End of an era...

That is it I have completed my HND at college. It has been a great journey to get to where i want to be. In September I start a new chapter in my life. I am going to UNI. 

I'm going to be honest, I took my 6th year at high school so I could have fun, attend prom and get my leavers hoody. I applied and was accepted to do sports journalism at the university of west of Scotland (UWS) if I got a couple of my exam results. I didn't work hard enough at my revision and left school with only one higher.

 From there I went to college in Aberdeen to study media & PR at an Non advanced course. For my parents, they think I wasted a year and they are probably right. I still had ambitions of being a journalist and this was a longer way of doing it. Once I passed that course it was on to the HND in media and communication. The work you do over the two years in considered 1st and 2nd year University level, without the exams. I have loved the bulk of the course and have made some great friends. My favourite classes have been the PR and journalism modules. The work I did in these classes was some of my best work and I was helped by some fantastic lecturers. 

In March this year I visited UWS in Ayr for a sports journalism interview. A new campus with fantastic facilities made me realise that I quite fancy coming here to study. The interview couldn't have gone better and I was offered a place, providing I pass my course. The next 2 months was then all about convincing my parents that Ayr was right for me. I looked into every aspect of moving away. The course, the area, the facilities, the career opportunities and the finances. Luckily my parents are helping me out financially, but I will get a job to help myself. 

I am absolutely buzzing to move and it will be a great experience for me. I have now got my HND in Media and communication and can't wait to start my next chapter in my life. 

Wish me luck!

World Cup fever

It is the end of the domestic season in Europe and the world is gearing up for the biggest party of the summer, The WORLD CUP in Brazil.

My earliest memories of the world cup was the 2002 tournament in Korea/Japan. I was 8 and no surprise Scotland did not qualify, so I was supporting anyone but England. The reason being was due to the rivalry between Scotland and England and it is funny to see England mess up when the press seem to consider them one of the favorites. The tournament started before we broke up for the summer holidays so I was watching games before school, due to the time difference with the far east. Before the tournament we did a sweeper with the class. You pick a team out of a hat and you get a prize if they win. I got Brazil...The rest is history.
Brazil won the tournament and the first day back after the summer I got a box of sweeties. (We were big time Primary school).
Now as I am writing this, the final group games of the 2014 edition are taking place this week. Everybody agrees that this has been already the best world cup in living memory. So many great games, goals, stadiums, fans and players. UNFORTUNATELY England are already out of the competition. Losing their first 2 games means they have not qualified for the first time since the 50's. The press haven't hyped them up as much yet they have been worse than ever.
I will update you all on the world cup when it is finished in 3 weeks time.

Cheers for now 

Cup Final #PARKRED

Hey guys. Not been on in ages but ready to blog again!

So what has been going on with me???

Well i'll start with Sunday, March 16th. We finally got some silverware in the trophy room at Pittodrie.

I ventured down to Glasgow full of optimism on a supporters bus that left Ellon at 7am on cold sunday morning. The banter on a supporters bus to Glasgow is always a brilliant laugh. Everyone gets drunk and sings Aberdeen songs. Aberdeen's first final for 14 years and I was going to be apart of it. The pre match build up took ages. We were in Glasgow from 10am and had a great day. Everyone was excited. We made it to the match with an hour to go and I watched with pride as over 40k Aberdeen fans slowly filled up Celtic Park (or as we called it PARKRED).

As we were playing Inverness Caley Thistle, we had the bulk of the stadium. Caley are a small team with a small fan base and only brought 7k fans. The majority of the 43k Aberdeen fans were real supporters but I couldn't help be hacked off at some members of the crowd. During the game I overheard some fans that seemed more interested in finding out what the score was in the English Premiership games. I was a nervous wreck throughout the match.

When the teams finally emerged at 2.30pm the noise was electric. Aberdeen have so often had flag displays at games to roar the team victory. It is a popular thing with football fans on big occasions and the flag display was incredible.

Now if you are a neutral fan that was watching football for the first time then you would argue it was a very drab game. Few chances were created and so much passing but no final product. Now if you are a committed fan like myself then you were scared for your life. In football it can all change in a flash and standing watching my team fail to break down a poor Inverness side was torture. The game went all the way to penalties and the greatest moment of my life.

Penalties is such a lottery. You can practice as much as you can but at the end of the day it is all about who has the biggest bottle. Up first in the shootout was Inverness' top scorer Billy Mackay. Aberdeen keeper, Jamie Langfield is a fantastic shot stopper, but is prone to errors and holds the nickname "Clangers" for good reason. Langfield saved the penalty and that settled the nerves in the Aberdeen end. Barry Robson is the first choice Aberdeen pen taker and he rifled it into the bottom of the net to give us the advantage. The pressure was all on Caley to score and their next taker ballooned it over the bar. I barely remember the shootout due to the tension in the place. As a fan I was extremely nervous, but imagine having to take a penalty in a cup final. The next two penalties for Caley and Aberdeen were scored and up stepped Adam Rooney with a chance to win the cup for us. The usual ROONEY ROONEY chants came from a section of the dons crowd and then silence for about five seconds. Those fiive seconds were tense until he slotted the ball into the roof of the net and we were CHAMPIONS.

The scenes were incredible. Everyone dancing in the stands and coming to terms with what had happened. I witnessed my team win a national trophy and had tears in my eyes. Celebrating with my pals and my brother was the icing on the cake. We have all been through such highs and lows with Aberdeen over the years and I am so happy to have celebrated the day with them.
When the players went up to lift the trophy I kept thinking of how proud I was of Aberdeen. The entire city had rallied round the occasion and we all deserved the success. Seeing Russell Anderson lift the cup brought so much joy.

We partied all the way up to Aberdeen and long into the night. Everyone had taken the next day off work so Aberdeen was packed with fans dancing in the streets. I was one of them. If you look at my Facebook me and my pals were part of a march to Pittodrie in the wee hours of the night. No reason except to celebrate the success. My friend Glenn had a big part to play in that march as he is very vocal when singing about Aberdeen.

Since that day I have watched countless videos from different parts of the game. The winning penalty about 80 times, the bus parade a week later, where 80k fans turned out to watch the dons players bus down Union Street. My favourite video of that day though has to be one from a random fan that caught my mate Andy celebrating with his brother Cammy. Cammy plays for the first team and played his part in the final. Cammy managed to spot Andy in the crowd and ran over after the game to celebrate for a second. That for me showed what being a football fan is all about. Seeing a friend be able to celebrate with his brother that plays for the team we all love is fantastic.

Hopefully we can have many more days like that over the years as Aberdeen are a club that should be successful and for years have been deprived of that success. 43k fans watched and I am proud to say I was there that day. #COYR

Something special at Pittodrie

Its been a long time since I posted on here. Sorry to all of my 1 follower. Been a busy few months at work, college and Pittodrie. All future blogs will be updated more. Hopefully get a few more followers too.

This blog is just an update on how my beloved dons are getting on. Last time I updated, we were struggling a bit, with a few defeats and inconsistent performances. Fast forward to January and times have changed dramatically. Aberdeen have been playing some of their best football in years. We are 2nd in the league and in the semi final of the league cup.

What has been the biggest difference in the team has been the determination and desire to play right to the end of the match. There has been at least 10 games this season where we have scored in the last 10 minutes. These have all been crucial goals too. For me the result of the season has been the cup win at Motherwell. 2,500 fans (including myself) went to the game on a freezing cold Wednesday night. After 12 minutes Aberdeen had a man sent off and it was a case of holding out and waiting for a break. We were on the backfoot for 75 minutes. I kept thinking there was no way we could win. 5 minutes remained and Aberdeen got a corner. 10 seconds later and we were ahead. Andy Considine sent the Dons fans wild. We finished the game off in style with a brilliant counter attack in the last minute. 2-0 win at Motherwell, a ground where we struggled for years to win at.

That win set us on a very good run of games. We have clawed ourselves into 2nd place in the league and the semi final against St Johnstone looms. It is very exciting times to be an Aberdeen fan. Another great thing is the relationship the fans have with the players. Social media is apart of everybody's lives and the dons players always take the time to tweet members of the Aberdeen "Red army".

I firmly believe this season will be a successful one and can't wait to be apart of the buzz around the city.

#COYR #OneCityOneClub

Matt