Aberdeen Football Club (also known as The Dons, The Dandies or The Reds) are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen. They compete in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the most successful teams in their country, having won four league titles and seven Scottish Cups, including a record three in a row during the 1980s, the only time a team other than Rangers has done this since 1882. They are also the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies, both in the same year, and are one of only 3 Scottish teams that have never been relegated from the Top Division. Despite competing in both the 1999-2000 Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup finals, they have not won any silverware since 1995.
Formed in 1903 as a result of the amalgamation of three clubs from Aberdeen, they rarely challenged for honours until the 1950s, when they won each of the major Scottish trophies under manager Dave Halliday. This level of success was surpassed in the 1980s, when, under the management of Alex Ferguson, they won three league titles, four Scottish Cups and a Scottish League Cup, alongside the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, both in 1983. Aberdeen were the last club outside of the Old Firm to win a league title, in 1984/85, and also the last Scottish team to win a European trophy.
Coordinates: 57°09′09″N 2°06′36″W / 57.1526°N 2.1100°W / 57.1526; -2.1100
Aberdeen i/æbərˈdiːn/ (Scots: Aiberdeen listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain [ˈopər ˈʝɛhɪn]) is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 29th most populous city, with an official population estimate of 220,420.
Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, whose mica deposits sparkle like silver. The city has a long, sandy coastline. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen has been settled since at least 8,000 years ago, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don.
Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from King David I (1124–53), transforming the city economically. The city's two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and The Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.
A football team is the collective name given to a group of players selected together in the various team sports known as football.
Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-star team or even selected as a hypothetical team (such as a Dream Team or Team of the Century) and never play an actual match.
There are several varieties of football, with the most notable being Association football, Gridiron football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league and rugby union. The number of players selected for each team within these varieties and their associated codes can vary substantially. In some, use of the word "team" is sometimes limited to those who play on the field in a match and does not always include other players who may take part as replacements or emergency players. "Football squad" may be used to be inclusive of these support and reserve players.
The term football club is the most commonly used for a sports club which is an organised or incorporated body with a president, committee and a set of rules responsible for ensuring the continued playing existence of one or more teams which are selected for regular competition play (and which may participate in several different divisions or leagues). The oldest football clubs date back to the early 19th century. The word team and club are sometimes used interchangeably by supporters, although typically refers to the team within the club playing in the highest division or competition.
Peter Ian Pawlett (born 3 February 1991 in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire), is a professional footballer currently playing for Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen.
Pawlett was brought up in Aberdeen since a young age and made his Aberdeen debut in February 2009, coming on as a substitute in a 5–0 Scottish Cup victory over East Fife. He made his SPL debut for Aberdeen as a substitute in a 3–1 loss to Celtic on 2 May 2009, and he made his first league start in a 2–1 loss to Rangers two weeks later.
In January 2010 Pawlett sustained a knee injury which required surgery. A month later it was reported the injury will keep him out of action for the remainder of the 2009–10 season.
On 30 April 2011, Pawlett scored his first goal for Aberdeen in a 1-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Despite being born in Hull, Pawlett was selected for the Scotland under-19 team in November 2009. This selection followed a rule change by the four Home Nations that allows British passport holders to play for any of the Home Nations, provided that they have been at a school for at least five years in that nation; Pawlett was educated in Banchory.
Derek John McInnes (born 5 July 1971 in Paisley, Renfrewshire) is a former Scottish football player and current manager of Bristol City. McInnes featured prominently for Greenock Morton, Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Dundee United during his playing career. He won two caps for the Scotland national football team while with West Brom.
McInnes became manager of St. Johnstone where he had been on the playing staff, in November 2007. He guided the club to promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2009 and retained that status for two seasons.
McInnes was appointed manager of Bristol City on 19 October 2011., keeping them in the Championship in his first season in charge, despite taking over when Bristol City were bottom of the table.
McInnes began his professional career in 1988 at Greenock Morton, where he played in 221 league games in seven seasons before moving to Ibrox, where he spent almost five years, playing in 53 league matches for the club. During his time in Glasgow, McInnes had a loan spell at English club Stockport County, where he made 13 league appearances. He was also briefly at French side Toulouse. McInnes scored four goals for Rangers, with strikes against FC Alania Vladikavkaz in the Champions League and Hearts in the league. He also scored twice against Ayr United and Dunfermline in Rangers' route to the 1996 Scottish League Cup Final, but he did not feature in the final itself.