24th May 2025. Hampden Park, Glasgow.
I’ve been a wanderer all of my life, any many a sight I’ve seen – Mary Webb, The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen.
The tenth round of the cup! The final and the end of the road to Hampden for this wee project.
Pre match chat was all about how many Celtic would win by, such was their dominance of the domestic season, and their complete dismantling of Aberdeen in the League Cup (6-0) and only two weeks previously in the league, 1-5 at Pittodrie. With Celtic having secured the league title, with something to spare, they were on the cusp of yet another “treble”.
I was again indebted to Linda for tickets, she even managed to get me a second one, so I had company in the form of my Dons supporting mate, Bill. So despite, in terms of the project, being a Celtic fan, I found myself among 20,000 Aberdeen supporters, travelling in hope rather than expectation, on a soggy Saturday on the south side. The steed left at Central station, we made our way to the ground – no long ride today, only the wee jump to Queen Street on the way home to register.
Preliminaries dealt with, the match started as expected, with Celtic having all of the posession, but nothing in the way of a clear cut chance. It was fitting, then, that when they did take the lead, on 34 mins, it was an Aberdeen player, Alfie Dorrington that had the final touch.
Second half was much the same, until the introduction of Pape Gueye, who seemed to inject a bit of urgency into Aberdeen’s effort, and was certainly more direct. With only a few minutes left, with the engraver practicing his Cs and Tc, and Celtic starting to warm up for their luke-warm celebrations (oh, another Scottish Cup, yawn) Morris, himself a sub, put in a cross that Kasper Schmeichel should have held, and didn’t and it ended up in the net – the red and white erupted from dispair to euhporia!
We had our money’s worth – another pulsating half hour – with Celtic missing a couple of gilt-edged chances, Maeda especially. Name not quite on the trophy. Into the shoot-out lottery we went. Really glad to get one penalty shoot out on this odyssey.
Two own goals tells its own story of the quality of the match, but the shoot out was high drama and Aberdeen took all of theirs with complete assurance, allowing Mitov to do the business in saving from McGregor, of all people, in Celtic’s first attempt, meaning that in due course with the score at 4-3, Aberdeen were to have two cracks at winning it – Celtic HAD to score their fourth, and Aberdeen would still have had the chance to seal victory with their final kick. In the end, they didn’t need to as Mitov saved from Alastair Johnston and the cup was heading north. Cue proper scenes as the Aberdeen support went a bit mental, and you cannot blame them.
35 years since the Dons last won the cup, also against Celtic and also a shoot out win. I had told Bill I was staying for the trophy lift, no matter the result, but no persuasion was needed there – was fun to watch as the staff frantically set up the gantry, the pyros and the “Scottish Cup Winner” boarding. The whole thing is very stage managed at each turn – very little of it could be described as spontaneous. Indeed, I did wonder if the behaviour of some of the Aberdeen fans muted things a bit – a wall of hi-viz between players and fans, and players remaining strictly on the grass, made for the whole scene being, well, a bit distant. As is often the way at Hampden.
So, job done and the long journey that started in Culter last August finishes with the trophy ending up just down the road in Aberdeen. Quite keen to try it all again – maybe the Women’s Scottish Cup next time.
Scottish Cup, 2024-25:
Matches: 10
Goals: 30 (plus 7 penalties in the final shoot out).
Total miles cycled: 245.27
Pies: 5
Grounds visited: 8
#raveon
In the Hat 
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