Alex Smith on 1991 and current Dons title challenge

[BobbyBiscuit]

From the Herald:

 

It was a quarter of a century ago but pride and pain have etched the events upon the memory as they do, allowing Alex Smith to recall in vivid detail the last time an Aberdeen team contended for the title to the very end of the season.

 

Now 76 years young of outlook, the passion for the sport of the then Dons co-manager, who along with Jocky Scott steered a challenge which saw them arrive at Ibrox on the final day of the season needing only a draw to take the title, remains as impressive as his recall of those events of 1991.

 

 

Just a few minutes after seeing a win for his latest batch of bright young things as Inverness Caley Thistle’s development team were beaten by a single goal, Falkirk’s technical director was unhesitating as he detailed the situation his team was in when they began to reel the long-time leaders in back then, the results they registered in doing so – tellingly including a 4-0 win at Tynecastle – and the mood which surrounded Scottish football in general and his own camp in particular.

 

He remembers only too well what he believes was unfair criticism of the tactics he and Jocky, along with Drew Jarvie, the third member of that management team, employed on the fateful day; the chances their team spurned before Rangers got the crucial opening goal late in the first half; the nature of the attention they had paid before that to Michael Watt, the young goal-keeper deputising for the injured Theo Snelders; and the mistake made to gift their hosts their second goal by ‘someone who will remain nameless’.

 

In doing so he draws clear parallels between what happened then and what confronts Derek McInnes’s team now and believes there are lessons that the modern day Aberdeen can learn from what happened.

 

“In the time I was at Aberdeen we were second to Rangers the three full seasons. We were always competing with them for the league but particularly that year which, relative to this one, there’s certain things you can recognise from and say here’s a similar situation,” Smith noted.

 

 

In particular what is directly comparable between eras is the competitive pressure which ebbs and flows as opportunity and expectation increases, not least if Aberdeen can get themselves into a situation where they can win it on the final weekend and generate the type of emotion his men did.

 

“We get to the second last game and play St Johnstone,” he narrated, very much in the moment.

 

“We beat them 2-1. Our game was finished, Rangers are still playing at Motherwell and are two nil down, so that means we can go to Ibrox for a win, but then wee Dougie Arnott scored one in the top corner to make it three nil for Motherwell and that swung the pendulum in our favour.

 

“Suddenly we only need a draw. Well, Aberdeen fans went mad that night. Everybody was celebrating. We’re trying to say ‘It’s too early for that yet, we have to go to the lion’s den, it’s a very difficult game.’

 

“Next day we had an open day at Pittodrie, the players were in among the fans, it was hard to try to keep a lid on it and of course the pressure started in the press. So the game built up to this fantastic finale to the season, it really was and we were going there with a good side.

 

“So there are certain parallels. It’s about the same points total with the amount of games to go, there’s the same pressure on Celtic to win the league.”

 

Those parallels extend to the slightly unsettled mood behind the scenes at the leaders, even if the current speculation surrounding Ronny Deila’s future is differently motivated to that which applied as Graeme Souness quit Rangers to return to Liverpool with just a few weeks of the season remaining.

 

 

Footballers cannot be unaffected by such things and Smith senses that among the current Celtic squad.

 

“They’re nervous, they’re edgy, you can feel it,” he observed.

 

“You know when players play with a bit of tension about them, they’re not free. This pressure starts to tell.”

 

That only accentuates the opportunity presented by having a Friday night fixture, he reckons.

 

“If they can go to Tynecastle and get a win it can increase that,” Smith continued.

 

“It was one of the fixtures we had in the 1991 run-in. If Aberdeen go in with the frame of mind we had then, knowing the chance that’s there now, this pressure changes. From two or three months ago when it was ‘will we, can we, could we,’ it’s ‘yes we can if we believe in ourselves.’

 

“They have to believe in themselves when they go to Tynecastle tomorrow night. If they go into that cauldron, win the game and get that confidence it’s like almost a dress rehearsal for the game they’ve got to go and play in Glasgow.

 

“All of a sudden if Celtic don’t manage to get full points from Motherwell, who are going well, then game on and you’re talking about almost a decider.”

 

He admits that as with every club he has been involved with there is residual affection and he would consequently like to see Aberdeen win the title, but does he believe they will?

 

 

“I do,” he replied.

 

“I think the pressure’s starting to tell on the Celtic players and Aberdeen are starting to enjoy that. They’re enjoying putting Celtic under pressure and at the moment they’re playing with a bit more freedom.”

[Jute]

Title challenge?

[Madbadteacher]

AS typically accurate