Pressure helped us win titles — it’s no bad thing
THIRTY years ago this weekend, Willie Miller scored the goal which not only beat Celtic to the title, but proved to be the last time a team outside the Old Firm would win the championship. Here, the Aberdeen legend talks to EWING GRAHAME about an achievement the Scottish game may never witness again...
THE success enjoyed by Aberdeen during their golden era under Si r Al e x Ferguson was built on the defensive rock of Jim Leighton, Alex McLeish and Willie Miller.
Fergie’s legendary trio were so formidable that they won 233 Scotland caps among them, as well as helping to establish the Dons as the dominant domestic force in this country.
Miller and McLeish would also help out in the opposing penalty area and it was on April 27, 1985, that Miller supplied a collector’s item — a headed goal — to claim the Dons’ third championship under Ferguson.
Celtic were their nearest rivals but, such was Aberdeen’s superior goal difference, Davie Hay’s men needed a victory at Pittodrie to have any chance of pipping them to the title.
Roy Aitken had given the visitors a half-time lead from the penalty spot but cometh the hour, cometh the man and, in the 60th minute, club captain Miller threw himself at an Ian Porteous free-kick to head home the goal which saw Aberdeen retain the league flag.
‘I’m not sure what I was doing there,’ Miller told Sportsmail with a grin. ‘Sometimes I’d go up and, at other times, I’d hang back in case of a breakaway but we needed a goal at the time, so maybe that’s why I was in the box.
‘Usually, though, I wouldn’t cross the halfway line and, while I don’t remember much about the game i tself, the goal sticks i n my memory because of its importance.
‘The club have said nothing about celebrating t he 30th anniversary of that success, but perhaps they could just let me back out on the pitch for a repeat of my over-exuberant celebrations. Mind you, I’m not sure that my knees would be up to it!’
Team-mate Eric Black was more renowned for scoring goals in that fashion and he recalls being taken aback to see the skipper launch himself at the delivery.
‘I just remember seeing him stretching his neck out to get his head to the ball,’ he said. ‘When it went in, it was the furthest — and fastest — I’d ever seen him run.
‘At the time, winning the title just seemed a natural thing for us to do. The demands placed on us by the manager meant that we were constantly under pressure — but that was no bad thing.
‘I’d grown up there believing that you would turn up for pre-season training, play a few bounce games and then, eight months later, you pick up a few winners’ medals before going on your holidays the following summer.
‘To be honest, it’s only really now that I realise that not only did our success not happen by accident, but also just how good that group of players were.’
Miller’s goal that afternoon proved to be one of the most significant moments in Scottish football. It was to be the last time a club outwith the Old Firm would become league champions.
It was also the last occasion the title was won by a team using only Scottish players.
Eight of the 23 players used by Ferguson t hat s eason won Scotland caps and several more have cause to wonder why they didn’t. Miller admits, however, that never again will a team crowned champions be full of homegrown stars.
‘We didn’t have the Bosman ruling: what we had in its place you might call slavery,’ said Miller.
‘Clubs could get rid of you, but they could also hold on to your registration even if you wanted to leave. They had all the power then, but that’s why Aberdeen and the likes of Dundee United were able to build teams.
‘I was with Aberdeen for 20 years, Alex McLeish was there for 17 and Jim Leighton was at Pittodrie for a decade. That wouldn’t happen now. It couldn’t happen now.
‘The players have the power and now you have a situation where Fulham can come in and snatch Jack Grimmer away from us after just four first-team appearances.
‘Ryan Fraser and Fraser Fyvie also moved south before they’d served their apprenticeships at Pittodrie and that’s the way the modern game is. Long-term team building is a thing of the past.’
Miller and Co may have been denied freedom of movement by the prevailing conditions of the time, but he concedes that the l egendary status he and his team-mates enjoy in the North East could not have been attained under the current system.
‘Rangers changed the game up here for good when they appointed Graeme Souness in 1986,’ he said.
‘They started signing England players and internationals from foreign clubs. It was a revolution.
‘After that, everyone else followed their lead — or at least tried to — in order to match them. Before that time there were very few transfers across borders, which was good f or Scottish clubs because most of the money stayed in the game, in this country.
‘At Aberdeen we also benefited from having a special manager. At the start of every season, Fergie used to demand two trophies.
‘He had a desire for winning things. The younger lads like Eric and Neil Simpson thought success was normal, but I’d played in t e ams which j ust avoided relegation, so I appreciated what we achieved more than they did.’