Latest news with #GraemeShinnie
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Pandemonium & outpouring of emotions as Dons make history'
Jimmy Thelin and his players had one game to become heroes and write themselves into Aberdeen typical fashion of this season, it wasn't easy. We needed 120 minutes, four perfect penalties and two terrific Dimitar Mitov saves to end a 35-year wait for Scottish Cup all the nerve-shredding tension was worth it when Graeme Shinnie lifted that famous no 'Plan B' has been a criticism levelled at Thelin this season. Yet in the biggest game of our season he switched to a back five and brought in Jack Milne, who was absolutely outstanding. As was every man in stifled Celtic, nullified their wide men, and the gameplan took an own goal to give Celtic the lead but, similar to the stunning start of the season, Thelin's substutitions paid Gueye and Shayden Morris brought pace and physicality Celtic couldn't deal with. Just three minutes and three seconds separated Morris' introduction off the bench and his cross deflecting into the net to send 20,000 of us inside Hampden into delirium. Suddenly there was a real belief it could be our enduring an arduous extra 30 minutes which felt a lot longer, penalties arrived and just like 2014 the Dons ended their trophy drought with success from the in the stands, outpouring of emotions, the first Scottish cup victory for a generation. This squad has its place in history. Me and many others have a memory and moment to Jimmy and the players, thank you for the perfect, unforgettable end to this season's rollercoaster group-stage football now awaits, and a summer transfer window to build a squad to compete. It's exciting times but for now another rewatch of the cup final highlights are in Schreuder can be found at Red Tinted Glasses, external
Scotsman
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Scottish football's extraordinary final was good for the game - and that's not being anti-Celtic
Watching Scottish Cup final drama will always remain an unforgettable experience Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Football fans being essentially selfish, and rightly so, it wasn't quite as straightforward as knowing everyone bar Celtic fans welcomed what unfolded in Saturday's Scottish Cup final. Hibs fans may well have felt some anguish, despite the uplifting way their season ended. The Dundee United media team, meanwhile, made a mental note to refrain from posting anything that could potentially come back to haunt them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Both teams had their European plans negatively affected by the surprise outcome. It was possible to feel sympathy for whoever holds the key to the Tannadice club's X account, given few felt the need to point out that it was jumping the gun a bit when he or she posted, following the 2-1 win over Aberdeen, that United were now set fair for the Europa League. Reader: they weren't. Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie shows off the Scottish Cup to the Aberdeen fans. | SNS Group Downgraded to the Conference League qualifiers due to Aberdeen's unlikely Scottish Cup win, it's nevertheless hard to imagine United fans being overly exercised by their north-east rivals' success. What a season United enjoyed in any case. The same applies to Hibs fans, though they were more materially affected when the guarantee of group stage European football was plucked from their grasp as Dimitar Mitov leapt to his right to block Alistair Johnston's penalty. The stop heard all around the world? Maybe not quite, but what a shot in the arm for Scottish football. We can surely say that without being accused of being anti-Celtic or too pro-Aberdeen. No one should feel the need to apologise for enjoying an unexpected twist and sharing in the delight of over 20,000 Aberdeen supporters in the ground and many multiples more watching elsewhere. To say they simply 'enjoyed it' would be seriously downplaying the surge in dopamine levels. Much was made earlier this month of the 40th anniversary of the last time Aberdeen won the Scottish title, which also meant it was 40 years since anyone outside of Rangers and Celtic had won it. While it was an anniversary worth noting, it was also a grim one. Had Celtic lifted the Scottish Cup on Saturday, it would have marked another milestone: the equal longest run in which a non-Old Firm club had failed to land a domestic trophy since between 1998 and 2004. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It can still get dull Of course, Celtic have been doing most of the 'heavy lifting' in that regard – indeed, they have won 21 out of the last 27 trophies. They have lost just five out of their last 29 cup finals. It's less an Old Firm thing, more a Celtic thing. But whether a case of two teams dominating or just one, it can still get a bit….dull. After seventy odd minutes on Saturday, the Scottish Cup final looked set to go the way of two other national cup finals played on the same day. In France, Paris Saint-Germain swept Reims aside. In Germany, the romance was in third tier Arminia Bielefeld simply getting to that stage; the lower league side lost 4-2 to Stuttgart having trailed 3-0 at half-time. It was expected to be a very similar story at Hampden. At around 2.30pm, Aberdeen fans had one last long gulp of whatever they were drinking to fortify them before taking one long deep breath: it was time to head to the stadium. There was little cup final tingle to speak of. Aberdeen's player rush away to celebrate the victory. | SNS Group Little that occurred in the opening 45 minutes had caused anyone to reconsider pre-match predictions. Although they could probably have done with another goal, Celtic had this sewn up. History awaited Brendan Rodgers, who was bidding to be the first Parkhead manager to win three trebles. It made what unfolded more extraordinary. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Inch by inch, minute by minute, almost imperceptibly, there was a change in direction. Momentum began to shift. Not in a blink of an eye. It was more of a slow, creeping realisation that actually, it's possible we might have a shock on our hands here. It wasn't just one moment. Rather, it was several small moments, most of them not deemed significant enough to be included in a match correspondent's copy but which, looking back, saw the match slowly tilt away from Celtic and towards Aberdeen. As I scrawled in a notepad, a Leighton Clarkson free kick after 50 minutes 'at least gave Kasper Schmeichel something to do'. Arne Engels then hit the post after 64 mins. A Celtic second was surely imminent, or was it? Then came the triple substitution that some Celtic fans contend made them fatally weaker. Case of triple substitutions Nicolas Kuhn, Adam Idah and Engels departed to be replaced by James Forrest, Yang Hyun-Jun and Luke McCowan. Two minutes later Liam Scales almost deflected an Alexander Jensen cross into his own net. And then, with 15 minutes left, Aberdeen made a triple substitution of their own. It was a triple substitution with a difference. Three players came on and four initially went off, something I referenced with !!! in my pad. Ante Palaversa was re-directed back on, which is just as well seeing as he slotted home Aberdeen's fourth and last kick in the shootout. Jimmy Thelin later explained the mix-up as a few of us stood with him in the bowels of Hampden. It was, the Aberdeen manager suggested, due to his assistant Chrisster Persson's bad handwriting: 'It was a confusing moment,' he admitted. 'But it was good that we survived that one.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He could say that again. Imagine had Aberdeen slumped to defeat having barely tested Schmeichel all afternoon. What is now an amusing side-issue would have been identified as a farce and treated as further evidence of the Swede not being up to the job. Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack. | SNS Group In actual fact, the delay as referee Don Robertson sought to ensure it was still 11 v 11 helped to further take the sting out of the game. Aberdeen equalised minutes later thanks to a very fortunate own goal after a rare foray upfield.
Press and Journal
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Press and Journal
Duncan Shearer: Weekend of a lifetime is just the start for Aberdeen
It has been an amazing weekend for Aberdeen after the Dons beat Celtic on penalties to win the Scottish Cup. The drama on Saturday at Hampden was incredible but the joyous scenes of the open top bus parade through the Granite City on Sunday was equally spectacular. It's moments like that which show you just how much the football club means to the city and its people. I watched the game in a pub in Fort William with some friends. I grew up a Celtic fan and the place was full of Hoops supporters, but when the Dons scored their equaliser I jumped up to roar in celebration. 'Oh aye, it's like that now is it?' was one of the more printable responses which came my way, but what can I say? When you play for Aberdeen it leaves a mark on you. That's why I was delighted for Dons captain Graeme Shinnie. To win the Scottish Cup with two different teams is special. To skipper two different clubs to cup glory, however, puts Shinnie in a class of his own. I know Graeme well from his time at Caley Thistle. He's an Aberdeen lad, a great guy and the consummate professional. To win the cup for a second time, after being the nearly man on a few occasions, on his 300th appearance for the Dons no less, is incredible. It's almost as if it was meant to be. I was delighted to Dons boss Jimmy Thelin too. He looked like a man in need of a holiday by the end of it all and it comes as no surprise. The Swede has been through an emotional wringer of a first season in Scottish football but has ended it with the prize of the Scottish Cup and qualification for Europe. Not bad for a first season, not bad at all. I have to hand it to the Aberdeen manager, he showed nerves of steel with his team selection, formation and approach at Hampden. To rip up the playbook for the final game of the season, and set his team out the way he did was bold. But seeing his players execute the gameplan perfectly must have given him enormous satisfaction. His three-man defence was outstanding with Jack Milne showing maturity beyond his 22 years with an accomplished display on his first start in the Scottish Cup. Nicky Devlin, a surprise choice at left back, ran himself into the ground for the cause as he shackled Nicolas Kuhn brilliantly. For the rest of the team it was a day of sheer graft, organisation, and total commitment. Thankfully, Aberdeen had all of those qualities in abundance. When the time came for the substitutes to play their part it was the men in red who had the greater impact off the bench. Shayden Morris' pace terrified Celtic while the unorthodox Pape Gueye gave the Dons a physical presence in the final third as the legs in the closing stages and during extra-time. Capping it off was Dimitar Mitov's crucial late save to deny Daizen Maeda a winner before pulling off two further saves in the penalty shootout. A special word too for chairman Dave Cormack and his board of directors at the club. They fought hard for a 50-50 split of the tickets for the final, even coughing up the money upfront to ensure they got their way – and it paid off big time. Facing Celtic or Rangers at Hampden in a cup final is hard enough as it is. They have the financial advantage and their fans just have to roll out of bed and they've arrived at the National Stadium. Giving them, or Rangers for that matter, another advantage of more tickets for the game has always struck me as unfair. But the sight of the red and green split perfectly on the halfway line, and the incredible backing of the underdogs on the big stage showed Cormack's fight on behalf of his club was justified. I hope it has also convinced the SFA has to make an equal allocation of cup final tickets the precedent for future finals. It's a cup final, the meeting of two teams on equal footing in a one-off game. Let's treat it as such. The big question is what comes next for the Dons and their manager? Well, Europe awaits, and as the chairman stated at the parade on Sunday, the Dons need to be stronger to cope with the demands of European football alongside domestic competition. The travel, the Thursday-Sunday fixtures and the lack of recovery time will put a strain on the Dons squad. They struggled with it last season and will look to handle it much better in the next campaign. That will mean further backing for the manager to build a stronger squad but Thelin has shown he deserves that backing after ending the 35 year wait to bring the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie. Finishing fifth in the league felt disappointing given how good the start to the season was. But if you had asked an Aberdeen fan at the start of the season if winning the Scottish Cup, qualifying for Europe, and finishing fifth would the outcome, I'm sure they'd all have taken it. Anyway, that fifth place finish now leaves room for improvement – and the holders have a cup to try to defend next season.
Press and Journal
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Press and Journal
Aberdeen fan view: The Dons' humble hero speaks the truth after an unforgettable afternoon
'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.
BBC News
26-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Hampden scenes and homecoming parade make Scottish Cup glory worth the wait'
From Albyn Place, down Union Street to the townhouse, thousands of Aberdeen fans erupted in joy as the Scottish Cup glistened in the late spring sunshine in the Granite City. The streets were a sea of red and Dons' squad, led by manager Jimmy Thelin and captain Graeme Shinnie shrugged off their late night to parade the silverware which had been won less than 24 hours what a triumph it had been, against all the odds had been whispers during the week that Thelin was going to switch his tactics after suffering at the hands of Celtic in recent clashes with the champions. He needed something different and it paid spectacular vanquishing of more than three decades of pain in the Scottish Cup was over. Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South, Darvel. The Dons' fans had their fair share of horror stories to tell along the way which probably made this victory all the fact chairman Dave Cormack compared it to the feeling of winning the Cup-Winners' Cup in 1983, on the club's greatest day, tells you all you need to know about how important it they looked assured with Alfie Dorrington, Mats Knoester and the impressive academy graduate Jack Milne standing up to everything Celtic threw at headline-maker was Dimitar Mitov, the Bulgarian replicating the great Theo Snelders all those years and decades ago, first saving when one-on-one with Daizen Maeda before keeping Callum McGregor and Alastair Johnston out in the subs also made the sort of impact they were making in the early part of the season, particularly Shayden Morris, Pape Gueye and Dante ultimate prize is of course the fact the Scottish Cup has returned to Pittodrie, which was its second home during the 1980s, but it also saw Aberdeen gazump Hibernian for the European spoils of guaranteed continental competition until December with a stab at the Europa League to come first. The bank balance will get a big boost as a result of fans have had their fair share of disappointments down the years, but the scenes at Hampden and then back home the day after will have made it worth the wait.
