BILLYSTARKRELIVESTHESHOOT-OUTDRAMAOFDONS’1990WIN
THE spectacle of 1990 was the cup final with enough drama to last a lifetime, but Billy Stark concedes he couldn’t have contemplated the notion that it would be the last time Aberdeen savoured such glory.
Twenty seven years have come and gone since that extraordinary day at Hampden between the Pittodrie club and Celtic.
To many inside Hampden Park on May 12, that afternoon’s excitement is now just an everdistant memory, only there to highlight the shortcomings of the teams that followed in their wake in pursuit of the oldest trophy in world club football.
In what was the first ever Scottish Cup Final to be decided on penalties, it would be Alex Smith’s Aberdeen who eventually came out on top.
After 60,000 watched a tense 0-0, the floodgates soon opened from 12 yards.
Indeed, it took a Theo Snelders save at 8-8 from Anton Rogan to give the team in red the upper hand, the unlikely goal hero of Brian Irvine then stepping up to clinch a famous victory.
Formerly a Pittodrie player himself, Billy Stark was in green and white that afternoon, a soul spared from penalty-kick duty after being substituted off after 90 minutes.
From the touchline, he witnessed his old team make history with a squad filled with the likes of Alex McLeish, Brian Grant, Jim Bett and Charlie Nicholas.
Now the two teams are going to meet all these years later in Saturday’s showpiece at Hampden, Stark casts his mind back to that dramatic day in Glasgow.
“It was a really good game,” he explained. “Aberdeen were slight favourites because they had their Dutch contingent plus Jim Bett and Charlie Nicholas. They were a real quality team.
“That was our time at Celtic with Dariusz Dziekanowski and Dariusz Wdowczyk, Paul Elliott. It was a good game but 0-0 and that was the first final penalty shoot-out.
“In the mid 80s, Scottish football went through a revolution, when Graeme Souness came to Rangers, in terms of the money that was generated. There were quality players attracted here, and Aberdeen got them too. But I would never have thought Aberdeen would never have won another Scottish Cup. Until possibly now.”
STARK recalls how goalkeeper Pat Bonner was next in line to take a kick if Rogan hadn’t been denied. “Yes, that would have been a sight to behold for sure.
“Wdowczyk and Rogan missed ours and Brian Grant missed for Aberdeen. But Pat had a great penalty saving record and if you had said to me he wouldn’t save one out of nine I would have been amazed.
“But the quality of the Aberdeen penalties – going second every time – was terrific. Charlie, big Alex McLeish and Jim Bett put theirs in the top corner.
“Rogi’s penalty wasn’t bad, he struck it on target, but it was a good height for the goalkeeper.”
Back to the present day, even the most diehard Don wouldn’t put their team down as favourites going into this one.
With the wind of an invincible Premiership season behind Celtic, Brendan Rodgers’ team already have their name on that famous trophy in the eyes of many.
The fact Celtic have won all the previous meetings this term between the two sides only adding to that school of thought.
Yet Stark isn’t so sure. Aberdeen of course hammered Partick Thistle 6-0 only at the weekend while they have flexed their attacking muscle at times this season to pulverise the likes of Motherwell and Dundee as well. He added: “When you look at the season overall, if anyoney was going to be a threat to Celtic in a cup final, it would have to be Aberdeen.
“This is their second final. Derek will have done his homework on what went wrong in the previous one and he’ll have tried to come up with a way to win this one. Sometimes you need to gamble and be positive to win a final.”
illy Stark was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsorp of the Scottish Cup.p