Former Aberdeen forward Duncan Davidson made 112 appearances for the Dons between 1973 and 1981, scoring 28 goals.

Duncan spoke to Red Matchday Magazine a few years back:

 

The popular belief was that Duncan was brought up in the Aberdeen area, as he was a product of the Dons youth policy in the early ‘70s.

“I was actually born and brought up in Elgin. We moved to Aberdeen when I was 12. I went to Aberdeen Academy as it was known then, before it became Hazlehead.

“It was a rugby playing school and I played for a couple of years because I had to. I suppose it was alright, but getting battered on a rugby field was not my idea of fun. It was football for me although I used to get the belt at school for playing football when I should have been with the rugby team!”

It was during his spell with Junior side Lewis United that Davidson first came to the Dons’ attention.

“Davie Robb used to train us back then, and I had Bobby Clark as my PE teacher at school. I suppose there was no escape!

“Both Davie and Bobby were instrumental in me being signed for the Dons. I was lucky enough to play for a Junior Select against Aberdeen reserves at Pittodrie and Teddy Scott was looking after the young Dons back then. Aberdeen followed up their initial interest and Jim Bonthrone signed me for Aberdeen in 1972.”

Bonthrone was the first of four Aberdeen managers that Duncan would play under his spell at Pittodrie.

“Jimmy was a very astute manager with a great knowledge of the game. He was a nice guy; perhaps too nice, as I think he suffered because of that.

“Back then I was working with Teddy Scott in a very good reserve side.

“We had the likes of Willie Miller, Ian Purdie, Chic McLelland, Ian Hair and John McMaster in that side. We were all under Teddy and from a young age we grew to appreciate just how special he was.

“Teddy had the backing of the more experienced players like Drew Jarvie, Bobby Clark and Jim Hermiston; together they made sure the younger players did not get up to any nonsense; if we did, we soon found out about it!”

After serving his apprenticeship in the successful reserve team, Duncan made his first team debut against Partick in 1974, before a foot injury curtailed his progress.

It was during the 1974/75 season, just before the new Premier League would come into force, that Davidson earned the tag of ‘super-sub’ with five starts and 18 substitute appearances. It was at Ibrox that season that Duncan scored the winner that knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup:

“We came up against Rangers in the third round at Pittodrie. There was a massive crowd and Willie (Miller) scored a late equaliser with a 30-yard rocket; he will never let us forget about that one!

We went to Ibrox and nobody gave us much of a chance.

“Arthur Graham scored early on and I managed to get the winner in extra time. It certainly kept the Rangers fans quiet for a while and it didn’t do my reputation any harm either with our own supporters.”

While the Dons never really built on that success, Duncan suffered a niggling thigh injury that kept him out of action for the best part of a year;

“I kept coming back to training but it was never really healed. The only real solution was total rest which was frustrating as I had felt I had begun to establish myself in the first team.”

By the time Davidson was fit enough to resume playing, Ally MacLeod had taken over as Aberdeen manager. Duncan had done enough to be rewarded with a new contract from MacLeod:

“To be honest, Ally never saw that much of me; most of the time I was injured and when I got back into the side he was off to take over as Scotland coach.

“Whatever people thought of Ally later in his career, he totally rejuvenated Aberdeen and galvanised the club and the support after what was a tough time. We were all disappointed when he left but fortunately Billy McNeill arrived to carry on the good work.”

Davidson perhaps enjoyed his most productive spell with the Dons in 1977/78 as Aberdeen under McNeill pushed Rangers all the way, losing out in the title race and in the Scottish Cup Final.

“We should have won the league that year.

“Billy kept things going along nicely and we were unlucky that year; we had the measure of Rangers and managed to beat them several times, it was just that other teams could not take anything off them.

“Although losing the cup final was a huge disappointment, it was still a great occasion to play at Hampden in front of a big crowd.”

Once again Aberdeen soon lost another manager as Billy McNeill answered the call to return to Celtic and a certain Alex Ferguson took over.

“I have always said that Alex could be one of the most aggressive and abrasive people you would ever come across, but I always found that if you worked hard and gave 100% at all times, he would respect that and he would be right behind you.

“He was always like that and very protective of his players. If you showed any signs of not being totally committed then he would have soon had you out the door. I once was on the end of his famous hairdryer treatment; it was no big deal, just about every player would have some sort of a fall out with Fergie.”

Despite Aberdeen slipping to fourth place in Fergie’s first season in charge, Davidson saw signs of things to come under the new manager.

Aberdeen reached the League Cup final in 1979 and after Duncan scored the opener for Aberdeen, the Dons went down to two late Rangers goals.

“We had three managers in three years but there were very few changes in the playing staff. The nucleus of a great side was taking shape. Bobby Clark, Joe Harper, Gordon Strachan, Willie Miller, Stuart Kennedy and Doug Rougvie were all there and the likes of Steve Archibald was taken in.

“What was also important was that several young players were beginning to make an impression and that injection of youth was just as important.”

Aberdeen went on to claim a remarkable league success in 1979/80 as they clawed back an incredible 12-point lead that had Celtic growing complacent with every passing game.

“It was great to be in that squad that season although I was not a regular in the side; I did score the opening goal of our successful campaign in the league opener against Hibernian.”

In the summer of 1981, Duncan decided to move on and he was tempted to go to continue his career in America.

“I was not getting a regular game by then and I fancied trying the States.

“Sir Alex was brilliant over the move and he did his best to help me. I eventually joined Tulsa Roughnecks for £30,000. I enjoyed it there and also played for Toronto Blizzard as I ended up playing two seasons in North America. At that time teams were well supported in the USA, and I ended up playing all over the country; it was a fantastic experience.”

Davidson continued his globetrotting ways with a move to Hong Kong where he scored 17 goals in only 22 games for his Sea Bee club, finishing as top scorer in Hong Kong.

After returning to the North-east, Duncan was looking to settle.

“Fergie offered me training facilities at Aberdeen before I got a call from Billy McNeill to join him at Manchester City. I signed for the Maine Road side but only played about 10 games for them due to a pelvic injury.

“I think it was playing on the Astroturf pitches in the States that did the damage; I was advised to think carefully about playing on through the pain as it could have caused me problems later after my career was finished.

“I was only 30 at the time so it was a tough decision to make but I had to give up. It was a shock at the time as I was faced with the prospect of getting a real job! I went into the finance industry and have enjoyed it.”

Finally, a special thank you to Duncan for all the hard work he put helping to set up the Aberdeen FC Former Players Association. Established in 2003, the Association allows every former player free access to tickets at Pittodrie. Since then it has continued to flourish and helped ex players and former team mates worldwide to get in touch with the club and each other.