Graham Watson admits low profile 35 years after Aberdeen’s spot-kick success

Graham Watson was an unlikely hero of the last Aberdeen team to win the Scottish Cup but he admits he has such a low profile now that he could walk into Pittodrie without being recognised.

As a 19-year-old rookie, he found himself cast among a team of long-serving Dons icons and reluctantly tasked with taking a sudden-death penalty against Ireland and Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner to keep his team alive in the 1990 Scottish Cup final shoot-out.

The flame-haired Watson came off the bench in extra-time for just his fifth first-team appearance after making his debut less than a month previously and kept his cool amid the Hampden “bedlam” to make it 8-8.

The teenager’s strike paved the way for Brian Irvine to score the winner after Anton Rogan’s kick was saved by Dons keeper Theo Snelders.

“I didn’t even expect to be in the 13,” the 54-year-old told the PA news agency, reflecting on his career-defining day just over 35 years on and ahead of Saturday’s Hampden rematch between the teams. “Even when I was on the bench, I didn’t think about going on the park. I felt like a spectator.

“When I did get on, I had a few involvements in the game and then it just kind of ran to penalties and I was thinking there’s no way I would be part of any conversations for taking a penalty.

“It was just a major relief when I saw it going in. It would have been good to score the winner but it was still good to score one. It would have been a disaster if I’d missed.”

The 1990 triumph would be the pinnacle of Watson’s otherwise low-key career. He broke his leg in a friendly in Holland a few weeks later and missed the entire following season.

After 13 appearances in the 1991-92 campaign, he dropped back into the reserves and then left Pittodrie in 1994 to play in the lower leagues with Clyde, Livingston and Forfar before embarking on a long career in the police.

“It was funny because I went up 10 years ago for the 25-year anniversary and some of the other players didn’t even recognise me because obviously I’m bald now and have put on a bit of weight,” said Watson.

“I go up to the odd Aberdeen game and I can walk down the street and nobody would come up to me and say ‘you used to play for Aberdeen’ – I don’t get any of that. Unless they knew me, I don’t think anybody would recognise me at Pittodrie now. Some people will probably look at the cup final team picture and query ‘who’s that guy?’

“When I went up to the last event, I went on the stage and I said ‘that’s really me, I am the person that’s in that video’.

“Most of the players have taken a much different path to mine, and when you look at what someone like Alex McLeish has done in the game, it’s pretty scary but good luck to them all, I’m fine with that.”

Watson watched age-group peers Stephen Wright, Gary Smith, Scott Booth and Eoin Jess – an unused sub in the 1990 final – go on to establish themselves with the Dons and land big moves away, but he has no hard feelings about how his own career panned out.

“For all the two or three that do really well, you’ve got hundreds that don’t have a great career so I feel lucky to have had had a bit of a career,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve got any regrets. I did my best. If I hadn’t have broken my leg after the cup final, who knows what would have happened?

“Some professionals play for 20 years or make 400 appearances for a team and don’t win a cup final so for me to have 15-20 appearances for Aberdeen and get a cup winner’s medal there, I feel pretty lucky.”