The former Dons striker was recently inducted into the AFC Hall of Fame but back in the city, he also took time out to speak with the RedMatchday Programme Editor.

 REDTV | To watch the interview in full with Eric, please click here

 

 

Is it nice to be back? Does it bring back good memories?

It always does, it’s always nice. I don’t get up here as often as I would like but when I do get back, obviously the memories flood back. Obviously it’s nice to see a few familiar faces and it’s nice to hear the accent again.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet quite a few of the Gothenburg guys and when you get together, there’s this special chemistry between you isn’t there? Even if you haven’t seen each other for a long time, you very quickly get back into the way of things.

It’s nearly instant, I’ve got to be honest. I don’t know when the last reunion was but even if it’s five years, even if it’s 10 years, when we meet up, it’s just like it was yesterday. They’re a great bunch of lads, and obviously they were a decent bunch of players.

It’s really nice, we actually keep relatively well in touch, there’s a kind of WhatsApp thing that somebody set up, so there’s one or two comments on that. But it’s nice, it’s got a nice feeling about it. You know, I think when you win things together, I think it definitely makes a stronger bond, and obviously the success we had up here made it even better.

When did you first get involved with Aberdeen? How were you spotted?

I was brought up in Glasgow for the first sort of 11 or 12 years of my life. Then my father worked in the oil industry, and he moved to the fabrication yards up at Nigg, up in the Highlands, and a local teacher spotted me, I think he wrote to Aberdeen at the time. It was Bobby Clark who was taking the Aberdeenshire schoolboys along with Lenny Taylor at that time. We played them as a Highland team, and we beat them 5-2 which was unheard of in those days. It was usually about 9-0 for Aberdeenshire, but we beat them 5-2 and he then invited me down for a trial and it was a process that continued until I signed at 16.

What was it like as a young boy coming through? It must have been a great time to be at the club, and obviously the city as well. You saw so many of your young teammates getting an opportunity, you must have thought, “I hope I get mine as well”.

I didn’t think about it like that, I was a professional footballer which was already a dream. I was playing, I’d come down with Bryan Gunn and Bryan had followed a similar path to myself up in the Highlands. We’d always been in teams together, so it was the two of us coming down.

We got a place, digs in Bucksburn, and we carried on. But it became quite evident quite quickly that if you were decent enough, you would get an opportunity. I don’t know if that was because of financial reasons at the time or what it was, but we’ve all got that to be thankful for. We were given that opportunity, and when I look back on it now, I just think how fortunate I was to land with the players and the coach and the manager at that time.

We won’t go through all your games Eric, but do you remember your debut? Because you actually scored on your debut.

There was not that many games! I do remember the debut I’d have to say, after that it’s a blank…no, that was Dundee United, I think. In the league. We drew 1-1, was it?

You scored after nine minutes, I was reading the match report recently. It was a “majestic header from a Strachan corner”. You scored quite a few headers from his corners…

That was probably half the goals tally! I remember it well. We’d worked on it, me coming off the goalkeeper a little bit to that angle where the defender couldn’t get to it, and Gordon flighted it in as he normally did.

Inch perfect.

It was a bit surreal at the time because obviously I was still quite young. But I remember getting the paper the next day and seeing that factually it was right and that I had scored! I just carried on from there.

Can I just ask you about your heading, Eric? You’re obviously known for this ability to hang in the air, it was incredible. Was that something that you practiced or was it just natural ability?

I only realised that I could outjump bigger lads when I was about 14 or 15. I played a fair bit of basketball at that time.

Did you play other sports?

I played a bit of everything that I could. Not particularly well, but I just realised that by timing it right, I could outjump lads bigger than me. When I went down to the club, I remember Bobby Clark testing my jump and it was a little higher than most, but after that it was just practice and training and things like that. I was just maybe fortunate enough to have a natural sense of timing with a ball and a little bit of a spring. It certainly helped me.

We then had the 1981/82 cup final, you came off the bench to help the side win in extra-time, and that’s what really opened the floodgates for yourself – eight major honours followed in 180 appearances. That was basically a major honour every 22 and a half games (I think)!!

That’s no bad that! That’s a bit ridiculous, I must admit. No wonder I used to think we’d come, play a season, pick up two or three trophies, go and get a holiday for a few weeks, get a bit of sun and then come back and win another two or three!

Could you take it all in at the time? Because you were obviously still quite young as well.

I didn’t know anything else.

I had nothing else to compare it to. I was extremely fortunate to land with the quality of footballer that was around about me and the management team as well and everybody else. Somebody had mentioned that to me before and it’s quite ridiculous to pick up a trophy every 20 odd games isn’t it?! There are people that go through and play 800 games and never lift a trophy, so I count myself extremely lucky in that regard.

If you had to pick one favourite moment, one game, what sticks out more than the others?

I think it would have to be Gothenburg I’m afraid – well I’m not afraid!

I think it would have to be Gothenburg. Not necessarily the goal, the goal was part of the game. It was just the delight at the end of the game, just that unbridled joy when the full time whistle sounded. You knew something that had been achieved that was quite phenomenal truth be told. Regardless of if you look at it now or look at it then. It was a phenomenal achievement, and to be part of that still makes me very proud.

Can you remember much of the celebrations?

No, not an awful lot. We weren’t too bad, it was relatively sedate that night. There were one or two that lingered a little bit longer and there were various stories that came from that!

Was that just because of tiredness, emotions?

I think everyone was just shattered. And then of course we had the Scottish Cup final coming up about 10 days later. Again it was surreal that we’d won it. That was Real Madrid, and when you took everything into context it was pretty special.

You also scored in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final, semi-final, two Scottish Cup finals, scored in the League Cup final. Do you have a favourite goal?

I don’t think there were any spectacular ones to be honest.

Were there any outside six yards?!

Probably not!

In cup finals, they’re always special goals, there’s no doubt about that. I mean even at Hampden, there must have been 78,000 at Hampden. There were great days out, but I just think the one that goes down in history will be the Gothenburg goal and to have scored in that, that stays with you. It wasn’t a fantastic goal, It was not 25 yards out but I caught it beautifully.

The one game that does stick out for me is your hat-trick at Celtic Park. There were some good goals in amongst it.

I believe I’m still the last person to do that. Archie texted me when I was at Southampton at the time and we were away playing Inter Milan. I got a text, Celtic were playing Barcelona, and Archie text me and said “Who was the last ever person to score a hat-trick at Celtic Park?” and I said. “Why’s he text me? I have no idea”, and he says “You!” So, I still hold that record, no away player has ever scored a hat-trick since.

You mention Archie, part of the management team. Tell us a wee bit about him. How frightening was he?!

Oh, terrifying. Absolutely terrifying! I actually took Archie as my assistant manager at Coventry when I was manager there. He came and was my assistant for a while.

Did he mellow as he got older?!

Probably not much!

I mean we’ve heard it all before a thousand times. It was bad cop, worse cop, that was the dynamic duo.

I think the standards that he set, as much as at times I hated him, I hated what they were doing and hated some of the decisions that they made, it made a big impact on me going forward. To have certain standards that I thought were normal standards and then when I went to various other clubs, I realised that all players and all managers don’t have those standards.

To have experienced them and to set your own standards at that level early on, that was a massive benefit to me.

Everybody knows about the way he motivated people, but I think Sir Alex’s coaching ability was underestimated at the time when he was at Aberdeen. He was ahead of his time wasn’t he?

I think both of them were.

Archie probably got more credit for coaching. Archie was an exceptional coach. Archie certainly for me was a better coach. But Alex Ferguson in terms of his game knowledge and understanding how a game worked and potentially predicting how it would go, that and his management skills are obviously second to none.

Any moments he really lost the plot with you?

Oh, quite a few! It’d be easier to go back to the ones he didn’t.

I remember getting hammered after the hat-trick at Celtic Park, he went daft. I think it was probably that he didn’t want me to get carried away. But I remember it to this day, I got absolutely slaughtered after the game. But that wasn’t abnormal to be fair!

So was that just his way of keeping the boys in check?

I’m sure it was. I was only young at the time, so that’s the way it was. It certainly kept us in check, that’s for sure.

This is a slightly unfair question, but if you had to pick one of your team mates who would be the best out of all of them?

Unfair question definitely!

You know, I couldn’t actually do that. I could give you attributes on every single one of them as men, as individuals, as football players. But I couldn’t pick one that would stand out in all of that, I’ve got to be honest.

I could give you certain attributes on some of them, but some of them had other attributes that were different. I find myself a lot of the time thinking about what good footballers they were, and how tough they were, and they could fight people, they could play against people, but they were good people, fundamentally decent people.

Off the park did you all go out on a Saturday night and that sort of thing?

Obviously there was a younger kind of crew. There was myself, Neale Cooper, John Hewitt, Bryan Gunn, we were all that kind of age, Simmie a bit. Then there was the older sort of ones like Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish and Willie Miller. We did now and again go out together but it wasn’t a regular thing, but I always enjoyed their company.

When it came to the end at Aberdeen, was it slightly sad how it ended?

Yes it was, but that was the circumstances of what had happened. I have my reasons why I did it and I stick by them, and I wouldn’t change them. Alex Ferguson reacted to it the way that he reacted to it and I certainly couldn’t control that, nor would I have tried. I’d made my mind up and I wasn’t changing. It’s unfortunate the way that it ended because I had a wonderful, wonderful time at Pittodrie.

You’ve had a fantastic coaching career as well. You must be very proud of what you’ve achieved, working in one of the toughest leagues in the world.

I’ve been really fortunate. Going down there, I got the chance. I’d worked in Scotland for a bit but then got the opportunity to go down to Coventry with Gary McAllister and I’ve been very fortunate that for the last 18 years, I’ve hardly been out of the Premier League so it’s been really good. I’ve really enjoyed it. To be fair, the man who really gave me the belief and the opportunities was Craig Brown. I never would’ve gone into coaching if it wasn’t for Craig. I wasn’t one of those who came out of football thinking. “Oh I’m desperate to be a coach”.

Especially after I’d seen Archie! So no, in all truthfulness it wasn’t something that I’d planned. But he encouraged me and he gave me the opportunities and I am eternally grateful to him. Craig was an exceptional manager, coach and person.

Congratulations to Eric on his induction to the AFC Hall of Fame. A real AFC legend and an absolute gentleman as well.