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
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