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The SFA hotline took you to the useful 'exceptional demand' message - what, really, for a winner takes all game against the World Champions to qualify for our 1st major tournament of the 21st Century!! Thankfully one of our number got through and the gold dust like extra briefs were secured.
Onwards then to the Bobbin Mill for the BER Madrid ballot! Despite gaining 20 tickets out of 800 for a high demand game at Ibrox, we were only given 12 out of 3,000 for the glamour game of the UEFA Group Stages (Banchory housewives surely don't found the Albion Bar quite as appealing as a trip to the Spanish Capital!).
This led to a nervous wait for the hopefuls out of the 49 who qualified for the ballot, and tensions rose until the lucky names were pulled out of the hat and my contact lenses were able to identify the right numbers.
With all this is mind, it was easy to forget there was actually a game taking place at Pittodrie - against 'New Firm', eh, 'North East', em, what did TRA say I could call them, Dundee Utd.
After the Cup, European & International excitement it was back to the bread and butter against probable rivals for a place in next years UEFA Cup.
As kick off approached there was something strange, almost unreal, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, ah yes, there were more than 47 visitors in the ground (in fairness they near filled the 2 covered sections of their end).
All of this distracted me from the fact that our team had been ravaged, with only Langfield, Hart and Nicholson looking like familiar starters - oh dear!
However, whether our 'B' team proved better than I dared hope or Utd were finally found out, it was a close encounter until late on in the 1st half. After Young and De Visscher wasted great chances, young Aluko brightened up proceedings - turning his man inside out before hammering home a cracker right on half-time (for older readers it was the nearest thing to Strachan, Weir, Bannon or Milne seen in this fixture for some time).
From then on Aberdeen held on fairly comfortably aided by a shocking Robson challenge and 2 acts of folly from Wilkie, which reduced Utd to 9 men late on (although Jimmy attempted to even things up by introducing Dan Smith). We could have added to our lead with a bit of composure long before Lee Miller (yes, him) rubbed salt into the wound with a 30 yarder and wrapped up the points.
After that it was back to the pub for the post match analysis before heading home to recover from the days events, without the comfort of a John Arne Risse pay cheque to compensate for the weeks efforts!
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