IT was, says Theo Snelders, his best moment in football. The only problem was that his poor mother back home in Holland missed the whole thing.
Here the Aberdeen goalkeeper was, psyching out Anton Rogan in the 19th penalty of a fraught Hampden shoot-out in 1990, diving low to his left and touching the ball behind to set up the Dons’ 9-8 win, only to find out that the satellite feed to the Netherlands had stopped transmitting two hours after kick-off, forcing Dutch TV viewers to watch alternative programming halfway through the spot kicks.
Should Aberdeen get their hands on this famous old trophy for the first time since then at the national stadium today, it is to be hoped that broadcasters Sky and BBC keep the cameras rolling for the duration.
“I have happy memories of Hampden, especially that day,” said Snelders, in town for the game courtesy of sponsors William Hill. “I had a few friends over who’d never been to a game in Scotland and they were amazed by the intensity and the tension. For me, it was my best moment in football. To win a game with that kind of excitement, you never forget.
“When I got back to the hotel I phoned my mum, and she had only just found out the score,” he added. “There was no internet back then of course. I think they were more nervous than me. It’s better to be playing and it’s hard to watch. But it’s harder still when you cannot even watch!”
With an early Dariusz Wdowczyk miss cancelled out by one by Aberdeen midfielder Brian Grant, the thought had crossed the mind of Snelders that goalkeepers were up next.
“With at the tension around that was the way it was going,” said Snelders. “So before the Rogan penalty I tried to get the fans going. [Graham] Watson [who scored the penalty just before] was just 19 and when he was preparing for his kick his I saw a few Celtic players winding the crowd up at their end.
“I thought that was a good idea,” he added. “The Aberdeen fans were behind our goal and they were under the roof, which meant the noise was louder. I don’t know if I would have scored if I had had to take one. I wasn’t practicing even saving them back then – never mind taking them. Nowadays they go in to every detail but back then it was a case of licking your finger and testing the wind.”
Snelders is as surprised as anyone that 27 years have passed without Aberdeen’s name going back on the trophy, but as goalkeeping coach at FC Twente, he sees parallels with how his first club had the support of all the neutrals when pipping all-conquering Ajax to the Eredivisie title in 2010.
“All of Holland was hoping that Twente would win,” he said. “Even in that last game, in all the other stadiums, supporters were celebrating when they found out that we were 1-0 up. All of Holland hated Ajax because they were winning so much. They wanted someone else to win the league. That is usually what happens – everyone will be for the underdog, except Celtic supporters.”
Also carrying echoes of the past is the fact that a notable member of this Aberdeen team Ryan Jack appears poised to sign on a pre-contract with Rangers, the same awkward journey taken by Snelders in 1996, albeit in rather difficult circumstances. Snelders was largely an understudy to Andy Goram at Ibrox, but he feels that Jack, albeit stripped of the captaincy, could have role to play assuming his head is in the right place.
“You would have to know the situation from the start,” said Snelders. “How is he doing in training, is he still focused, or is his mind blown away. It is a difficult choice. But if you are a football player and you are there to win a cup, it is better to get it on the cv and you maybe get the benefits a year after.”
Snelders is predicting a close match, though maybe not as close as 9-8 in a shoot-out.
Theo Snelders was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.
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