More memories

We were tidying th ehouse the other day, as a friend is visiting this weekend, when Roz found this.

I was only nine years old at the time but it is still one of the most memorable nights of my life. Aberdeen had been doing reasonably well in the Cup Winners Cup that year but I don't think anyone pictured us going on to win it. When we drew Bayern Munich in the quarter final a lot of people were of the opinion that we'd had a good run and it was fun while it lasted.

the team managed to hold out for a 0-0 draw in Munich in the first leg and that raised hopes a bit as the team were capable of giving anyone a run for their money at Pittodrie.

I went to the match with my Dad and Granddad. It didn't start well however. As I recall Bayern took the lead and with fifteen minutes left to play we were 2-1 down. Then we won a freekick a wee bit outside th eBAyern box. Gordon strachan and John McMaster went to take it and both ran over the ball. It was a ploy the team had used a couple of times domestically but never in europe. In the confusion one of them quickly whipped the ball into the box befor ethe Bayern defence had got themself reorganised and Alex McLeish met it to head us back level. About a minute after that John Hewitt followed it up with another goad to put us in the league and we went on to win the match and then the competition itself.

My overriding memory is that at the equaliser and Hewitt's goal an dIrish guy sat next to us picked me up and threw me about five feet in th eair in delight, managing to spill half his Bovril over me in the process, not that I minded too much in the circumstances.

an amazing night all in all and I was thrilled Roz found the ticket as I thought it was long gone. I noticed that on th eback we had an opportunity to cash it in for five pence off our next purchase of the Aberdeen matchday programme. I'm pretty glad now that that offer was never taken up.

anyway, I'm hoping that this is a good omen for Aberdeen's match against Hearts tomorrow which is our best chance in recent seasons to get back into European competition.