it was! The 1985 final has gone down in Pittodrie folklore as one of the greatest games the old stadium has seen. Rob then captained the young Dons in 1986 as they retained the trophy.

With the first team challenging on all fronts during the 1980’s the bar was set for the next generation and under the watchful eye of Willie Garner the young Dons reached the second edition of the newly formed Scottish Youth Cup in 1985. Back then the final venue was decided by the toss of a coin and Dons Chairman Dick Donald won it which meant Pittodrie would host.

Rob recalled the feeling going into the final against the holders, Celtic:

“We were Aberdeen so of course we were confident. We knew it was going to be a tough game and Celtic were a very good team at the time. We knew many of their players as we were all involved at that level and also played in the Scottish set up as well. So there was nothing new and it was just whoever turned up on the night would be the team that would win the cup and thankfully we did…eventually!”

A healthy crowd of 6,000 came out on a warm May evening to cheer on the lads, including the first team lead by captain Willie Miller, who received the Premier League trophy before kick-off. The match itself began in the worst possible manner for the hosts.

“I don’t know what it was down to and maybe it was nerves playing in front of the home crowd or maybe Celtic were the better team to begin with. I was playing centre half with Malky Thompson. We were 2-0 down and things certainly weren’t going our way. At half time we went back into the changing room and one or two words were said. Willie Gardner and Teddy Scott were the coaches at the time and Willie told us what we were doing wrong in his own personal way!”

“I remember him doing his bit when the door opened and in came the manager (Alex Ferguson). The door almost came off its hinges! He went around us one by one and told us how we could perform better and what we could do to get back into the game.”

Despite going further behind in the second half, Aberdeen pegged their opponents back when Paul Wright scored, and it was game on. The final stages were all Aberdeen and they incredibly forced extra-time when Jocky Lawrence made it 3-2 then Joe Miller lobbed one in from 35 yards to equalise. A shell-shocked Celtic, which included future Dons captain Derek Whyte, couldn’t rally as Lawrence and Steve Grey combined to finish the job meaning the trophy was going to Pittodrie.

The turnaround that night will go down as one of the greatest comebacks in Pittodrie history and sparked memorable celebrations for Rob and his teammates, although one supporter left at half time unhappy with the performance of the team.

“The atmosphere that night was fantastic, but I’m still to this day recall the story of a fan disappearing when we were 3-0 down, going home and writing or phoning the Press & Journal complaining about the standard of the youth football at Aberdeen Football Club. He was less than impressed. I’m sure the P&J published that letter!”
The following year Rob would captain the team to a second successive Cup win as the side made the near-ten hour round trip to Dumfries to take on Queen of the South. A 2-0 win on the night allowed for the trophy to return on the bus back up to the North-East.

“We stopped off for our pre-match meal and there was still two and half hours to go. We went down to a packed house – they were very vocal wanting their young team to win, but we went down and beat them. I captained the team and won man of the match and my Mum and Dad still have the trophy in their house.”

Although Rob was fortunate to be part of the club during its most successful spell, he was also extremely unlucky as trying to force your way into the reserve side was a challenge, never mind the first team.

 

“The reserve team at the time had the likes of John McMaster, Bryan Gunn etc and was full of guys who maybe hadn’t done so well in the first team the week before and were put back in the reserves to shake them up a bit. We had a fantastic reserve team and we won a couple of reserve trophies as well. We always played at Pittodrie which was really good because the people who really loved their football in Aberdeen were able to watch the first team one week then the reserves the following week.

“My time as a player at Aberdeen was a fantastic experience.

“I got the chance to see the world as at the time Aberdeen were a top team in Europe. The first team were doing fantastically well and as a result of that we were invited to tournaments all over the world.

“I also had a number of trips with the Scotland Youth teams. I spent three weeks in Chile playing with Scotland at a World Youth Finals with Craig Brown as my manager. I do have a video of him doing some dancing out in Chile, so I’ll need to share that some time with the redtv viewers!”

Some thirty odd years later,  Rob is now back at the clubs and working as a scout for the Youth Academy, Rob dedicates his time to watching potential players for the club.

“I’m one of Jim Fraser’s lead scouts and it’s a position I took up about a year ago. I just wanted to put something back into the club. I’m helping out as a lead scout for probably the older kids and the players that have perhaps been through the system already, gone back to their base clubs and are maybe late developers.

“I’m looking at the kids aged 16 onwards and with Project Brave coming into play shortly it’s something I really enjoy.

“A typical week is perhaps standing in a rainy touchline with a big black jacket on. It’s the glamour of the job that attracted me! I’m coming home and four/five o’clock after a days work and then going back out again at 6pm for  three hours watching a game. Then I’m back in making sure I’m doing my reports and having an up to date idea of what’s happening in the Highland Development League and Juvenile’s. It’s a busy week. But one I really enjoy.”

Finally, on this Thursday’s match at Hampden.

“Hopefully they’ll go down there and not go down 3-0 and then have to win 5-3! Hopefully they’ll take an easier route than we did.

“It would be fantastic for the club – what an achievement.

The job we do now with the scouting systems will hopefully make sure Aberdeen are at the top of youth football, winning trophies. That’s the role of the youth academy to make sure we don’t lose a crop and each year keep on producing the best players to choose from.”