Falkirk 3 - 1 Aberdeen

DONS WERE WRETCHED
Sans Punch, Sans Power, Sans Spirit
By NORMAN MACDONALD

WAKE up, Aberdeen! If the Dons can't reveal more power, punch, pep and personality than they did against Falkirk, their life in the Scottish Cup tournament will be short-lived.

Falkirk made the Dons look slow. They went to meet the ball - the Aberdeen players made the foolish mistake on the heavy ground of waiting for it to come to them.
The Bairns frolicked while the Dons floundered in the mud. Aberdeen players and officials alike will be glad to forget this game.
Aberdeen were a poor team. The defence was tested by the Falkirk attack and found wanting. The forwards lacked driving power, and never clicked into place as an attacking force. Admittedly the ground was bad, but it was just as bad for Falkirk as it was for Aberdeen.

Sad?Very Sad

There wasn't an encouraging feature, from the Pittodrie point of view, in a sad state of affairs on the eve of the Dons' defence of the Scottish Cup.
One man only in the Aberdeen team can be exonerated from blame in the Falkirk fatality, and he was George Johnstone. His team's defeat would have been heavier but for the 'keeper's fine play.
McKenna spent a busy afternoon chasing but all too seldom catching up with the No. 1 forward of the ten on view.
Cooper and Waddell struggled gamely and not altogether unsuccessfully against the clever Alison and Inglis respectively.

Wing Halves Poor

Aberdeen were badly served at winsg half-back. Cowie and Taylor not only failed to checkmate the Falkirk forwards; they seldom made contact with their own attackers.
Futility rather than virility best describes the play of the Pittodrie forwards. It was my first view of Jimmy Owens, the Inverness Thistle inside left. He hadn't a good game and if it is any consolation to him he was no worse than some of the others.

Lead tn Boots

Most disappointing feature was the lack of real fighting spirit in the Aberdeen ranks in the second half, when they held their own territorially. They played as if they had lead in their boots.
Compared with Aberdeen, Falkirk looked a good team. They had grand defenders in McPhee and Bolt, and Henderson was as big an obstacle as ever in the middle.
Aikman is a clever inside forward and a real opportunist. He had two of his side's three goals.

Aikman's Goals,

He opened the scoring in nineteen minutes. Fiddes robbed McKenna, and cut in before slipping the ball to Inglis. From the centre it went to Aikman and the inside forward drove low into the net.
Aikman got the second seven minutes from the interval, after Johnstone had pushed out a shot from Alison.
Eight minutes after the start of the second half Falkirk made it look easy with a third goal. Fiddes made the chance and Inglis had a simple job to guide the ball into the net.
Early in this period Williams and Kelly switched positions in the Dons' attack, but it brought no results until the closing minutes. The South African made ground from a pass from Owens and Kelly dashed in to net from Williams' cross.

Source: Press & Journal, 2nd February 1948