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Friday Night Football | The History
Back in 2011 Friday night football was brought back to Pittodrie and since then there have been a good number of games, mainly for TV purposes, played on this evening ahead of the weekend fixtures. It has proved popular in the Granite City, maybe more so than at some other clubs, due to amongst other reasons, the high demand from corporate customers as well as allowing those who play football, or other sports in the city on a Saturday the chance to attend.
However, playing football on a Friday is not a new thing.
Richard Hay from @AFCHereWeGo did some research on the subject a few years back for Red Matchday.
Friday night may be a relatively new slot for televised football, but the Dons have been playing games on this day throughout their existence.
In fact, during their first season, 1903-04, in the Northern League, in a rush to finish their fixtures, Aberdeen agreed to rearrange a game against St Johnstone, abandoned a fortnight earlier due to a sodden pitch on Friday 22nd April, and then move on to face Lochgelly United in Fife the very next afternoon!
The Perthshire Advertiser of that Friday notes that:
“the idea of playing a Northern League fixture on an evening is purely an experiment, but one which the Saints have been forced to adopt by circumstances, Aberdeen having no vacant Saturday before the close of the season… the match, however, will lose nothing through the departure, as a great number of Saints’ following are free of an evening whose business prevents them attending the Saturday events. The long evenings, which are now with us, allows of a late start being made, which will suit, at all events, the public workers who are relieved from their daily toll at five, or, at the latest, six o’clock.”
In the event, Aberdeen lost nothing through the departure from the Saturday norm either, registering a 3-1 win at the Recreation Grounds (St Johnstone’s home prior to Muirton Park) thanks to goals from Mackie, McAuley and Shiach. The next day in Lochgelly, the same ten outfield players couldn’t muster up enough energy to conclude the debut season with a win, going down by the same score line of 3-1.
From that point until the end of WWII the only competitive Friday games played by the Dons were the New Year’s Day matches against Dundee (and once against Clyde in 1909).
The practice of playing on the 1st, even if it was a Friday and would mean that there was also a game scheduled the next day, continued until 1971. In that final squeezed Festive calendar AFC, in the middle of a club record run of consecutive wins and clean sheets, notched up two more with a 3-0 Pittodrie win over Dundee on Ne’erday (McMilan, Murray, Graham), and then a 1-0 win via Jim Forrest’s counter on an icy pitch in Perth against St Johnstone.
In all the club played nine times on January 1sts that fell on a Friday.
Between 1948 and 1994 there were a handful of league games moved to the Friday night to avoid competing with other footballing attractions.
Although in the slew of games moved immediately after the War (26/3/48 v Clyde, 9/4/48 v Queen of the South, 14/4/50 v East Fife) you sense an attempt to gain a more permanent foothold for the early Summer Friday evening slot.
However, in each case large numbers of neutrals would have been expected to eschew the league match and head to the Scottish Cup Semi Finals, Finals or Scotland matches that clashed with these ties had they gone ahead on the Saturday.
The practice of scheduling the Scottish Cup Final for a weekend where league games were also due to be held continued well into the 1970s, causing Aberdeen’s closing league fixture of season 1963-64 at Dunfermline in April 1964 to move to the Friday night. While the SFA had asked Rangers to consider moving the game on 27/4/68 a day earlier to avoid clashing with the Dunfermline v Hearts game at Hampden. In the event both went ahead at the same time with Dunfermline beating Hearts in front of a lower than usual crowd of 56,366 at Hampden, while Aberdeen were famously denying the home side a shot at the title, and simultaneously giving themselves a shot at European football the next season by handing Rangers their first defeat of the season, 3-2..
With the Cup Final finally moving to a clear date at the season’s end it would only be exceptional circumstances that would see a clash. In 1979, at the end of Alex Ferguson’s first season in charge, a weather hit calendar meant that sides were playing catch-up to complete their fixtures well into May. Aberdeen’s closing match at Firhill was therefore scheduled for Friday May 11th to avoid a clash with the Hibs v Rangers Cup Final. Joe Harper opened the scoring that night in a 2-1 win which put the hitman onto 30 league goals that season and at the top of the Premier League goal scoring list on his own, breaking a tie with Morton’s Andy Ritchie.
Aberdeen’s match at Ibrox in November 1994 was also moved because of a Cup Final, but, on this occasion, the League Cup Final. With Hampden being redeveloped, Ibrox was chosen as the host venue for the Raith Rovers v Celtic League Cup Final on the Sunday and the league match with the Dons was shifted to allow longer preparation time for the stadium. Aberdeen’s struggles that season continued with a 1-0 defeat under the lights before Raith upset the odds to lift the League Cup two days later.
Then, in 2011, in a move which perhaps laid the foundations to prove Friday night as a viable time for TV fixtures, Aberdeen opted to move their home fixture with Dunfermline. In the middle of an unseasonable warm end to September the fixture seemed to click the Dons into gear. Whilst the attendance was only perhaps marginally higher from what it might have been on the Saturday, the atmosphere was noticeably improved, helped in no small part by a dominant display from the home side. Fraser Fyvie’s first (and only) Pittodrie goal plus a hat-trick from Scott Vernon securing a 4-0 win.
The Dons have enjoyed their Friday night live TV matches since 2011, winning 15 of the 22 they’ve contested, most memorably breaking a number of club records in an Andy Considine inspired 7-0 romp away to Dundee in March 2017.
Friday Night Stats
(Andrew Morrison, Red Matchday and Chris Gavin AFC Heritage Trust)
| Full Record | ||||
| Win | Draw | Lose | F | A |
| 22 | 5 | 11 | 61 | 44 |
Friday night competitive matches
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