Cooper: We had a Real laugh

May 4 2008

NEVER mind pre-match jitters - rookie Neale Cooper spent the final hours before the biggest game of his life in a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

Coop was one of the Aberdeen kids thrown into the lion's den by Sir Alex Ferguson for the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup Final.

But the 19-year-old was ready for anything. Now boss at Peterhead, Cooper told MailSport: "John Hewitt and I always roomed together.

"I was 19, he'd just turned 20 and the pair of us lay there on the afternoon of the game laughing our heads off.

"We were trying to rest but just couldn't believe it - two kids who'd come through school together told we were starting against Real Madrid.

"But it's testimony to the manager we feared no one.

"I was up against Uli Stielike, a German international and dead ringer for Basil Fawlty. I felt I had the upper hand already because Fergie had given us all dossiers on our opposite numbers."