THE SCOTTISH CUP DIVIDEND #2: 🗣️"When Mitov saved that penalty, grown men wept"

A superfan and a business leader quantify the energising and unifying effects of May’s unexpected and long-awaited glory for the Granite City and fans of Aberdeen FC

Award-winning sportswriter Stephen McGowan writes monthly investigations for Nutmeg FC. This week, he examines the impact on and off the pitch of Aberdeen’s first Scottish Cup win in 35 years. Yesterday in Part I, we got Pittodrie director of football Steven Gunn’s viewpoint. Today, we hear from Dons fan and PR expert Ally Begg, and Adrian Watson, chief executive of Aberdeen Inspired.

Part II is for paid subscribers only.

By Stephen McGowan

Dimitar Mitov dives to meet Alistair Johnston’s penalty and end Aberdeen’s 35-year wait for the Scottish Cup, triggering pandemonium among the Reds support

In the 1980s, Aberdeen’s golden decade yielded three league titles, four Scottish Cups, two League Cups, a European Cup Winners’ Cup and a UEFA Super Cup. By the 1990s the trophies — like the oil which fuelled Aberdeen’s boom years — had slowed to a trickle.

“When Dimitar Mitov saved that penalty I broke down,” says Ally Begg about May’s final’s clinching moment. “And there were a number of people around me, fully grown men and women, in tears.”

Born and raised in Aberdeen, Begg began his working life as a member of 1990s boy band Bad Boys Inc. In those days, the sight of teenage girls reduced to a quivering mess became commonplace. In his next role as a sports broadcaster, he watched and presented football from across the planet but never witnessed anything to match the sight of Aberdeen supporters dissolving into a heaving mass of limbs when they finally ended their Scottish Cup barren years.

“In all my years of supporting the Dons I have never seen the fans as emotional as they were that day,” Begg tells Nutmeg FC.

“Had Celtic won that penalty shoot-out, do you think their fans would have finished the day crying tears of joy? Absolutely not. Not a chance.