drybrough cup tankard

The Drybrough Cup was a short, sharp, start-of-season tournament of three rounds in a week. It was the Scottish answer to the Watney Cup in England, and played for on six occasions through the 1970's. Although it was effectively a pre-season tournament and is not counted as "competitive" by statisticians, it was taken very seriously by the competing clubs and proved very popular with supporters.

Aberdeen, with a nose for creating history, won the trophy at the first and the last of these finals.

The tankard shown here is a solid silver one given to the Dons by Drybrough after they won the inaugural tournament in 1971 at Pittodrie, where they defeated Celtic by 2-1. Davy Robb and Joe Harper (penalty) scored the goals in front of a packed stadium, on the 7th of August 1971, with 25,000 there to celebrate the victory.
The last ever Drybrough Cup final was played on neutral ground at Hampden Park, with the Dons again running up a 2-1 victory - this time against Saint Mirren. Sadly, by that time the tourney had waned in popularity and fans were reluctant to make the journey to Glasgow and only 6,994 saw Drew Jarvie and Stevie Cowan score for the Dons. Unfortunately Aberdeen were not allowed to keep the trophy itself and the current location of the trophy, a substantial object, is apparently unknown.

Footage from the 1971 match can be found on RedTV with a vintage commentary by Arthur Montford and a celebratory pitch invasion by jubilant Dons' fans.