Cheers, abdy. :malt:
As our chairman so eloquently put it live on the radio just after the game:
19 years, 120 minutes and then fucking penalties
https://soundcloud.com/graham-stewart/stewart-milne-on-f-ing
Felt absolutely lousy heading down to the game having been getting gradually more and more worked up through the week. Got into my stride once I got some beer in me and then felt curiously calm through the game and the penalties.
Game wasn't up to much, fairly typically for a final.
Langfield
Logan-Anderson-Reynolds-Considine
Robson-Jack-Flood
Hayes---Rooney---McGinn
very quickly becoming:
Langfield
Logan-Anderson-Reynolds-Considine
Flood-Jack
Robson--Smith--McGinn
Rooney
ICT put out as muscular a team as they could (even at the expense of the best creative player) and just focused on sitting deep and blocking up the middle of the pitch. With Pawlett out and Hayes getting injured after 10 seconds, we were without our two key creative players and our main players capable of beating a player one-on-one. So without them it was all fairly slow and lacking in penetration.
Key thing was that we kept our discipline. All too often I've seen Dons teams panic when struggling to get a goal and end up losing due to over-committing when trying to force a goal. This team stayed patient and risked nothing.
We still should have won the game as we had three clear chances and should have had a penalty. ICT just had the one incident where they could have scored and should have had a penalty.
But I care little enough about games being pretty at the best of times, so the game being a complete dirge takes nothing from my enjoyment of winning.
Aside from being enormously pleased for myself, there are a number of players that I'm delighted to see finally get a reward for the years of good service they've given the club. Seeing Russell Anderson (fuck knows how he didn't get MotM), the Aberdeen player I've felt most attached to over his nearly 400 games for the club, lifting a trophy was tremendously satisfying.
And then there was the glorious sight of ~42,000 Aberdeen fans taking over Parkhead and generally lording it over Glasgow for the weekend. Hasn't been that big a gathering of Dons fans since the late 60s and, unless we get very lucky with the circumstances around another final, there may never be another gathering of that size.
No goals conceded in the competition and I was present at all the games:
Aberdeen 0-0 Alloa (6-5 on pens)
Falkirk 0-5 Aberdeen
Motherwell 0-2 Aberdeen (we played 77 minutes with ten men)
Aberdeen 4-0 St. Johnstone
Aberdeen 0-0 ICT (4-2 on pens)