A quirk of the fixture calendar put Nicky Devlin in some exalted company as he ran out of a familiar tunnel at 3pm on Saturday.
In the last 100 years, only one other Dons recruit has been pitched into the starting XI to debut on the turf he’d called home immediately prior: Frank McDougall, whose brief but electric Aberdeen career began at Love Street in August 1984.
McDougall, unusually, didn’t score that afternoon, and even he would have struggled to do so with the service available here.
The paucity of Aberdeen’s attacking efforts is summed up by the fact that their search for a first on-target shot of the season outlasts the final whistle of its opening game.
Perhaps the most forceful and memorable contribution by any Dons player was Devlin’s thunderous foul on Cristian Montaño, but he would only have come near a golden boot for it had his studs torn away his former teammate’s sock.
It is not hard to identify what Barry Robson sees in Devlin, a player whose personality and commitment are very like that of the manager in his playing days.
But for all the various attributes of this and other signings, it may be that, on day one at least, the most significant signing is the one Aberdeen were unable to pull off.
It is unusual for a club to lament a missed transfer as openly as Dave Cormack did the failure to land Tonio Teklic, and the midfield – admittedly hit by the late loss of Ylber Ramadani – certainly looked short of at least one piece.
The season has plenty left to live for and there is time yet to apply a cure. The same goes for McDougall, who has not kept well in recent times. A well-loved Pittodrie legend. Hud gan Frankie min.
