Dons fan Miller Mathieson recounts Stenhousemuir's Scottish Cup shock against Aberdeen

However, the towering striker was playing for Stenhousemuir that day, and he helped Terry Christie’s Warriors inflict the ‘worst result in Aberdeen’s history’ when the Ochilview part-timers defeated a star-studded Pittodrie outfit 2-0 in the fourth-round of the competition back in 1995.

That was the opinion of then-Dons boss Roy Aitken, who admitted afterwards that his side were deservedly dumped out by Stenny – who run over the top of the Dons with dairy farmer Tommy Steele stealing the headlines, scoring a second-half double to seal a quarter-final spot.

"It wasn’t a shock to us, we genuinely thought we could win the tie,” recalled Matheson, who is still known as one the Warriors’ best-ever players for his goal-laden five-year spell at Ochilview.

"We played the best I think we'd ever played before against St Johnstone in the previous round. We won 4-0 but it could have eight or nine. So we actually went into the game thinking, you know, we've definitely got a chance here.

"Aberdeen had some great players like Eoin Jess and Duncan Shearer but we looked at them and thought we could really get at them and it turned out that way.

"They had a cracking full-back, Stephen Wright, who honestly didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. He has some game. We won 2-0 but it could have been more.

"Quiet Tommy Steele ended off being the hero for us. He just loved running, he got a people. His quality in front of goal wasn’t what he was known for so it was a surprise he produced two finishes of that quality!"

Every player on the pitch that day for Stenhousemuir knew they had just sealed the club’s biggest-ever result, but it was a slightly weirder feeling for Mathieson, who has grown up as a massive Aberdeen fan and had just played a key role in dumped them out of the Scottish Cup in ignominious fashion.

And he recalled seeing the faces of family and friends in the stands celebrating the Warriors’ win, despite them all being dyed-in-the-wool Dons.

Mathieson said: “It was genuinely hard to comprehend because most of us went to the opposite side from where the original stand was because that's where the fans were mostly crammed in.

“And all I could see, everywhere I looked, were people I knew. So it was very bizarre. The Aberdeen end was emptying.

"I had told all my relatives and family connections beforehand that I was only getting them a ticket if they supported Stenny.

"And by the end of the game they were all jumping around cheering and enjoying the moment. I even had my uncle and cousin, who were in the Dons’ end after refusing to go in the Stenny end, clapping us off the end when we did a lap of honour.”

The shock win was masterminded by then-manager Terry Christie, and Mathieson revealed that his “compulsive obsessive” nature and organisation was was set him apart from other part-time bosses of that time.

Christie took over at Ochilview shorty after Mathieson joined and he went on to become a club legend – leading the Warriors to a Challenge Cup trophy just months after the Aberdeen giant-killing.

"Certainly in part-time football, nobody organised a team anywhere close to the way he did,” he explained. “And because he was good at that, he managed to attract some good players.

"When I first arrived at Stenny under Dennis Lawson, we had players that would have been decent junior players, but not good senior players. But that slowly changed overtime when Terry came in.

"He was a compulsive obsessive as a manager. He was so obsessed with what every single person on the pitch had to do at every particular moment. He was obsessed with every set-piece. We all knew exactly what we had to do. We were so organised, so disciplined in terms of how we defended, how we covered set pieces. All of that.

“He didn't go out to make friends! Terry was not quite the bad cop, but Graham Armstrong, who was his assistant manager while still playing, was definitely the good cop.”

Now thirty years on, Stenny’s current crop are hoping to eclipse that group’s achievement’s with back-to-back league title wins under Gary Naysmith.

“It’s been amazing,” Mathieson said. “I still keep an eye on the results but I don’t want to go to a game and jinx it! Community-wise, what Stenny do is ludicrously successful. My name’s on this season’s special home kit. I’ve never given up my connection – it is a special club.”