SPL Fazone: Aberdeen

THE romance of the cup usually leads to heartache of the most familiar kind for us.

Forfar at the weekend was different, however. There were nerves – there always are – but we were rarely troubled and it was only the ghost of humiliations past that kept us on edge until we scored our second goal. A decent day’s work at the office, and we’d certainly have taken straightforward and comprehensive over spectacular and free- flowing before the match.

If the words “twenty two years since we won the cup” don’t bring us all out in a collective shiver, then the utterance of “Queen of the South in the next round” certainly will. Perhaps only lifting the trophy at a sunny Hampden in May will truly exorcise that particular demon.

Brian MacRae www.afc-chat.co.uk