north eastern league supplementary cup 1941 1942

After being shut down for the entire 1940-1941 season, a form of competition was revived to slake the sporting thirst of the footballing public. Scotland was split geographically with Aberdeen consigned to the North Eastern League. With only eight teams participating, the League was not extensive enough to fill the entire season, so the North Eastern Football League Supplementary Cup competition was devised. It was to fit between the two short League contests, with a later mini-tournament called the Mitchell Cup scheduled to close out the season.

Aberdeen won the trophy having knocked out Dunfermline Athletic and Rangers on the way to the Final. Their opponents in a two-legged contest were Dundee United, who won the first match 4-1 at Tannadice, but the Dons hit back with a 6-2 victory at Pittodrie Park the clinching goal coming from John Donaldson – a wartime loan player from Hearts.

Teams were very different in composition from match to match because of wartime demands, but the victorious group on the 20th of December 1941 was: Brown, Cooper, Graham, Dunlop, Lyon, Taylor, Donaldson, Hamilton, Anderson, McCall, Williams.

The solid silver trophy became the permanent property of Aberdeen Football Club and for a long time was feared lost – possibly in the fire of 1971 – but in March 2024 it was discovered deep in the back of a cupboard in the Pittodrie Kit Room.