Hampden Park

Monday, April 15, 2019

Aberdeen 0-3 Celtic (Scottish Cup Semi Final 2019)


Aerial shot of Hampden Park (Photo courtesy of Aberdeen FC) Ratings Overall Ground Quality : 8/10 Ease of getting there : 8/10 Atmosphere : 9/10 Programme : 7/10 View of Action : 6/10 Quality of the game : 7/10 The "football" feeling : 9/10 Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10 Legroom : 8/10 Surrounding area : 8/10 Overall : 71/100

Programme - £4.00

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Aberdeen 0-3 Celtic

The next day we were out of our Premier Inn in Carlisle and on the road by 8am continuing our journey north towards Glasgow for our Scottish Cup Semi Final at Hampden Park. Just over an hour later, we found ourselves in Hamilton where we treated ourselves to a full Scottish breakfast at ASDA (containing the usual plus a potato cake and an unusual rectangular piece of meat which we later found to be a Lorne Slice thanks to Google).

After our “heart attack on a plate”, we refuelled the car before making our way toward Hampden via the East Kilbride Expressway. We parked just a 20 minute walk from Hampden Park on Kingsbridge Drive which is situated just outside the residential parking zone.

We made our way to the national stadium where we took photos outside before visiting the famous Cathkin Park, former home of Queen’s Park and latterly Third Lanark until 1967. The old banks of derelict terracing now surround non-league football pitch which at the time of our visit were being used for two kids’ matches (one being the Jimmy Johnstone Academy). Cathkin Park feels like a place with plenty of history with the former ground being left to rot from 1967 onwards and has since been taken over as a public park and a tourist attraction for groundhoppers alike.

After we ate our sandwiches on a park bench where the former dugouts were once situated, we walked up to the top of the terracing and made our way round back towards Hampden Park where the pre match atmosphere was building.

Hampden Park has a capacity of 51,866 and is the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the normal home venue of the Scotland national football team and amateur Scottish league club Queen's Park F.C. and regularly hosts the latter stages of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup competitions.

Hampden was the biggest stadium in the world when it was opened, with a capacity in excess of 100,000. This was increased further between 1927 and 1937, reaching a peak of 150,000. The record attendance of 149,415, for a Scotland v England match in 1937, is the European record for an international football match. Tighter safety regulations meant that the capacity was reduced to 81,000 in 1977. The stadium has been fully renovated since then, with the most recent work being completed in 1999.

During the late 1970s, it became apparent that the facilities at Hampden were in need of renewal. As an amateur club, Queen's Park could not possibly fund the works, while Glasgow District Council withdrew funding and the UK Government decided not to fund it either. Queen's Park considered selling Hampden, but a public appeal and minor repair work kept Hampden open during the 1980s. The riot after the 1980 Scottish Cup Final prompted reforms, as alcohol was banned from football stadia in Scotland.

The first phase of the redevelopment involved the demolition of the North Stand, the concreting of all terraces and the building a block of turnstiles around the upper section of the East Terrace. This work, begun in October 1981 and completed in 1986, reduced the capacity to 74,370 and cost £3 million. A second phase had been planned to begin in 1988, but the release of the Taylor Report caused the plans to be redrawn and the proposed costs escalated to £25 million.

After the cancellation of the annual Scotland v England fixture in 1989, questions were raised as to whether Scottish football required a separate national stadium. Rangers proposed Ibrox as an alternative venue, while Murrayfield was about to be redeveloped without public funding. None of these arguments impressed the National Stadium committee, which consisted of the SFA, Scottish Football League and Queen's Park. The West Terrace was converted to seating in 1991 for only £700,000, but this left two terraces and therefore disqualified Hampden from hosting FIFA World Cup qualification matches.

The UK Government eventually provided a grant of £3.5 million in 1992, which allowed work to begin on a £12 million project to convert Hampden into an all-seater stadium. The last match played in front of the sloping terraces was the 1992 Scottish League Cup Final. Within a year, the east and west ends of the ground had been replaced and the partially rebuilt Hampden was re-opened for a friendly match between Scotland and Netherlands on 23 March 1994. It was then also used for the later stages of the 1993–94 Scottish Cup competition. As the capacity of the old South Stand had been limited to 4,500, the total capacity of Hampden had been reduced to approximately 37,000. With Celtic Park also undergoing extensive redevelopment to become all-seater, Celtic spent the 1994–95 season groundsharing at Hampden, at a cost of £500,000 rent.

The final stage of the renovation began in November 1997, with its £59 million cost funded by the National Lottery. There was a cost overrun and a fraud squad investigated alleged financial irregularities. The South Stand was replaced and the stadium was re-opened for the 1999 Scottish Cup Final. The ground now has a capacity of 51,866. Queen's Park retained ownership of the ground, with the SFA holding a lease due to run until 2020.

Celtic now under the management of Neil Lennon eased through this Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden and the treble-treble remains a distinct possibility as they continue to dominate the Scottish game.

Realistically Aberdeen’s best chance of creating an upset was to arrive with a full strength team keep 11 players on the field and if possible keep the manager and assistant in the technical area and not in the stand. None of these things happened but full marks to their fans who were outnumbered 3 to 1 but made a lot of noise.

Celtic started to dictate the play from the start and Aberdeen keeper Joe Lewis was forced to push away a goal bound effort from Simunovic in the opening minutes. The defender allowed too much space to run into.

It was clear who the better side were and Aberdeen struggled even with a full complement to really create anything of danger in the final third. Lots of running and last ditch tackles and in some cases poor decision making.

This cost a young Englishman Dominic Ball, a lad who is from Welwyn Garden City but is on loan to Aberdeen from Rotherham. Already booked for a challenge on Hayes he unwisely made another poor challenge for a high loose ball with Ryan Christie. He headed the face of the Celtic man and was shown a second yellow for dangerous play. The game was stopped for around 5 minutes, Christie flat out on the field. After extensive work by the medical staff he was slowly put on a stretcher and taken off. We hear he did recover consciousness but either has a fractured eye socket or a broken cheekbone.

Immediately Aberdeen took off Stevie May replacing with the more defensive minded Mikey Devlin and moments later the goal that had been coming duly arrived.

A move on the Celtic right MacGregor found James Forrest who created space before firing a wonderful left footed shot into the top corner. Pure class from the Scotland international and a deserved lead at half time.

The second half continued in similar vein Celtic encamped in the Aberdeen half and you knew another goal was coming.

Poor defending by Devlin, Hayes fouled, penalty given and despite the effort from Lewis, Edouard made it 2-0.

More ill-discipline from Aberdeen followed.

Ferguson was given a straight red card for a high challenge on Rogic and from the free kick, although Lustig’s effort was blocked Rogic swept home low with his left foot.

So two red cards for Aberdeen, 9 men on the field and their fans weren’t aware that the assistant manager had been red carded at half time for an altercation in the tunnel.

Worst was to follow, manager Derek McInnes (former Rangers player) was then sent to the stands after reacting to some sectarian abuse being dished out by Celtic fans. It’s a problem blighting the Scottish game. The SFA are trying to stamp it out but it seems something entrenched in a minority of Scottish people.

He later apologised on Radio Scotland, he shouldn’t have reacted but I guess he is human.

So put all this together and you could say it was a bit of a footballing disaster for Aberdeen, the game was over in just over an hour as a contest as Celtic completely dominated the football. It could have been more, Tierney and Edouard were denied by Lewis and McGregor saw a goal bound shot cleared.

Scott Bain in the Celtic goal did not have any direct shot to save in the entire 90 mins, the closet Aberdeen came was an effort in the first half when Sam Cosgrove hooked a right foot shot just wide.

Celtic were easily a class over their opponents from up north, a deserved win and they will meet Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final in May.

The treble-treble is very much on.

After the match, we made our way out of the sparsely occupied Aberdeen end down the Hampden steps and back towards the car. With a few minor queues as made our way out the area, we headed back towards the East Kilbride Expressway to the M74 before joining the M6 on the other side of the border. At Penrith, we followed the A66 towards Scotch Corner before joining the A1 and eventually the M1. We stopped at McDonalds in Garforth just off junction 46 for dinner and a break from driving. Shortly after, we continued our journey down the M1 without any hindrance arriving home just after 10.00pm (much earlier than we originally thought!).