Aberdeen’s role in one of Scottish football’s great cup shocks will forever be ingrained in Scottish Cup history but for Stephen Glass, the seismic moment galvanised his club’s season.
The Dons were second bottom of the Premier Division when they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup and in danger of being relegated.
It took a monumental effort from the players to keep the club in the top flight as they won four of their last five games to secure a two-legged play-off against Dunfermline which Roy Aitken’s Dons won 6-2 on aggregate.
Glass was a key figure, scoring in the final three games for his side to help keep them up and he soon helped consign the horrible memory of Stenhousemuir to the history books nine months from the fateful exit by winning the man of the match award in the League Cup final win against Dundee at Hampden in November 1995.
As turnarounds go, Aberdeen’s was swift and successful.
Glass recalls: “We didn’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves, we had a fight on our hands to stay in the league that season and we played in some huge games towards the end of the season.
“When we beat Dunfermline in the play-offs I remember the celebrations among the fans but Stewart McKimmie, the captain, wasn’t among them. He was disappointed we were celebrating staying up.
“He had been involved in some great moments at the club and while he didn’t make a big speech to the squad or anything like that he intimated to me privately that staying up was not a cause for celebration at Aberdeen.
“The Stenny game will always be there but what it did do was fire us up the following season and when we played in the League Cup later that year we were considered favourites in every game we played apart from the semi-final.
“As a young player, as horrible as it was, it was invaluable and I was grateful to be able to, not put it right, but come through a testing season and help the club with the League Cup nine months later.”
