Aberdeen 2 - 1 Partick Thistle

PARTICK THISTLE were unlucky at Pittodrie. They almost earned a replay for their fight back in the second half. Any team that wins the Scottish Cup must have a spot of luck. The Dons got the "break" on Saturday. Here's hoping they go on to make history by winning the trophy for the first time.

I had resigned myself to trip to Firhill on Saturday for the replay, when Willie Cooper decided that the "journey wasn't really necessary." it was a 100 to l chance that the Dons' veteran right back brought off, but may well prove a golden goal for the Pittodrie club.
There were just three minutes left for play when Cooper dropped his atomic bomb in the Partick goal. An Aberdeen breakaway produced a corner on the left. McCall's flag kick was headed clear. The ball ran loose on the right. Up thundered veteran Cooper to let go a right-foot drive.
The ball sailed over the Aberdeen and Partick players bunched in the penalty area and entered the net at the angle of the crossbar and upright. So are cup-ties won and lost.

Quick Tackling

It was not an attackers' day - the tackling was too quick and keen and even a trifle robust at times. The two half-back lines adopted the role of spoilers. The forwards were never given a chance to settle, although there were occasions in the opening half when the Dons gave glimpses of their best.
The only goal of the first half came after thirty minutes' play. Twenty-two-year-old Ray Botha, from South Africa, making his bow in Scottish football, started the movement.
He sent the ball up the right touchllne to Hamilton, who had run into position. The inside right brought it under control and smartly sent across to McCall. The inside left beat Steadward with a fast rising shot.
I don't quite know what went wrong with the Dons in the second half. With a single goal lead they went on the defensive. It probably wasn't a case falling back, however, but of being forced back.
The Firhlll team launched a full-scale offensive. They got the equalising goal in twenty-one minutes. Mathie gained possession and was immediately tackled bv Dunlop. The players collided and the Dons' centre half dropped to the ground unconscious. Mathie ran on to beat Johnstone.
Dunlop had received a head injury and was carried from the field. He was absent for ten minutes and returned to take up the left-wing berth, McLaughlln being at centre half and Hamilton at right half with McCall at inside right.
Both defences played soundly, and so far as the Dons go, I think the best performances were put up by McKenna and McLaughlln. The left back gave one of his best displays of the season.
Taylor was a sound tackier, and Dunlop had the measure of Mathie until he was injured.
Botha made quite a promising debut. He may well develop into a fast and dangerous winger once he gains experience.
It was a hard game, fought at a good pace between twenty-two players, every one of whom threw everything he had into it an effort to avoid extinction in the knock-out competition.

Source: Press & Journal, 27th January 1947

IT WAS NO FLUKE, SAID WILLIE

THE man of the moment is Willie Cooper, the Dons' right back, who got the unimportant goal three minutes from the end against Partick Thistle. There were 34,000 people at Pittodrie and probably the only person who didn't see the winning goal was Willie Cooper.
When he beat Sharp, the Partick inside left, to the ball, and drove it goalwards he fell and his view was obscured.
The crowd roared. Jubilant Tony Harris was the first of his team-mates to reach Cooper. "It's a goal, 'auld yin'," shouted the delighted Harris, and this was the first indication the Dons' veteran right back had that he had scored.
"But it was no fluke," said Willie. "The ball went where it was meant go."
This goal brings Cooper's "bag" during his twenty seasons at Pittodrie to five. Last time he scored a similar one was way back in the early 'thirties against Cowdenbeath. He also netted against Clyde with a long shot when the Shawfield 'keeper was blinded by the sun.
In 1939 Cooper scored against Dundee United with a long ranger when light conditions were bad, and his fourth goal was registered from the penalty spot against Dunfermline in 1943.

Source: Press & Journal, 27th January 1947