Aberdeen 3 - 4 Hibernian

The Dons second team, who were in the process of building a secure-looking place at the top in defence of the Premier Reserve League title, blotted their copybook with a disappointing home defeat by Hibs last Saturday. The 4-3 scoreline might, on paper, look like a seven-goal thriller but in reality it was a match of mistakes in which Dons made one more than the opposition!
'We just have to write it off as one of those days,' said coach Teddy Scott. 'We didn't play well. In fact defensively it was a bit of a nightmare.' Some disruption was caused by the fact young Malcolm Thomson, who has been promoted following the transfer of Gary Riddell, had been passed fit after a week with a sore back, but had to be taken off early in the game. His place went to Greg Watson but this was not the reason for the unsettled defence which seemed generally out of sorts. A contributory factor was the goalkeeper Steve Beckett, who has been in such fine form, had one of those off days that hit all players from time to time.
The match marked the appearance of striker Keith Edwards, manager Ian Porterfield's recent signing from Leeds United. Edwards confirmed that he is a natural goalscorer by netting two of the three goals though he, like the rest of the team on the day, had some deficiencies. It was Edwards who put Dons ahead early in the game for what should have been the start of a performance that would strengthen the hold on the top of the table.
In fact Hibs were allowed to hit straight back right from the restart for a soft equaliser which, in the coach's words, 'trundled' into the net. 'We never seemed to recover from that mistake,' he added. 'From then on we often seemed likely to concede soft goals and never got our form together as we should have done.'
Hibs went 3-1 up by mid-way through a somewhat disastrous first half but happily Edwards struck with his second, a fine header a few minutes before half time. This gave a renewed incentive and Dons came out looking the better side with every chance of securing a favourable result from a mediocre display. When Robert McRobb scored the equaliser from a Hibs defensive lapse it looked as though the home team would at least salvage a draw. This was not to be. Another moment of weak defensive play allowed Hibs to score the winning goal a couple of minutes from time. The outcome was that renewed efforts have to be made to reclaim the leadership after relinquishing it in such untidy style.
'It was very disappointing,' con-fessed Teddy Scott. 'However we have to acknowledge that we have had occasions when the opposi¬tion seemed to be worth at least a draw and we have been allowed to sneak the initiative from them. I suppose these kind of situations evens themselves out.'

Source: Match Programme, 3rd October 1897