For Brian Irvine, it was anything but. Slumped on the Broomfield turf, his 14th birthday had turned from a celebration to a wake. His winter of discontent began early.

Six goals, extra time, and a 3-3 tie resulted in a sudden death shootout. He was one of four Victoria school players who missed from 12 yards during the defeat. He quietly resolved not to take any more penalties.

In the final act of the 1990 Scottish Cup Final, the decision was made for him. The first to go to a shootout after an edgy scoreless draw lasting 120 minutes, the central defender became the most reluctant sudden death hero of all time when he smashed the 20th spot kick past Celtic’s Pat Bonner to lift the cup for Aberdeen.

“Hampden was my only penalty as a professional,” he tells Herald Sport now. “I was the last in the team lines to take it, and the reason I didn’t want to was that I used to miss them as a boy.

“I’ve never been confident with spot kicks. And it all went back to the school cup final we played in Airdrie eleven years ago.

“After a draw, they went to penalties. I missed my penalty in the shootout, and we lost the Cup Final.

“That kind of experience sticks with you, and when they were looking for penalty takers at Hampden, that’s why I was so far down the list. It was clear to me that I did not want to take one.

“Ultimately, I never wanted to be the hero or hit the winning penalty, I just wanted the team to win and my confidence in that situation wasn’t high.”

Irvine is the last man to score a winning goal for Aberdeen in a Scottish Cup Final, and he hopes to celebrate his 60th birthday by seeing his boyhood team lift the old trophy for the first time in 35 years.

A Pittodrie matchday ambassador, his attendance at Hampden will be determined by family plans to celebrate his birthday. Now based in Inverness, he travels to the central belt twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, to provide safe passage for a friend with special needs. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while still playing for Aberdeen, and the long train journeys serve as a constant reminder that everyone has problems.

“I accompany a man with learning difficulties from his parents’ house in Inverness to his care home in Musselburgh. I then return and take him home over the weekend.

“When I talk about winning the Scottish Cup with Aberdeen, I have to switch gears because it feels like a completely different world. What I do now is a million miles from what my life was like as a football player.”

The three days in the middle of the week are spent working for Marks and Spencer, and in the aftermath of the recent cyber attack, keeping the shelves stocked must have felt like a more daunting task than scoring a cup final penalty in front of 60,000 fans at Hampden.

“Charlie was the last regular penalty taker, followed by big Alex, Stewart McKimmie, Davie Robertson, and a young boy named Graham Watson.

“By the time I went forward, almost no one was left, and Theo had flipped the switch with a fantastic save from Celtic’s Anton Rogan.

“If I score, I win the cup. And if I missed, the pressure shifted to the next guy, Theo Snelders.”

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Aberdeen manager Alex Smith compared the first cup final to’shooting wee ducks at a fairground’. As Irvine walked from the Hampden centre circle to the penalty spot, he tried to forget about the day in 1979 when he struggled to hit a barn door with a beach ball from 12 yards. On Thursday night, he’ll return to Aberdeen’s Music Hall with old teammates McLeish, Nicholas, Gilhaus, and Snelders for a walk down memory lane.

“I’ve kept up with big Alex and seen him a few times over the years,” he admits.

“I saw Charlie at the Hall of Fame awards in January, but it was the first time I’d seen him since the final, when he returned to Celtic.”

“Hans Gilhaus, I haven’t seen you since you left Aberdeen. I’ve seen Theo a few times; he comes over quite frequently, but when you see each other again, you fall into an old routine as if you’d only seen each other yesterday.

“It’s been 35 years, but we’ll share some good stories and memories, and the years will slip away.

Despite moving from Inverurie to Lanarkshire for his father’s job as a police officer, Irvine remained a Dons fan and played during a golden era when open-top bus parades down Union Street were as common in Aberdeen as rowers and the northern lights.

“I feel fortunate to have played during a more competitive era. I arrived at Pittodrie from Falkirk and my first team photo in pre-season had the championship trophy in the picture.”

There was another trophy in 1995, when Roy Aitken’s team beat Dundee to lift the League Cup.

Referred to Aberdeen’s Foresterhill hospital to check on the tingling in his feet weeks after a relegation play off escape act against Dunfermline. Irvine was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and missed the final by one week. In his autobiography, he described despair and going AWOL, while his wife Donna worried herself sick. He now relies on a quiet but effective coping strategy.

“Most of the time I try not to think about it,” he confesses. “I try to block it out.

“I’m fortunate and grateful that for me, it’s primarily feelings and sensations in my legs and hands, as opposed to the other end of the spectrum, where parts of my body stop working.

“When I was diagnosed, it seemed like the worst thing that could happen to me.

“I returned from illness to play, and my disappointment was that I missed the League Cup Final in 1995, when we defeated Dundee.

“I was on the squad but did not make the starting eleven. I returned to the game the following week.

“The fact that I had been a professional for so long probably helped me with the illness because I still enjoy walking and staying active. That’s better for me than sitting in my chair thinking about it all day.”

He became a devout Christian after having an epiphany while driving to training at Falkirk, where he spent two years before moving north to Aberdeen. An Alex Ferguson dressing room must have been a wake-up call for a man committed to biblical teachings, but faith provided comfort and reassurance when illness struck.

“I was brought up going to church as a child, but it was nothing serious.

“That was a period of time when everything became real, and it helped me get through the uncertainty of the illness.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t have doubts or questions. But that is part of the faith journey.

“Day by day I would take it one thing at a time. That’s the same for life, you sometimes get overwhelmed by issues or problems going on. You get caught up in seeing the big picture when all you really need to do is take things one day at a time.

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