Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen

Aberdeen v Hibernian, 5^th May 2018, kick off 3pm

It’s game number 2 of 42 and getting this one in early was essential, with planning permission granted for a new stadium located 8 miles outwith the city centre, we certainly didn’t want to miss out on a trip to the great Pittodrie Stadium.

We had both initially decided to go for the Dundee v Hamilton game, (scheduled for the same day) but Ross, for reasons only known to himself, changed the plans at the last-minute and booked the tickets and the bus to the Aberdeen game. My own view is that Ross thought that Dundee played at Pittodrie and played it off as if it was a masterstroke.

The game on paper, looked to be one of the biggest Premiership clashes of the season with both Aberdeen and Hibernian (Hibs), fighting for 2^nd place in the league and we banked on Ross’s “last minute change” of location turning out to be the correct decision.

The City of Aberdeen 

Aberdeen is the third biggest city in Scotland and located in the North east between the River Dee and the River Don. The town is nicknamed the “Granite City” due to the large amount of granite buildings in the area, constructed from the local granite quarry.  It gives the town a grey but captivating look.  Aberdeen was Scotland largest fishing port and upon the discovery of oil and subsequent exploration in the 60s and 70s, was a major boost for the local economy and allowed Aberdeen to continue to be the powerhouse in the North of Scotland.  Having been to Aberdeen a few times, when my brother was at the local prison (he’s a prison officer), I knew the city a bit but Ross was a greenhorn, and it needed my expert local knowledge to find a bar in Union Street.

The Club

The club was founded in 1903 following the amalgamation of three local clubs in the city.  The club hadn’t won any major honours prior to the second world war but had been part of the Scottish Cup final in 1937, which still holds the European domestic record for attendance at a football match with a staggering 147,365 people squeezed into Hampden Park in Glasgow.

After the second world war, Aberdeen began to pick up silverware in the shape of the Scottish Cup in 1947 and within a decade they had managed to secure both their first Scottish League Championship and the Scottish League Cup. With a few domestic trophies to follow, the arrival of one man to the Aberdeen hot seat would change the history of the club.

We certainly could not talk about Aberdeen Football Club, without talking about the great Sir Alex Ferguson. Ferguson was appointed the manager in 1978 and in the space of 8 years had won 3 Scottish League titles, 4 Scottish Cups, the European Cup Winners Cup (beating Real Madrid in the final) and the winning European Super Cup beating European cup winners SV Hamburg.  His spell at Aberdeen broke the old firm stranglehold on the league, who between them had won the previous 15 titles. Sir Alex Ferguson would go on to become the most successful British manager of all time after additional glory at Manchester United.  Aberdeen have two stars above their club badge to commemorate winning the two major European trophies.  

It’s been a mixed bag for Aberdeen since despite them winning the Scottish Cup in 1990, they stared relegation in the face just a few seasons later when they triumphed over Dunfermline in a relegation play-off.

The team thereafter went through countless club Managers like Ebbe Skovdahl and Steve Paterson, the latter once phoned in sick for a game due to a hangover.  Yes, only in Scottish Football can a manager of a major club miss a game because he’s spewing for Scotland.  In recent years the club has built a good bit of momentum, under current Manager Derek McInness.  They have been Celtic’s nearest challengers for the league over the last few years, with Aberdeen finishing in the top 2 for the last 3 seasons, a consistency missed by older Aberdeen fans, who still recall the great days under Ferguson.

Final facts; Aberdeen are also the only team along with Celtic who have never been relegated out of top division in Scotland and can count on The Simpsons character Groundskeeper Willie as a supporter.  

The Stadium

The stadium was built in 1899 and was adopted by the amalgamated Aberdeen FC in 1903. Located just at the beach in Aberdeen, the stadium has a capacity of 20,866 and it is the fourth largest stadium in the country and the largest outside Glasgow.

The stadium has hosted 15 Scotland internationals, 10 since 1990 and in the 1920s was the first to introduce the dugout, now more widely known as the technical area. My research isn’t the best but I came across information that Managers would previously watch the game sitting on top of the cross bar.

The stadium of 4 all seated sides is made up of the Dick Donald stand that made way for the old Beach End in 1993, The Merkland stand has a Granite exterior and houses the family section also. The south stand, houses both the home fans and the away section also.

It was also the 2^nd football ground in the UK to have an all seater (benched) stadium, Clydebank F.C. being surprisingly the first, although Aberdeen later changed to individual seats and Clydebank went to the wall, only to be resurrected in the junior leagues as Clydebank Zombies, sorry Juniors.

The Costs

The tickets are priced as per section of the ground which is split into zones, Platinum £28, Gold £26, Silver £24 and Bronze in the Merkland Family stand. Under 18s can enter for a tenner and under 12s can get a seat for £6.  Sheep are allowed in for free!  We obtained our tickets in the gold section of the south stand, 3 rows from the front, just off centre of the halfway line.

Due to scheduled rail works, we had to opt for the bus to Aberdeen which cost £20 for a return, which is very reasonable for a 3 hour bus trip to Aberdeen.  Generally going to the game with kick off at 3pm, you don’t need to leave so early, however myself and Ross wanted to take in the sights (get our drink on) prior to kick off and the fact our return bus home was scheduled to leave at 7pm back to Glasgow.

A train should take around 3 hours and the costs can fluctuate wildly depending on the time you purchased the ticket. I would recommend booking early for such a trip and purchase for a scheduled train rather than an open ticket to reduce costs. A single from Glasgow Queen Street can be as cheap as £11.80 and its the same from Edinburgh Waverley.

The Game 

A massive crowd of just under 18,000 attended the game, with the away support section sold out in advance of the match. The Hibs fans, like ourselves, had a three hour bus trip up to the game and were in the mood with the away section singing most of the match with the help of a bass drum that wouldn’t have been out of place in the old Glasgow Arches. The game started off well with Hibs being awarded a penalty with 6 minutes on the clock.  A poor penalty was rightly saved by the Aberdeen keeper to the joy of the home support, however nothing much else happened with the exception of Aberdeen player Niall McGinn striking the woodwork with a free kick just before half time.

Half Time Pie

When mass producing a pie for the football we have quickly realised that the love gets lost in the process. It was so poor that we agreed to give the pie at Cappielow park an extra point. Ross purchased two pies, one standard scotch pie and the other, and we use the term loosely, a steak pie. Both lacked real flavour and were dry. Ross decided to give the pie a collective 2 out of 10. One point for each pie and only because they were edible.

Going into the game with both teams in a three-way race with Rangers to finish 2^nd place in the league, we had hedged our bets at this game being one of the games of the season.  I think we both knew when we started this that we might get a few 0-0 draws on our journey but I would not have bet on this game being one of them.  Aberdeen and Hibs had recently been frequently scoring for fun in the games leading up to this fixture but with so much at stake, no team was giving much away resulting in a stalemate.

The second half didn’t merit anything really to write about and the stats show Aberdeen having 1 shot on target all afternoon, meaning that the much-anticipated game was a bit of a snoozefest. At least the Dundee and Hamilton game had one goal in it Ross!

Final score Aberdeen 0 Hibernian 0.

The road trip to Aberdeen

We left Glasgow at 7.25am and were scheduled to arrive at Aberdeen 3 hours later with  a stop at Dundee.

The bus had come up from down south and judging by the smell had come from London overnight. Myself and Ross opted to sit on the vacant seats at the back of the bus beside the toilet which was refreshing compared to the stench of a nights worth of flatulence and feet that the windowless bus and an air conditioner with the blowing power an asthmatic mouse couldn’t deal with.

After acclimatising to the smell, we decided not to open the booze we had brought so that we might actually see the game.  We decided to wait until Dundee before sparking open the rum and coke that Ross concocted in empty one litre bottles of Diet Coke. He should have paid more attention to the measures, as in the hour between Dundee and Aberdeen and a litre bottle each of Ross’s mixture, we left the bus drunk.

After a brief trip to Aitchies bar beside the bus station, we headed towards Union street and found ourselves taking part in a football competition run by Lidl. It was clearly set up for kids, but that didn’t stop us taking part in games such a “chip the ball in to the Lidl’s trolley”. I was vindicated in giving up the game a few years ago with a poor performance, however Ross managed to knock a few kids off the leader board, which he appeared to be immensely proud of.

A few bars in and around Union Street we went to included The Snuggery, the Wig, Portals bar and The Castle bar. The latter is where we spotted the dart board set up properly in the pub, with its own booth to play in, rather than firing some arrows over an old man’s head as he sits there none the wiser sipping on his half pint, as is the case in some pubs.

I appeared to have hit that point between sobriety and steamboats, when every shot comes off for you.  On this occasion our game drew the attention of a local who professed to be the best in Aberdeen and challenged us to a game. He was so confident that he said that he would play the two of us against him.

After hitting a 140 with three darts on a practice throw, if he was haggling for a bet he was going about it the wrong way as myself and Ross quickly ruled out a cash game. With Ross passed the sweet point in terms of alcohol consumption (he would have been better aiming for the moon on his turn) it was left to me to take on one of the best players in the country, well alright maybe that is too far, one of the best players in the world!  It was a close game but a double 11 finish by yours truly sealed the victory for the boys representing Glasgow as I was lofted onto the shoulders of the pub regulars and paraded down Union Street towards the bus station for the trip home. At least that’s how I remember it.

We purchased some rum and a bottle of coke for the trip back down the road. My drunken attempts to mix the rum with the coke in a third bottle meant that half the rum was soaked into my jeans, or at least I hoped it was rum.  We managed to drink our supplies in the hour it takes to get to Dundee. Faced with 2 hours still with no alcohol, Ross had a master plan to jump off the bus at Dundee, advise the driver that he couldn’t use the toilet on the bus and instead run to a nearby shop to obtain more booze for the journey home. With no idea of the location of a nearby shop, Ross decided to go on a search of the vicinity around the station. Five minutes passed and a clearly agitated driver was starting to become very vocal about the delay.  I left the bus in a faux search for him, only to see Ross running around the corner, out of breath and disoriented with a bag of bottled beers with excessive fluid dripping from the bag. Unfortunately, Ross in his return journey back to the bus had decked it with the beers, smashing two beers in the process.

I opened the bag, removed the glass and poured out the river of beer that had accumulated within.  The driver clocked the goings on and immediately told us to put the bag in the undercarriage or we wouldn’t get back on the bus. We duly complied and headed back down to Glasgow almost beer-less, with the exception of the two Budweisers we had managed to sneak past the driver during the commotion.

Another great day.

It was another excellent day and would recommend the trip up to Aberdeen, Granted the game wasn’t the best, it was still a stadium we really wanted to see and the day out on the sauce was one to remember.

Two down and 40 to go. It’s the last one of this season and our next trip at the start of the new season has a lot to live up to.

Until then,

Si and Ross