Aberdeen have not been in action on Christmas Day since 1971 when they travelled to Brockville to face Falkirk – and it proved to be an eventful day on and off the pitch.
A Joe Harper double helped the Dons to victory with Bertie Miller also on the scoresheet in front of a crowd of 6,885.
Goalscorer Harper said he enjoyed the novelty of playing on Christmas Day.
He said: “It didn’t make any difference to the players.
“We were just doing our job.
“It wasn’t as if we were staying away in hotels the night before in those days.
“You were still able to spend time with your family on Christmas Day.
“You saw the kids in the morning getting their presents and then you left it to Mum and we went away to play the game.
“Fortunately we went to Falkirk and did a good job and came away with the points.
“It was a good Christmas for me, scoring a couple of goals.
“It was a great support.
“I remember that game well. There were a lot of Aberdeen fans had Santa hats on.
“The good thing was it wasn’t snowing.”
A bumpy bus journey
While Harper enjoyed his festive trip to Falkirk, Dons goalkeeper Bobby Clark wasn’t quite as fond of Christmas Day football and the packed schedule around that time of year.
He recalled: “We had to take a bus down to Brockville and it wasn’t a fancy one. Remember, there was no dual carriageway then.
“Looking back, playing on Christmas Day didn’t make much sense.
“We used to travel by train to away games. We’d usually go to Stirling then get on a bus from there.
“But trains didn’t run on Christmas Day which is what made the journey on the bus memorable – and not in a good way.
“It was one of these yellow Alexander buses and it was quite a bumpy journey.
“Back in those days the league thought nothing of scheduling games then.
“We used to play on New Year’s Day then again on the second and it was always Dundee and St Johnstone.
“That particular year they must have felt sorry for us as we were given an extra day to recover from the January 1 game before we played St Johnstone on the third.
“You always had huge crowds as people were home to see their families and I think clubs saw it as a good time to play games.
“Thankfully, players are given a little more consideration today.”
A rousing half-time pep talk
Brockville had traditionally been an unhappy hunting ground for the Dons and, according to the following day’s report in the Press and Journal, it took “a half-time dressing-room harangue” by manager Jimmy Bonthrone “to awaken the Dons from their mood of inertia.”
The Dons boss was also praised for taking the calculated risk of sacrificing Steve Murray’s drive in midfield so that the right half could closely mark a certain Alex Ferguson – “the mainspring of the Bairns attack”- who would go on to become Aberdeen’s greatest manager.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t such a memorable trip to Falkirk for a busload of Aberdeen fans who made the journey to Brockville.
The 39-strong party, including supporters from Brechin and Forfar, had to be given a police escort out of town after they were “confronted by a gang of Falkirk supporters” outside the ground.
According to the report which featured on the front page of the following day’s P&J, the trouble started after a brick was thrown through a window on the side of the supporters’ bus, leaving the fans with “a cold and miserable journey north, some of them nursing bumps and a black eye.”
Norman Cruickshank, the AFC Supporters’ Club bus convener, said a 15-year-old girl from Aberdeen was hit on the head with a stick and fainted twice, while a Brechin man received a black eye and a cut lip and a Forfar man was left with a lump on the side of his head after being struck by a stone.
Another young Aberdeen fan “was hit in the face with a piece of rubber piping.”
Mr Cruickshank said: “When we came back to our bus after the game there was a a crowd of about 100 Falkirk supporters, mostly skinheads, and they tried to stop us getting aboard the bus.
“After Aberdeen scored their first goal, Falkirk fans moved in behind where we were standing.
“The police moved in too and after Aberdeen’s second goal the Falkirk fans left.
“But they were waiting for us when we went back to the bus.
“Our bus was stoned after the game against Morton in Greenock earlier this season but the Falkirk incident was the worst I’ve experienced.”
A Falkirk police spokesman said no arrests were made.