The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

I was just musing about Aberdeen FC and whether they had any rivals given they do have any local derbies. Guessing Peterhead v Aberdeen is a rare occurence.

I discovered there is a long running antipathy with Rangers which had somehow passed me by...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdee...

Over to our resident Dons correspondent David....

No real close rivals geographically, but we have particular antipathy towards Rangers (2012), Celtic, and Dundee United. All built on sound reasoning and out-and-out petty and parochial prejudice. That kind of sums up all true football fans, I think.

Abso-flipping-lutley

Your boy Teddy Jenks scored five minutes from time (HUGE suspicion of handball, I’m hearing…) for the Reds v St Johnstone this afternoon to give us a 1-0 away win. He’s done well as an impact sub in the past three or four games, and we’re very happy to have him here.

Yes, I heard he bagged the winner on the radio


Glad to learn he's still pitching in with key moments

Nigeyb wrote:


"I was just musing about Aberdeen FC..."

I watched the iPlayer thing the other day

Aberdeen '83: Once in a Lifetime

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...

Great stuff

I can only imagine how wonderful it was for David to revisit this amazing time

I was in Munich (quarter final) where we drew 0-0 but should have beaten Bayern in the best performance I have seen from Aberdeen in 57 years attending. I was also at the final in Gothenburg. It was a great time to be alive.

The documentary got it spot on, and seeing Willie Miller, the hardest man in town 40 years ago, break down when speaking about Neale Cooper was very moving. The club itself, and the Gothenburg squad too, were given the freedom of the city in an affectionate ceremony at Pittodrie last month.

A plaque commemorating the honour was unveiled next day.

https://youtu.be/jRBPC9WqCwo

Wonderful - thanks David

Neil Warnock at Aberdeen 🤠


Gonna be a fun ride 🔥

Just watched ‘83 once in a lifetime. What can I say? Nothing much. Lost for words.

There’s a film about Forest called I Believe In Miracles which is another winner. Probably my favourite football documentary

The Aberdeen doc had me thinking of Ipswich Town for some reason.

Yes, many parallels

When Ipswich, with Bobby Robson still as manager, were UEFA Cup holders in 1981, they were drawn against Aberdeen in an early round. We drew 1-1 at Portman Road, which must be on our crew’s favourite away capers list, which was a surprise since we were in the middle of an early season sticky spell. The return leg at Pittodrie was one of those nights where everything went right for Aberdeen. Our left winger Peter Weir (later to be my next door neighbour when we moved to this place in 1988) took poor Mick Mills apart, and scored two goals to add to Gordon Strachan’s penalty - he missed another in injury time - leaving the score 3-1 on the night, and 4-2 on aggregate. This was a significant building block in gaining the experience that culminated in our two European trophy wins in 1983.

Alas, the old guard flexed its collective financial muscle in 1986, and it is a shameful record that no club outside Rangers, Celtic, and New Rangers has won the top league title since Aberdeen in 84-85. I still go every week, of course, although VAR has me considering not renewing my season ticket this summer.

VAR is a travesty - hopefully it can be sorted. I realise it's not going away but there are so many obvious ways it can be made more efficient and less intrusive

Really interested in seeing how Warnock does. I know it's only a stop gap but he does have a track record of galvanising squads in the short term

I think the antipathy I felt for Ferguson must have closed my eyes to Aberdeen’s exploits in the early 80’s. That and the fact that it’s Scotland (considered a footballing backwater by us ignorant English types). Ferguson tipped up at a club most people love to hate, myself included and I hadn’t stopped to question how he got there. Now I know.
VAR would annoy me more if I still attended games but I don’t. For me the problem is the glass ceiling that was last broken by Leicester and hasn’t been broken in Scotland since Aberdeen did it.
Dreaming is a large part of life for most football fans. When it becomes apparent that your dream can’t become a reality and you wake up with no hope then the magic dies.
For us Palace supporters, we dreamed of div 1 and a sustained period of mid-table mediocrity. Not being greedy we never looked beyond that ambition as it seemed unlikely enough as it was. And then you finish mid-table for ten consecutive seasons. The dream becomes a reality and the only way is back in the direction you came.

Thanks Stephen. I'm interested that you don't attend games. Why's that? For me it's what it's all about... the rituals, the familiarity, the same faces, the continuity. Wherever I've lived I've gone to watch football. I also like getting along to non-league games from time to time.

Regarding the glass ceiling, it's not all about league position. Look at West Ham last season winning a European trophy. Whilst winning the league is now all put impossible outside the big seven, European qualification and an associated adventure is still possible as non-big seven teams are proving again this season.

I guess it’s a combination of things.
From 84-96 I was doing about 30 games a season h&a.
The ritual, friends, acquaintances, the theatre, certainly not the entertainment which in large parts was non-existent.
Then I moved abroad and Selhurst became a 2,000 mile round trip but the only time I ever had a season ticket was after moving away so I still made a few games a season.
I began following Újpest because like you Saturday meant football. It was strange going to watch one of the big 3 Hungarian clubs. Expectation was something I hadn’t experienced before. They even won the league & the cup so I did the European adventure. Novi Sad soon after the UK had bombed it, the Faroe Islands & a trip to PSG well before Quatar owned it.
Been back in the UK for eleven years and have seen Palace maybe 3-4 times but haven’t visited Selhurst for approaching 20 years. If I go to Croydon, I’d rather visit my mum.
Dulwich Hamlet would be my non-league of choice.
How about you?

I enjoy occasional non league at Worthing, Whitehawk and Lewes


In years gone by I have watched regular football at Portsmouth, Arsenal, and Partick Thistle, and visited too many grounds to mention.

I've been watching Brighton on and off since the mid 1980s but only had a season ticket since 2015. As you can imagine it's been a fun few years and, as I'm unlikely to move away from the city now, I can't imagine giving up the ticket until I physically can no longer manage to get there.