BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
FRASER FYVIE insists he will put friendship aside when he crosses swords with Aberdeen skipper, and best pal, Ryan Jack for the first time since leaving the club in 2012.
The duo have been inseparable since they played together as schoolboys in the Granite City, ultimately emerging through the Dons youth ranks together.
Fyvie went onto become Aberdeen’s youngest ever debutant in August 2009 when he played the full 90 minutes against Hamilton at the age of 16, before making his £500,000 switch to Wigan three years later.
Jack, meanwhile, remained at Pittodrie to cement his first-team place, making more than 200 appearances for his boyhood heroes and ascending to the captaincy in the summer of 2015.
Despite their careers veering in different directions, they have stayed in touch with each other throughout and, ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final, the verbals are already flying.
Fyvie said: “I played alongside Ryan since I was seven years old, we came all the way through together and he is my best pal. I spoke to him the other day and we had a bit of banter already.
“He is the Aberdeen captain and that speaks for itself, he has done fantastically well in the last few seasons and he is highly regarded in Scottish football. I think he is a fantastic player and we can all see the performances he produces week-to-week.
“Ryan is one of the first names on the Aberdeen team-sheet and everything seems to go through him. He is a top player.
“But it will be a simple case of ‘see you after the match’! We will see how it goes and hopefully Hibs can come out winners on the day and get ourselves to another final.
“That is what we want to do, regardless of who is on the other side.”
As well as seeking to disappoint his childhood friend, Fyvie is in danger of upsetting his extended family this weekend.
Fyvie, a Dons fans, has been snubbed by his nearest and dearest, aside from his parents, with the majority unable to bring themselves to support him from the Hibs end. Instead, they will be among the Red Army foot-soldiers at Hampden.
The 24-year-old smiled: “I’ve not played against Aberdeen since I’ve been away so I’m looking forward to it. Most of my family and a few of my mates will be in Aberdeen end.
“My family all came to watch me in last year’s Scottish Cup final, but pretty much all my family will be in the Aberdeen end this time, bar my mum and dad, who’ll be in the Hibs end.
“They’ve experienced my Scottish Cup win and they were also at Aberdeen’s League Cup win over Inverness, so they have enjoyed a bit of success in the last few years.
“My uncle did say ‘I’m getting to a final either way!’”
Fantastic
Fyvie, similarly, reckons he will be at the national stadium on May 27, one way or another, after revealing he would cheer on Aberdeen should the Dons progress.
He continued: “It is a fantastic football club and there are some great people at the club who I still speak to. It is a team that I still actually support.
“I probably would go to the final, but hopefully it is going to be Hibs there, not them.”
With Aberdeen on course to be the Premiership’s best of the rest this season, they arrive in Glasgow as favourites, however Fyvie is adamant there will be no inferiority complex from the newly-crowned Championship title-winners.
“We go there full of confidence after winning the league,” added Fyvie. “The pressure is probably off us.”
