With my wife and child out of town Graham and I decided to head to a couple of local bars to get a few drinks on the Friday night. I decided to ditch the car and pick it up in the morning, allowing myself to have a few drinks, however, mindful of the drive which lay ahead the following day I decided not to go overboard (a wise move as it transpired). It was the following morning when returning to pick up the car that we learnt of a major accident on the M90 just outside Perth (purely by chance after noticing a Facebook post from Hearts), undeterred we set off from Edinburgh at about 10:30 figuring that by the time we got to Perth the Police would have undoubtedly cleared the vehicles and that we’d cruise past without a hitch. Oh the niavety of youth....apart from the youth part of course.
The first hold up we encountered was before we'd even got to the Forth Road Bridge. The traffic was extremely slow moving and we must have taken about 40 minutes to get from The Cramond Brig to Fife. As we got onto the bridge we couldn’t see what the hold up was, it appeared to be a completely phantom traffic jam!
After we’d got through that, moaned a bit and swore at nobody in particular we made very good time, right until we got to the outskirts of Perth. It appeared that the accident which we’d hoped would have been cleared away was in fact a very serious incident, severe enough to close the entire north bound carriageway. After trying to navigate through a gridlocked Perth, several unsuccessful attempts to beat the traffic jams and copious amounts of swearing we managed to get through the town and back on course for Aberdeen via the A94. This eventually met the main road to Aberdeen and successfully got us moving again avoiding the closed section of motorway.
The upshot of all of this was that we were massively behind time. After eventually arriving in Aberdeen and pissing about trying to find our hotel car park we had to adandon all thought of a pre-match drink and head straight for Pittodrie, managing to get through the turnstiles just after kick off. Obviously much of the Heart support had struggled with the same traffic chaos that we'd encountered, resulting in a last minute swell in number within the away section.
Queuing for the turnstiles outside the away section.
A packed away section (this was before we entered the ground along with the latecomers - this resulted in the adjoining block being opened up). Photo courtesy of Hearts media team via Facebook).
As the first half quickly drew to a close we were both agreed that Hearts had looked the stronger side during the first period without having a plethora of goal scoring opportunities. Aberdeen had looked reasonable in parts but hadn’t threatened Kello’s goal, certainly all the promising football had come from the men in maroon.
Looking towards a sparsely populaed Richard Donald stand.
After the restart Hearts immediately looked lively. A sweeping move down the left and an inch perfect cross from Skacel resulted in the opening goal from Kevin Kyle, who quite literally threw himself at the ball and put hearts ahead through an acrobatic diving header.
Sadly Pittodrie wasn't at it's fullest.
Despite a continued attacking threat from Hearts, the Jambos were unable to add to their lead and Kyle’s goal proved to be decisive in ensuring the three points went back down the (partially closed) A90 to Edinburgh. Hearts looked very well organised at the back and certainly the return of Marius Zaliukas made a big difference to the solidity of the back four.
A view towards the Merkland Road end.
Thankfully Graham and I didn’t have to concern ourselves with the traffic chaos awaiting on the road home, deciding as we had to stay overnight in Aberdeen. After pausing outside the away end to speak to a guy from work, we walked slowly into town, chatting to a few Jambos and collecting a flyer from a young lady best descriobed as an 'exotic dancer' (naturally) before winding up at The Prince of Wales just off Union Street. I'd had this pub recommended to me by my friend and colleague Sean and the place certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a typically traditional bustling pub (think Cafe Royal or Guildford Arms in Edinburgh or The Crown Bar in Belfast) with a huge selection of decent beers.
We stayed there for a couple of pints before heading back to our hotel, checking in, then quickly heading out again to meet some Aberdeen fans that Sean had pout us in contact with. Barry, Martin and Laura were really friendly and we joined them for a few drinks before they headed off to grab some food. By this stage some old friends had come to meet us, so we stayed on with them in the POW before they in turn headed off to see Ross Noble live on stage at a local theatre.
Graham and I then toured around a few bars and got some food before eventually meeting up with our friends again for a couple more drinks in The Grill. Graham and I had seen this place early in the evening but had given it a miss after deciding it looked really dodgy from the oputside. After we ventured inside we realised how wrong we had been, despite looking pretty rough from the outside, it was a busy busting bar with plenty of atmosphere. t was another brilliant pub for the Aberdeen list and shouldnt be judged merely by it's external appearance.
As the bar closed we said our goodbyes and headed towards out hotel, Graham then dug deep into his pocket (not for the last time that night) and produced the flyer we’d picked up earlier on, allowing us entry to one of Aberdeen 'firenlier' establishments....which is a whole different story. Suffice to say that, in addition to coincidentally meeting up with Barry and Martin again, some of us were left significantly less well off financially.
It's really Graham's story to tell to be honest (*as is the story behind the title, it's probably not as bad as it sounds)!
Above all and most importantly though we’d had an away day following by a top evening out in the Granite City!
Hearts take the applause from the travelling fans at the final whistle.
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