Thirty-five years have passed since Aberdeen last lifted the Scottish Cup and that day at Hampden proved to be a hugely controversial affair.
This weekend Jimmy Thelin’s Dons will bid to emulate the success enjoyed by Alex Smith and his side after they defeated Celtic in a marathon penalty shootout in 1990.
Brian Irvine held his nerve to slot home the winning spot-kick and win the cup for the Reds but post-match coverage was dominated by discussion of the penalty shootout, which was used to determine the winner of the Scottish Cup for the first time.
While the Dons were basking in the glory of winning the trophy for the seventh time, many were bemoaning the fact the game had not gone to a replay – and it wasn’t just the Celtic fans.
On the Monday following the Scottish Cup success, The Press and Journal contained a lead story on Dons boss Smith, who wanted to build on the 1989-90 cup double by winning the league title the following season.
But the main focus of the back page was on the controversy of the mammoth penalty shootout with three separate stories on how the penalties overshadowed the game.
The game’s main protagonists were in agreement that penalties were far from an ideal way to settle a cup final.
Celtic manager Billy McNeill said a penalty shootout was a “cruel” way to lose a final, while his Aberdeen counterpart Smith said: “A penalty shootout is like shooting wee ducks at a funfair and a completely different thing to the game of football though I’m delighted we won.”
The P&J coverage included an interview with Scottish FA secretary Jim Farry declaring that penalty shootouts were here to stay.
The report said: “The 20-kick sequence that sent the Red Army into raptures after two hours of football on Saturday set up an immediate clamour for the return of the replay.”
MP claimed Aberdeen fans were ’embarrassed’
But SFA secretary Farry believed the introduction of penalties was a positive one as it avoided arguments over neutral venues for replays, the cost of midweek travel to fans and the difficulties involved in distributing tickets and arranging police rosters.
A story underneath reports that George Galloway, still a Labour MP in those days, planned to raise the matter of the “farcical lottery” of penalties at the House of Commons.
His observation was: “The Scottish Cup left Celtic fans bitter, Aberdeen fans embarrassed and neutrals wondering if it is not time the people had a say in the SFA.”
He believed the football administrators south of the border had got it right with the final of the English FA Cup going to a replay after a 3-3 draw between Manchester United and Crystal Palace.
Galloway added: “There is a lot of anger in Scotland across all boundaries and among the supporters of all clubs about the lottery, which really brings it down to the level of farce.
“It contrasts with the epic battle at Wembley between the English contestants which is being replayed on Thursday.”
Tremlett takes aim
P&J sports reporter Mike Tremlett also wrote an opinion piece which was featured on the back page.
His belief was that while shootouts may be great viewing for armchair fans and sponsors, for “the purist and the players they are anathema.”
The opinion piece added: “Saturday’s final, and Aberdeen’s cup double, was devalued just a little bit by the virtual farce that capped two hours of total commitment.
“Both sets of players would surely have been happier to go back to Hampden and do it all over again rather than settle the issue from the spot.”
It concluded: “Managers hate them, players detest them, the fans are cheated by them and they make a nonsense of what precedes them.”
These three stories – carried in an Aberdeen newspaper the Monday after the Dons had won the cup – highlights the sceptical attitudes of the time towards penalty shootouts.
Looking back on these reports, they appear almost bizarre these days, given we have become so used to seeing cup ties settled by shootouts.
There is certainly no chance of similar scrutiny if this weekend’s Scottish Cup final culminates in penalty kicks.
A controversial VAR decision on the other hand…
Although the 1990 final was the first time penalties had been used in the Scottish Cup, it wasn’t the first time the Dons had been involved in a penalty shootout.
Indeed, the Dons could lay claim to being the first team knocked out of a European competition by penalties when they were beaten by Hungarian side Honved on spot-kicks in the first round of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970.
Penalties were also in operation in the final of the League Cup (then known as the Skol Cup) for the previous three seasons with the Dons losing in 1987 against Rangers on penalties.
But the reaction to the Scottish Cup final in 1990 shows it was still something that many football fans of the time felt was the wrong way to settle matches of such importance.
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