Happy Gothenburg Day: 11th May 1983

[Slim]

[Drewsome]

Gonna watch the video with my kids tonight!

 

Happy Gothernburg Day!

[Madbadteacher]

Been annoying all the little hun-loving kids here with a permanently displayed full screen pic of Willie and the lads with the trophy on the smartboard!

[BobbyBiscuit]

GOTHENBURG, 1983: the time and the place, like the memories they evoke,

are etched on the consciousness of a city, written through its recent

history as though they were the message on a stick of granite rock.

Aberdeen, a band of upstarts from the north-east of Scotland, had come,

seen and conquered no lesser a name than the incomparable Real Madrid in

the final of the European Cup-Winners' Cup. Had anyone been fool enough

to sleep through the drama, they wouldn't dare to have dreamt it.

 

The surviving images, resistant to the rub of time, are an indelible

tribute to what was a momentous triumph. John Hewitt's extra-time

winner, Alex Ferguson's stumble and fall as the coaching staff burst

from the dugout, and Willie Miller's pose with the cup, an emperor

before his people. All have run through the years like the ink from a

tear-stained postcard.

 

They won't forget that night in Sweden, when the Gods smiled down on

13,000 Aberdonians, and grown men cried in the rain. Not this week the

24th anniversary of an achievement they will never repeat. While details

are blurred by the years, the most memorable moments have new

definition.

 

The world has changed since May 11, 1983, when 12 home-grown players and

a shipyard worker's son from Govan had the audacity to mess with the

cognoscenti. Aberdeen are a shadow of their former selves, the

Cup-Winners' Cup is defunct and Ferguson has long since departed the

Scottish scene, knighted for his services to football, a behemoth to

rank alongside the legends of Busby, Shankly and Stein.

 

Leighton, Rougvie, McMaster, Cooper, McLeish, Miller, Strachan, Simpson,

McGhee, Black, Weir and Hewitt. Their contact may be limited now, but in

those days they were friends, their relationship strengthened by a

shared adventure. Their other victims in 1983 were Sion, Dinamo Tirane,

Lech Poznan, Bayern Munich and Waterschei.

 

The team left no-one in any doubt as to the extent of their abilities.

In a thrilling demonstration of guts and guile, they set about their

opponents from the start, Eric Black striking the bar with a portentous

volley in the opening exchanges before putting Aberdeen ahead in the

18th minute.

 

Although Juanito equalised from the spot 10 minutes later, Alex

McLeish's short passback having forced Jim Leighton into a foul, the

advancement of Peter Weir into a more dangerous position subjected Real

to an uneasy second half. Their survival into extra time was merely

delaying the inevitable.

 

Substitute John Hewitt's header, a bent-kneed collapse at the ball, was

followed by the most helpless of celebrations, drenched as he was by

rain, sweat and tears. When Real were awarded a free-kick in injury

time, reserve goalkeeper Bryan Gunn, sitting next to Ferguson in the

dugout, sunk to his knees and said: "Dear God, please let them miss it."

Which, of course, they did.

 

After the unthinkable euphoria of the final whistle, the trophy

presentation and the parade of honour, the players retired to the

dressing-room. While the team were living it up in one section of the

changing area, there was another room for the staff, where Ferguson was

joined by backroom colleagues and club directors, including chairman

Dick Donald.

 

"I will always remember what it was like. When Dick came down, it was

almost eerie, everything was so quiet. He was crying. He hugged me, and

he was not the type of person to be demonstrative like that. He was the

old school.

He would usually just come up to me and say, 'well done Mr Ferguson,

your Boys were good'. But he loved that club. That night ... it was his

greatest moment."

 

There are those who insist that the quarter-final defeat of Bayern

Munich was a greater achievement. After a scoreless first leg in

Germany, Aberdeen found themselves 2-1 down with half an hour left.

Ferguson controversially replaced Neil Simpson with Hewitt and Stuart

Kennedy with John McMaster, a gamble that turned out to be a

masterstroke. The now fabled free-kick, a deliberate mix-up between

Strachan and McMaster, led to McLeish's headed equaliser. Then, just as

he would in the final, Hewitt grabbed a sensational winner.

 

"It was, and still is, Pittodrie's greatest night," says Ferguson. "We

had 10 minutes to go, as well as time added on, with a midfield who

couldn't tackle, and a front three who couldn't defend. But we were

hanging on because, in Willie Miller and Alex McLeish, we had the two

best centre-halves in Britain. The ball was like a magnet to Miller that

night.

 

"In terms of leadership and determination, he was Aberdeen's best player

at the time. He was the Roy Keane, the Bryan Robson if you like. But the

key to everything was the team. Strachan was fantastic during that

period, and when Weir was on song, they were a great team. They had a

good balance, a real strength about them."

 

The Bayern Munich match reminds Ferguson that, however low a period it

was in the history of Real Madrid, Aberdeen's achievement was huge.

"The Cup-Winners' Cup was a competition won by teams who could maybe

have a golden spell for two or three games, but I am proud to think back

and say that we beat Bayern Munich, who had Rummenigge, Breitner,

 

Augenthaler, some famous names. Without question in my mind, I am

satisfied that it was a trophy to be proud of winning."

 

The triumph was tinged by sadness in at least two respects. One was

Stuart Kennedy's confinement to the bench in the final. The injury he

had picked up against Waterschei, his last competitive appearance for

the club, forced the popular full-back to retire from football at the

age of 29. The other, altogether more tragic, blow was the death of a

young Aberdeen fan, Philip Goodbrand, who collapsed at the match and

never recovered.

 

"I had a few friends who were with him when he was passed down through

the crowd," says Ferguson. "It was terrible. We knew the young lad

because he used to come to training. It was a great sadness. When you

see what is happening over the next week or two, can you imagine what

his family must be thinking?"

 

Joy has a disturbing capacity to exacerbate pain. Birthdays, wedding

days, Christmas, the occasions that are supposed to be our happiest, can

be a torment for those who are trying to forget.

 

Anniversaries, for some, just won't go away, returning time and again to

demand that we celebrate what is no longer there.

 

For others, they are a comfort. Few of those old enough to have

understood Aberdeen's glory in Gothenburg will not remember where they

 

were and what they were doing that night. Events such as these are the

 

furniture of life, the moments that make us who we are. They may all be

in the past, but for as long as there are anniversaries, they will also

be in the future.

 

Stand Free

 

[BigAl]

Bobby

 

Don't know wehere you've copied that from, but I'm sitting here virtually wiping away the tears reading that and remembering not only that night, but indeed the whole wonderful run to the final.

 

As you said loon

 

STAND FREE

[The Doricle]

This time next year it'll be the 25th anniversary of that very day. Wonder if the club'll organise something for it?

[BrownyBrown]

I wish I was old enough to have been there but I'm very proud of my club for it!

[Millers Tache]

This time next year it'll be the 25th anniversary of that very day. Wonder if the club'll organise something for it?

 

Hope so. I'm going to try and get into the free bar again, like we managed last time, if they do. 

[One Bobby Clark]

Those were the days.

 

I never went to Gothenburg because

A.  I was skint.

B. At the time, it seemed like we only had to enter a competition to win it, and I reckoned there would be other finals.

 

How wrong I was......