Aberdeen 7 - 1 Hamilton

Aberdeen and Hamilton Accies have met on cup business on only a couple of occasions in the last 30 years. Having won the first leg of this League Cup 3rd round tie 1-0 on the previous Wednesday, Aberdeen ran out convincing overall winners, despite an early goal for Hamilton.

The 10,000 fans suffered a shock after only two minutes when Fairlie ran about 20 yards from midfield to beat Jim Leighton with a low shot to level the score on aggregate. However, within a minute the Dons regained their overall lead when big Doug Rougvie had a shot blocked but, following up, he headed past the stranded Ferguson from ten yards. Hamilton were determined to try to take the game to the Dons and the ball flew from end to end. Stuart Kennedy did well to close down Glavin before he could shoot and then the Dons struck again after 9 minutes. Ian Scanlon put Ian Fleming through on the left and he crossed a perfect ball for Joe Harper to score. The Accies tried desperately to get back into the game and Leighton saved bravely at the feet of Fairlie to prevent the midfielder from adding to his tally. The same player then blasted the ball over the bar before Dom Sullivan increased Aberdeen's lead in the 22nd minute when the goalkeeper fumbled the winger's cross over his own line when he was challenged by Fleming. It was now one-way traffic and, in 31 minutes, Stuart Kennedy made the score 4-1 when he anticipated a Kellachan pass-back, rounded the keeper and slid the ball into the empty goal. Five minutes later came goal number 5 when Steve Archibald was impeded and Harper made no mistake from the resultant penalty.

With the result of the tie now a foregone conclusion Aberdeen resorted to some exhibition soccer, stroking the ball around. In one incisive move Kennedy passed to Harper and his inch-perfect cross resulted in Archibald's header scraping the crossbar. Both sides made a double substitution in the space of 6 minutes. McDowell and Wright replaced Young and Reilly, Gordon Strachan substituted for Scanlon and ground staff boy Neil Simpson was introduced for Rougvie. Hamilton were still fighting and Howie had a shot tipped over by Leighton, while Glavin shot just wide. Harper then notched his hat-trick 10 minutes from the end after combining well with Strachan. Just before the final whistle Alexander handled in the box and Harper netted his second penalty and fourth goal in the match. It had been an impressive display by the Dons.

Source: Match Programme, 9th January 1993

N.B.

There is a minor controversy surrounding the scoring of the Dons' third goal. Most sources credited Dom Sullivan with the point, but Charles Forbes reported that Stevie Archibald was insistent that the goal was scored by Ian Fleming. Most reports indicated that Hamilton's 'keeper - Ferguson - fumbled the ball whilst being challenged by Fleming, so perhaps it may have been an own goal. For the time being, however, since most sources give the goal to Sullivan we will stick with that unless we can find something definitive that will bring about a change.