Former Aberdeen striker John Stewart netted a memorable last-minute winner at Parkhead despite the pain of recently losing his gran.
Stewart, affectionately known as ‘Budgie’, scored the dramatic goal to sink Celtic 3-2 at Parkhead on October 27, 2004.
The next day he had to attend the funeral of his beloved gran Sarah.
Stewart, 36, says his gran was ‘looking down on him’ as he scored that sensational goal – the first of his Pittodrie career.
That goal secured one of only three league wins at Parkhead for Aberdeen in the last 20 years.
Stewart’s advice to Stephen Glass’ side looking to land three points at Celtic on Sunday – have a go.
He said: “That was my first goal for the Aberdeen first team and it was a special night to get it in the last minute at Parkhead.
“I had my gran’s funeral the next day.
“It felt like she was looking down on me. She was my dad’s mum and he was there at the game and had tears in his eyes at full-time.
“It was an emotional night for us.
“The gaffer (Jimmy Calderwood) was brilliant and said I could take time off but I told him I would just need Thursday off, the day after the Celtic match, to go to the funeral.
“Jimmy told me to stay down the road for a couple of days after the funeral.
“All the boys helped me as well.
“When you are playing Celtic at Parkhead you want to be involved.
“After the game I went back home to Airdrie and stayed at my mum and dad’s before the funeral the next day.
“It was all over the papers and everyone was saying to me ‘well done son, your granny will be looking down on you’.
“I think that was the case. She would have been proud.”
Injury time winner ‘a bit of a blur’
Aberdeen stunned Celtic in the Wednesday evening game by racing into a 2-0 lead after just six minutes following goals from Darren Mackie and Fernando Pasquinelli.
Celtic levelled through a John Hartson brace and were pushing for a late winner.
However Aberdeen hit on the break in injury time when Michael Hart found Stewart with a long pass.
Stewart brilliantly controlled the ball then pushed it beyond Stan Varga, held off Bobo Balde and unleashed a clinical left foot drive beyond David Marshall.
Stewart said: “Kevin McNaughton was injured at 2-2 and Jimmy said to me ‘right Budgie get yourself warmed up’.
“I warmed up for a minute before I went on as it all happened so quickly.
“It was a good finish for my first goal.
“I put it over Varga’s head and it just felt like it was never going to sit down.
“I headered it into the ground then put it by Marshall with my left foot.
“It was all a bit of a blur and I only really realised what had happened when I watched it back later on.”
Aberdeen must ‘have a right go’
Stewart was an unused substitute just months earlier when Aberdeen again netted a 90th minute winner to beat Celtic 2-1 and end the Parkhead side’s 77-game unbeaten home record.
Henrik Larsson had shot Celtic ahead before Bryan Prunty levelled.
David Zdrilic smashed home the winner in the 90th minute.
Aberdeen will bid to end a two game losing run when facing Celtic in Glasgow on Sunday.
The Dons came close to beating Rangers at Ibrox last month when starting on the attack, racing into a 2-0 lead after 16 minutes only to be pegged back to draw 2-2.
Stewart insists the Dons must adopt the same philosophy of that 2004 side – by going out and ‘having a right good go’.
He said: “Celtic are flying in the league at the moment but had a hard game away to Bayer Leverkusen (3-2 Europa League loss on Thursday).
“If you sit back against teams like Rangers and Celtic away from home nine times out of ten they will break you down.
“So, have a right good go at them.
“That’s what we did that night at Celtic and it obviously paid off for us.
“We were 2-0 up after six minutes when Darren Mackie scored then big Fernando (Pasquinelli) scored soon after that when he picked up the short back pass from (Neil) Lennon.
“Even though we got two early goals at Celtic we still had a go at them after that.
“We were hanging on towards the end but I managed to score that winner.”
‘People always remind me of the goal’
Stewart would spend another 20 months at Aberdeen before transferring to Falkirk in summer 2006.
Stewart joined Queen of the South in January 2008 on loan and would come back to haunt form club Aberdeen.
Introduced as a substitute for the injured Stephen Dobbie he scored the winning goal in a 4–3 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat of the Dons at Hampden in 2008.
It was a humiliating defeat to a lower league side for the Dons as Queens booked their first ever major final spot.
Stewart would feature off the bench in the final – a 3-2 loss to Rangers.
He said: “Scoring against Celtic was a massive moment in my career. I broke into the team under Steve Paterson and Duncan Shearer and made quite a few appearances that season under them.
“Then the two Jimmys (Calderwood and Nicholl) and Sandy (Clark) came in.
“I was lucky that I did well in pre-season and the two Jimmys and Sandy were brilliant for me.
“They had a lot of faith in me and that did me the world good.
“It didn’t quite work out how I wanted it to at Aberdeen but scoring the winner at Celtic was a massive point in my career.
“I still get reminded about that goal at some point every weekend. People always remind me of it.”
