From a first top flight title in a quarter of a century in 1979/80, through to the glories of Gothenburg in the teeming rain, and the collection of the UEFA Super Cup at the end of 1983, Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen enjoyed an unprecedented era of success for any Scottish side not based in Glasgow.

Knocking the Old Firm off their perch, winning the Scottish Cup in style, putting Real Madrid to the sword, and doing it with a side that was, in the main, homegrown, all the elements of Ferguson’s managerial blueprints were present and correct at Pittodrie. Steven Scrag and Dave Bowler take you through those seismic times in the Granite City.

Thanks for reading YourBoysTookAHellOfABeating’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com

1988/89, a seismic season for football on television as the cartel has gone and ITV have snatched sole rights to the Football League, meaning the end of ‘Match of the Day’ as we knew it.

Spending £44million, in those days when that really was £44million, ITV were the masters now. Steven Scragg and Stuart Horsfield look back on the opening day of a season when football clubs were suddenly rich beyond the dreams of avarice and started flashing the cash as if it would never run out.

Spoiler. For some, it did.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com

Where else to start a new podcast about football in the 1980s than with the traditional curtain raiser, the Football Association’s Charity Shield? (None of this Johnny-come-lately Community Shield nonsense here).

Steven Scragg and Aidan Williams take us back to the 1986 meeting of Liverpool and Everton at the proper Wembley Stadium, the first time that television had seen fit to screen the entire game live.

Discussing the game, the build up, the legacy and why it was that Subbuteo trophies were never at the same scale as the players, once you have studied Module 1, you will be armed and ready to dazzle all-comers with your Charity Shield knowledge. As long as they only want to know about 1986.

You can even watch the game here.

Thanks for reading YourBoysTookAHellOfABeating’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com

Welcome to Your Boys Took A Hell Of A Beating, the Open University for 1980s football - we will be asking questions later.

Professor Steven Scragg has assembled a crack, or possibly crap, team of specialists to delight you with a series of in-depth modules, covering every possible facet of 1980s football in the weeks and months to come. In addition, our sister podcast, Football Revisited, will take you through the 1979/80 campaign, week by week, courtesy of some epic YouTube beachcombing.

As you will hear from the job interviews he conducted in order to compile his team, no stone was left unturned, nor turn unstoned, in the pursuit of footballing academic excellence…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com