Sunday’s Red Matchday magazine is a special edition as we pay tribute to one of our former greats who sadly passed away recently.

Davie Robb might not have been our most naturally gifted player, not our most successful, but he was the embodiment of what a football club is truly about, the kind of player that got you out of your seat, the cult hero that you would still be talking about long after victories and defeats on any given Saturday had been forgotten.

Players like Davie Robb become the heartbeat of a football club and when that particular heartbeat stops, then it causes us all to pause and reflect for a moment on just what this game and this club means to us all.

With the flowing red locks, the sideburns that would have given Slade’s Noddy Holder a run for his money and the straggly ‘tache, Davie often looked as if he would be just as much at home in Ziggy Stardust’s Spiders From Mars as in Eddie Turnbull’s Dons from Pittodrie. But that belied a footballer who, for all his maverick tendencies, played the way we would play if we were three stones lighter and able to come down off the terraces and somehow wriggle into a red shirt – he played like his life depended on it.

There are tributes from many of his former players – George Murray, Drew Jarvie, Joe Harper, Willie Garner, John McMaster, Neil Simpson, Jim Leighton and Bobby Clark ..

“I remember when Davie arrived at Pittodrie. I had been signed in the May of 1965. I played one game in the now defunct Summer Cup, so I really came to Aberdeen for the pre-season of 1965/66 and Davie arrived the same time. I was a couple of years older than him, and I remember playing in the pre-season First Team v Reserves game at Pittodrie. Davie and I were both in the reserves that night and although we beat the First Team 4-2, I wasn’t over impressed with the red headed youngster. His ball control wasn’t the best, his passes often went astray and I had my doubts. I was even more confused when Eddie Turnbull was praising him and predicting a bright future for the Broughty Ferry lad. The quote I remember Eddie saying was ‘I will have Davie Robb running through brick walls and terrorizing opponents.’ I suppose I should never have questioned Eddie’s knowledge of football players.

“Davie was just a tremendous player to have on your team. He harassed and pressed relentlessly. Long before ‘pressing’ became a buzz word, Eddie Turnbull’s teams pressed and nobody worked harder than Davie. He played as a second striker behind wee Joe and although he wasn’t the goal scorer that Joe was, he still managed to get his share because he would make the effort to get into the box. Just think of his goal that won us the League Cup. He made the run to the back post.

“He was also a character and I remember an end of season game against Ross County. He was doing step overs like Ronaldo but unlike Ronaldo, he fell over the ball. The Dingwall crowd burst into laughter but laughed even more when Davie made a gesture with his hand in the air, looking for a penalty. I also remember when we played in Montreal during a tour of Canada and the USA. The Montreal team had signed a big defender from a Serie A team in Italy. Both he and Davie were tussling for the ball in the box and Davie fell down like a sack of potatoes falling off a lorry. The ref immediately pointed to the penalty spot and we scored to go 1-0 ahead. Suddenly the home fans went crazy and invaded the field, causing the game to be abandoned!

“Certainly a great player to have in your team, most definitely a colourful character, but most of all a great teammate. I feel he has left us too early and I will miss him.”

Plus, we have picked out some wonderful photos from the AFC Archives of the Scottish Internationalist who won a Scottish Cup winners medal in 1970 and towards the end of his Aberdeen career famously scored the winning goal in the 1976 League Cup.

Also in Sunday’s programme there is an in depth interview with centre half Liam Scales who has settled into life at Pittodrie very nicely. There is a Q&A with Jayden Richardson plus features with the impressive Ylber Ramadani and young Don Jack Milne.

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