Aberdeen 1 - 0 Clyde

Aberdeen met Clyde at Pittodrie, before 12,000 spectators. Half an hour after the start Hume, the home left back, was injured, and retired for the remainder of the game. Aberdeen adopted the one-back game, and this upset the Clyde forwards, who were repeatedly pulled up for offside. Twenty minutes after the second half had gone, Hutton obtained the only goal of the match. Subsequently play was keen, but both defences prevailed. Best for Clyde were Ballantyne, Cowan, McAndrew, Morris, and Thompson; and for Aberdeen, Anderson, Hannah, Brewster, McLaughlin, and Archibald.

Source: The Scotsman, 1st September 1919

before 12,000 spectators at Pittodrie, Aberdeen registered heir second victory of the season at the expense of Clyde by the only goal of the day. The result was the more creditable to the home team by reason that for the last hour of the game they were without Hume, their captain, left back, who sustained a knee injury, and was unable to resume. Up to the time when Hutton scored, eighteen minutes after the start of the second half, the game had been dull and uninteresting, but the goal added the needed touch that brought some vigour and incident into the play. Aberdeen faced the wind in the first half, and in the earlier stages the home left wing flattered, but with raids upon both goals it was anybody's game up to the time that Hume retired. After that Aberdeen adopted the one back game, and, playing it skilfully, were able to keep Clyde on the defensive. It was a game in which the defenders on both sides showed up well, and the fact that the majority of the shots the goalkeepers had to deal with were long range efforts, revealed the strength of the rear divisions. On each slide the half-backs played a sterling game, and they had much to do with comparative ineffectiveness of the forwards. Except for occasional glimpses there was little combination by the attacks, although, in the first half hour the home left got on well together, and a again struck it in the closing stages. On the whole the Clyde attack were the nippier lot, and but for the strength of the home defence and the trouble they experienced in circumventing the offside rule, they must have been a paying crew.

The One Back Game

While Hutton's fine goal was the nominal means of the points remaining at Pittodrie, the real deciding factor in the game was the offside rule, and while the adoption of the one-back game made the play disappointing to the spectators, it paid the home team, and in the end, handicapped as they were, enabled them to pull through. The fact that the win was recorded covers a multitude of shortcomings on the part of the Pittodrie forward line, but now, on the third showing it is apparent that is vast room for improvement in this department of the team. Neither side took full advantage of opportunities, and there was a lack of penetrating and finishing power - a remark that applied to more teams than Aberdeen and Clyde on Saturday. The conditions - a wet afternoon - and the circumstances under which the game was played were not conducive to a high standard of football, and what the game lost in spectacular effect was compensated for by the intensity of competitive element in the later stages, when the exchanges were strenuous in the extreme.

Source: Aberdeen Daily Journal, 1st September 1919