Beautiful day in Aberdeen and the granite is sparkling. Aberdonians have a quiet way about them with a substance that reflects the stone their city is built in.
Nice to see their wry sense of fun surface in anticipation of the first football silverware they have had a look at in a while. A number of the city’s statues revealed themselves as Dandy Dons over the weekend as the excitement grew. William Wallace was able to ‘stand free’ once more.
Sunday morning there were surprisingly high numbers of people walking on Union Street given a 40,000 strong red army were in Glasgow for the match. As the morning turned to afternoon, friends were seen gathering and, as is the form in Scotland, lining up pints to watch together a long awaited event.
Torture when in the first few minutes young Hayes left the field having injured his shoulder in an enthusiastic challenge. It is a sign of strength that such an early set back did not result in the team crumbling. It was a closely fought competition neither team scoring after 120 minutes of play. Penalties are never the best way of deciding the outcome of a competition but Aberdeen emerged the winners.
Aberdeen, the sunniest city in Scotland is used to drought but after 18 years this particular drought is over and the trophy cabinet at Pittodrie has a little less space – still room for just one more in 2014 [fingers crossed]. Today and for a while the city will be the in the red and white of the patron St Nicholas and it feels like Christmas!