 |
| Pittodrie |
Date: Saturday 18th
May
Competition: Scottish
Premier League
Attendance: 10,465
Admission: £5
Programme: £3
This
is it. The final game of the season. The 42nd ground of the year.
You would have thought by this point I’d have learnt to take a jacket to a
game. Even one in May. Instead I got wet. Really very wet. And damp. And
miserable. All this before kick-off.
I’d
booked my train up to Aberdeen as soon as the SPL split fixtures were
confirmed, so I knew that my adventure would be finishing at Pittodrie. In a
way, it was fitting as Aberdeen were the team I first supported as a four year
old before, gasp, horror, I switched my allegiance to Hibernian.
I
arrived in Aberdeen an hour before kick-off. By this point the torrential rain
that had followed me on my journey all the way to the Granite City seemed to
have dissipated. So I chanced my arm and decided to talk the 20 minutes from
the train station to Aberdeen’s home ground. Big mistake. By the time I got to
the ground I was absolutely drenched and my mood was made worse by checking my
ticket to see I had a seat in Row D – right where the stand stopped being
covered by the roof.
I
thought I’d wait and see if all the seats in the covered section were occupied
by kick-off and mercifully there were not and I was able to dive in a seat just
as the game got underway.
The
crowd of 10,465 meant that Pittodrie was only half-full, which was slightly
disappointing given the much reduced admission for the dead rubber encounter
but I imagine many people were put off by the weather. Completely
understandable if I’m honest.
Yet
there may not be a football ground near the city centre in Aberdeen for much
longer. The club plan to move to a brand new stadium to the south of the city.
It’s a move that I feel, could be disastrous for the club. There is no doubt
that Pittodrie has seen better days, but when has a move to a new out-of-town
stadium ever galvanised a club in Scotland? On the whole, they’ve become white
elephants and the lack of transport links for the new Aberdeen stadium leaves
me with a feeling this could be the same. Construction of the stadium has been
delayed for a year, so perhaps common sense will prevail. What’s clear, however
is that little money has been invested in the ground in the past twenty years –
in fact, it looks the same as it did when I went to my first match here in
1994/5.
Pittodrie
is dominated by a massive two-tier stand at the Beach End of the stadium,
called the Richard Donald Stand. It towers above the rest of the ground, and
makes it lopsided. The main stand is a typical construction and the South Stand
where I was sitting is a large 8,400 embankment which in the east sections
hosts away fans.
As
I had mentioned, the weather was shocking. It was easily the worst playing
conditions I’d seen all season – with puddles forming in parts of the pitch. It
was clearly going to be a skiddy surface for the players.
The
game didn’t really get off to a flyer and the most entertaining action in the
early stages took place in the stands as a group of Dons fans unveiled a banner
with the slogan: “Stewart Milne: epic fail”. Milne is the unpopular chairman of
the underachieving Aberdeen and soon the fans right to protest was halted as
the stewards moved in, removed the banner after a small confrontation and
ejected one or two of the rowdier fans. The natives are clearly not happy.
And
in all honesty, who can blame them? Aberdeen are an underachieving club. They
are a one club team in Scotland’s third biggest city, which has been recession
proof in these recent turbulent economic times. They are not a bottom six club,
but have largely underachieved since the start of the 1990s. The shadow of Sir
Alex Ferguson’s success in the 80s looms large over this club.
The
news of the great man’s retirement was covered in Aberdeen’s excellent
programme – certainly one of the best I’ve read this season, with lots of
interesting content and lengthy pieces.
The
game itself was what I was expecting from two underperforming clubs on the
final day of the season. It wasn’t bad, but it hardly set the heather alight.
Aberdeen had all the early chances and Hearts keeper Jamie Macdonald kept them
in the game with several great saves in the first half.
Hearts,
on the other hand could be summed up in one word: turgid. This was the third
time I’d seen them in the flesh this season and they are not a pleasing outfit
on the eye. Obviously matters have not been helped by off-the-field problems but
for too long they’ve overpaid people to play football in an unattractive
manner. By the amount of money they spend on personnel, Hearts should be
finishing third every season in the SPL no problem, but that looks unlikely to
be the case for the foreseeable future as belts get tightened around
Tynecastle. Fortunately, they have a good few youngsters coming through, so
hopefully footballing brains will replace brawn.
Despite
Aberdeen’s penchant for 0-0 draws this season, I was impressed by how they were
playing under new manager Derek McInnes. They passed a ball a lot better than I
expected and one can only hope that will get better if the playing surface is
allowed to repair itself over the summer, as certain games at Pittodrie this
season have been notable for having more soil on display than grass!
However,
what was disappointing about Aberdeen’s performance was that they still played
it safe despite the outcome of the game not really mattering. It was rare for
the midfield to push further up and support the attackers and even rarely for
either of the fullbacks to support the players in front of them by overlapping
or for those wingers to run at the shaky Hearts defence. Despite being denied a
half dozen good chances by Macdonald in the Hearts goal, it was somewhat
inevitable that Hearts were the team to take the lead. Having not looked in the
game, Hearts pushed up and got a corner. From the set piece, Ryan Stevenson was
able to wander free from his marker and head the ball home unchallenged. A simpler goal you will not see for a very
long time.
It
would have been an injustice for Hearts to walk away with all three points and
fifteen minutes after going behind, the Dons equalised after good work from
Johnny Hayes saw Jamie Hamill put the ball in his own goal.
The
rest of the game petered out, with both teams probably quite happy to not lose.
It’s probably that sort of attitude that has them sitting 8th and 10th
in the league respectively.
As
the final whistle blew, it also signalled the end of my 42 Grounds adventure. I’ll
be doing a few wrap up posts soon, so look out for that. One thing is for
certain – I’ve thoroughly enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.
