Aberdeen fan view: The Dons' humble hero speaks the truth after an unforgettable afternoon

Press and Journal

26-05-2025

'I'm not the hero. Everybody involved here is a hero.'
The first recorded words of the man who completed Aberdeen's staggering Scottish Cup triumph were characteristically humble. Truer ones, though, won't often have been spoken.
Dimitar Mitov's impeccably rehearsed goalkeeping – and as inch-perfect a set of shootout penalties as have ever been taken – will be the images replayed throughout eternity.
But the towering stopper is correct to establish that they may never have taken place at all without an unstinting, unflinching effort from everyone responsible for carrying out the Dons' gameday plan.
On the field, there were those who gave more than they had for longer than they could. Titanic two-hour shifts from Graeme Shinnie, Alexander Jensen, Mats Knoester and, after his brief, unscheduled visit to the bench, Ante Palaversa. Others who went as deep as their legs could withstand, before making way for new legends arriving midway to reinforce the campaign.
In the dugout, an extraordinary turn to the pragmatic by the ice-cold Jimmy Thelin and a hard-working staff who staged a revolution in less than a week.
In the background, those who pressed the case for so many Dandies to be able to experience the moment; and those fans themselves for creating a seething, surging wall of scarlet noise both in the stadium and in the city to see their winners home.
Above it all, those who implemented and funded the project. And even those who designed and selected the team's kit, its chessboard pattern, mirroring the iconic strip of 1990, foreshadowing both the victorious end to the season and the nationality of the man who smashed in its final, decisive goal.
Though nobody else in the land could see, it was hidden in plain sight. Aberdeen's fabulous fate, literally woven into the very fabric of the club.
What a game. What a day. What a club.