To my reckoning, Celtic have faced Aberdeen 28 times in the Scottish League Cup.
Celtic have won 15 times, Aberdeen 9 and there have been 4 draws – but that is misleading because three of the “draws” were first leg games of “home and home” fixtures, and another was a quarter final in 1986/7 which we won on a penalty shoot-out. (described by John Greig then commentating for the BBC Radio in his lovable bucolic style as a “penalty kick-out!”).
Let’s deal with the painful first.
Possibly my most painful Celtic game ever was the Scottish League Cup final of 1976/77 when we went ahead through a Dalglish penalty, pressed and pressed but couldn’t add to the lead, and yes, you’ve guessed it, Aberdeen equalised. The game went to extra time, Aberdeen scored again, we pressed and pressed but still couldn’t score and full time came and we had to listen to Ally MacLeod saying things like “magic” for the next few months.
1979/80 saw another awful two games in the two-legged quarter final, but at least we could admit then that Fergie’s Dons were the better team. And then we had two dreadful semi-finals at Hampden in 1989/90 and 1992/93, one of which I will get to in the “bizarre” section.
And then we come to the delightful ones.
I am tempted to put the final in the 2016/17 Invincible season (3-0 – Tommy, Jamesie and Moussa’s penalty – remember?) as no 1, but no, 2000 was more delightful.
It wasn’t better football, but it was so needed by us! It was the same year and only five weeks after the Inverness disaster, and frankly we were on our knees, suffering from awful management and immature selfish players. But Vidar Riseth and Tommy Johnson – neither of them exactly among the all time greats of the club – scored the goals and we had at least one night of happiness in 2000.
Delightful too were the goals in the second leg in September 1969 when after 90 minutes of rubbish at Pittodrie, Aberdeen went ahead until Lennox and Wallace did the needful. Can’t say I remember the 5-4 in 1949, but I’m told it was good!
And now the bizarre.
It was early September 1967. The European champions had already won the section, so the game at Pittodrie had little at stake, but hey-ho, it was the European champions so a huge crowd assembled at Pittodrie. Referee JPR Gordon (not really known for any great love of Celtic) gave Celtic a penalty kick which even I thought was soft.
Bobby Clark in the Aberdeen goal saved well, then Mr G awarded a re-take. If ever Celtic did not need a “break” it was now, but when you are up, you stay up and the penalty was eventually scored.
But then a nana from the Aberdeen ranks (a product perhaps of these hybrid sexual relations they keep talking about, perhaps?) ran on and attacked Mr Gordon! Walking back to the station – Celtic had won 5-1 – I saw an acquaintance of mine who supported Aberdeen. Magnanimous in victory as always, I wished him all the best for his next game, but he muttered “the f***in’ fourth goal was affside!”
A less happy bizarre occasion came in 1989 at Hampden when Joe Miller was playing. Or rather he was a substitute. He was duly brought on by an anxious Billy McNeill. Sadly Joe refused to do what Billy told him, and played in the wrong position. Billy, never a man to be trifled with, had to take him off again and replace him with someone else! Roy Aitken was sent off that night, and Dziekanowski failed to produce the goods – so it was a case of Dziekanowski, Aitkenoffski and Milleronandoffksi! On a more serious note, that little episode did Celtic no good at all in the long run, and things began to implode.
But the weirdest League Cup tie between the two of them would have to be that played at Pittodrie on Wednesday November 21 1973 with a 1.30 pm kick-off. The Conservative Government and the Miners had picked a fight with each other and the result was that there was not enough electricity in the dark nights. Instead of postponing the whole tournament until the spring, the Scottish League went ahead with these nonsensical kick-offs, and amazingly they got a 16,000 crowd – but with very few from Glasgow, although, it being Aberdeen’s half-holiday, they got quite a few locals to see an unpleasant feisty 0-0 draw, but that suited Celtic for they had won the first leg!
The results were (Celtic score first)
1949-50 5-4 (A), 1-3 (H) – Sectional stage
1953-54 0-1 (H), 2-5 (A) – Sectional stage
1956-57 2-1 (A), 3-2 (H) – Sectional stage
1967-68 3-1 (H), 5-1 (A) – Sectional stage
1969-70 0-0 (A), 2-1 (H) – Quarter final
1972-73 3-2 (Hampden) – Semi final
1973-74 3-2 (H), 0-0 (A) – Quarter final
1975/76 1-0 (H), 2-0 (A) – Sectional stage
1976/77 1-2 (Hampden) – Final
1979/80 2-3 (A), 0-1(H) – Semi final
1983/84 0-0 (A), 1-0(H) – Semi final
1986/87 1-1 (A) 4-2 on penalties – Quarter final
1989/90 0-1 (Hampden) – Semi final
1992/93 0-1 (Hampden) – Semi final
1994/95 1-0 (Ibrox) – Semi final
1999/2000 2-0 (Hampden) Final
2010/11 4-1 (Hampden) Semi final
2016/17 3-0 (Hampden) Final
David Potter
Also on The Celtic Star today…
Box clever, ignore the Poppy and enjoy Rebs Lite Beautiful Sundays…See HERE.
Jim Craig – Celtic’s Davie McLean and Scott Duncan…See HERE.
