Throughout the season the RedMatchday Magazine has been packed with even more exclusive and in-depth interviews, even more player features, more behind the scenes photos, even more historical features, even more columnists plus some new features and has once again been named the top programme in Scotland by Programme Monthly & Football Collectable. It is the 16th straight season the Dons have won the award for the Top Division.

In RedMatchday Issue 25:

Derek McInnes

“A massive thanks to those who were at Hampden last weekend to help the team reach their first Scottish Cup final for seventeen years.

“We’re naturally absolutely delighted to be heading back to the national stadium on May 27th when we will doing everything in our power to lift the trophy for the first time since 1990.

“The focus now however returns to the league and securing second spot, starting with today’s visit of St. Johnstone.”

Mark Reynolds

“I was off the pitch late on when their goalkeeper came up for the corner. We discussed it afterwards in the changing room. In those situations, the keeper always seems to win the header. I am not sure if is because they are not marked or because they are tall lanky guys! He never even broke stride and it was a great header by Marciano and it looked to be going in from where I was sat.

“But as I have said before, when we are under real pressure, Joe just seems to come from nowhere and plucks it out of the sky. Neil Alexander said to him afterwards that he could have punched clear or tipped it over the bar but he caught it and completely dissipated the pressure. It completely kills the game. He has been doing that all season and it is massive for us.

“That was my third Scottish Cup semi-final at Aberdeen. Thankfully it’s third time lucky. Hopefully finishing second and getting to two cup finals would be a great achievement and a good way to end the season by even possibly going on and lifting the trophy.

Kenny McLean

“It is just brilliant to win the game and to be coming back Hampden for a final in May. You could see what it meant to the fans at the end. It has been a long time. They came down in their numbers considering the kick-off time and distance. They will be back for the final. Everyone involved with the club, the management, the players, the staff are all just as delighted. Everyone wants to be getting to finals. You want to be playing in these games and trying to win trophies.

“That is what we are out to do again. We had one chance already this season and let it slip and so we going to try and put that right. We will all enjoy the build up to the game I am sure.

“Before then though, we have some big league games to play and we need to try and claim that second spot. I think with the squad we have got, no one position is nailed down for the final. I think the manager has been consistent with his picks, but players are coming in and doing a great job for the team.

Ryan Christie

“The game went our way and then went theirs, there were a lot of changes in momentum. I think if we had got to half-time 2-0 up, it might have been more relaxed in the second half. Obviously conceding the first goal was very frustrating. At half-time, we tried to forget about it and wanted to come out in the second half and do as well as we could. Hibs made it very difficult for us and
had a very good game plan second half. It maybe took us a while to adjust to that and we were on the back foot a little bit.

“Again, it is great credit to the boys. There have been a number of times this season when we have had to ride storms and see games out. Luckily, today we managed to keep ourselves in the game and Jonny went up the other end and scores a goal.

Jonny Hayes (who has officially been credited with the third goal from last weekend)

“I will go down in the books as scoring a winner in a 3-2 game at Hampden,” he said.

“It looks good on paper but it probably won’t tell the full story. I think my shot was just about to nestle in the top corner! Off the deflection, it just drifted in, it felt like it took an eternity to go in. I could see the ball starting outside the post and then eventually just spinning in and in. I didn’t know what to do with myself once it went in! Obviously we got a slice of luck but I don’t think we have had that too often, especially in cup runs since I have been at the club.

“As we think about how we prepare for the final against Celtic, we can’t do anything about what happened in the League Cup final so there is no point on dwelling on it. When we go back to Hampden, we will have positive feelings after what happened against Hibs. It was also nice playing on a really good pitch, it makes a game of football a lot more enjoyable.

Graeme Shinnie

“We now need to forget the cup final because we have big games coming up in the league and we want that second spot sorted as soon as we possibly can. All the focus has been on St Johnstone this week.

“We had a good win the week before the semi-final against St Johnstone and hopefully we can get another victory. I thought that win against them in Perth was one of the biggest wins of the season. On the back of the Rangers result, a lot of people were looking to see how we would react.

“It was also important we went into the cup semi-final with confidence and momentum. We can now take the win against Hibs into the game on Saturday. It was scrappy and it was hard work at times. I don’t think we played to our full potential, not for the full 90 minutes, but winning was the main thing and will give us a real boost going into our final league games”

Ryan Jack

“In previous seasons when we have not got to the Scottish Cup final and have had second spot achieved quite early, we have maybe not finished the season the way we should have done. We have not performed well enough in the post-split fixtures. But this season, there can be no letting up. It will be all hands to the pump and everyone in the squad will have to do their bit over the coming weeks.

“We know it will be very tough against St Johnstone, it always is against them. They are a good side who we have a lot of respect for. All the games this season against them have been incredibly tight. But the confidence in the dressing room is very high at the moment and we are all looking forward to hopefully getting another positive result.”

Our monthly history feature looks back at April 1984:

“If we are to be seen as the best in the country, then we have to win the league title. That level of consistency over the whole season will determine our status and leave nobody in any doubt that we are the side to beat.” Bold words from manager Alex Ferguson on the eve of the 1983/84 season but by the time Aberdeen came to the closing weeks of the campaign they were faced with the challenge of playing nine huge games in the month of April.

With six Premier League games to face as they closed in on the title, the Dons also had two semi-final clashes with Portuguese side Porto as Aberdeen tried to become the first side ever to retain the European Cup Winners’ Cup. With a Scottish Cup semi-final against Dundee to cram in as well, there was no let up for the Dons in what was as busy a spell as they had ever faced.

Plus there are articles from all our various columnists and all the usual features. Still available for only £3.00 – offering you our readers great value for money. Thank you for your continued support of the magazine.

RedMatchday Issue 25 is available from sellers in and around the ground. There will be copies available to buy in the club shop plus you can buy all the AFC programmes online here: www.curtis-sport.com