bpdon

Hilariously poor last 20 mins. We were asking for that with such embarrassingly clumsy and careless defending. Utterly comical standards for this level. What a waste. Shinnie disappeared and did Clarkson even touch the ball? As for Hayes contribution on the second goal..... just dinna.

I see that another red warning has just been issued for the area between Dundee and Stonehaven covering the whole of Saturday. It's still forecast for rain most of tomorrow in Aberdeen city but it looks like the wind might ease up by dinner time. Depending on how the pitch has held up to all the rain, it might be playable. Given the latest red warning, I wonder if they will now just postpone the game early on safety grounds. EDIT to add that the ticket office are currently expecting the game to go ahead but apparently there is a meeting at 1PM to discuss it.

Utter bile in the first half and at least upped the tempo in the second half. However, the quality just wasn’t there. Even Miovski was incredibly wasteful. Other than the chopped off goal, our crossing was brutal throughout. We got what we deserved - soggy socks and a good boo’ing.

Ohh and shout out to big Rube. I have been quick to criticise the big gype so credit where it's due..... I thought he played well last night.

Until HJK scored, I was quite ambivalent about our performance. On the one hand I was reassured that we had clearly learnt from the Hacken hiding, where our blood-n-thunder approach exposed us to being picked off by quality players - to use a Deek McInnes, we were managing the game quite well and generally being very disciplined if a little disjointed up front. On the other hand, we were clearly playing too passively, safe, and well within ourselves. This was frustrating when there was plenty scope for someone, anyone, to step forward and own dictating the game higher up the pitch. The scars from Hacken were holding us back from over committing anywhere. The references above to Jensen and Gartenmann playing keep ball ad-infinitum were case in point - Stephen Craigen said this in commentary multiple times. HJKs goal was a bit out of the blue really. If we were content going into that last 30mins still at 0-0 and primed to up the ante from this point (the subs suggest we probably were) to have a more progressive go at victory, I think we win that fairly comfortably. It wasn't great but it was way above some of the early season dross plus we did enough to deserve a win. I will give Barry the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Gordon Smith just sounds exactly like the myopic and bitter fish-mouth we all know he is.

Apart from a 15 minute spell at the start of the second half when we looked threatening, but, ehh, didn’t actually threaten….. that was fairly horrendous today. Again. As someone else said, our strategy just seems to be “hope Duk does something or we get a pen “. All Robsons bluster about getting back to Pittodrie after so many away games went well - two near sell out crowds going home disappointed. The 5 games crammed into the last 2 weeks of September could be brutal if the management team don’t find some solutions.

Standard. We have been bowf all season - we look unconvincing in far too many departments.

Meh. Another mostly gash domestic performance so far.

The club has been in such a strong position through the summer to prepare for a massive season. This is criminal neglect if it proves true.

Morris was in line with Sadiq as the move for the second goal started to unfold. Shinnie is caught with 2 on 1 in central mid and the spare man was fed through giving Devlin a decision - hold the shape or step out to press/block. Ach you could argue Morris should have spotted the spare man in the hole earlier and inverted to block. Or, Devlin steps out and Morris stays tight and tracks Sadiq. We did neither and they were sharp and punished us. Similar to Jack MacKenzie rushing miles out of range for the first goal last week. There is just so little margin for error when man-for-man at the back against very good players.

Aye. Absolutely wedded to 3-5-2. We have zero in game tactical nous to tweak the formation or system - we only rotate players and hope for a reaction. Playing 3 on 3 at the back leaves so little margin for error and is asking a hellavah lot from your wing backs…… especially when one of them is Morris. At the other end of the pitch, you just can’t miss sitters like that repeatedly to succeed at this level. Clutching for some positives tonight…. I thought we played some nice stuff in spells and overall I thought Jensen looked decent. McGarry was great first half but tired.

You won’t find too many arguments on these points. I let out an almighty sigh when I saw Morris was starting. Duk hasn’t turned up this season - so far undroppable though.

Plenty of experience - in the top 20 of all time most RoI caps. His career seems to have tapered off in recent years He might still have something to offer. Although I did see a blog describing him as a Gary McDonald “ghost”

Injury or attitude would hopefully give us an opportunity to send Williams back by mutual consent. But if he is just sh1te, then we might be contractually on the hook. The squad is too small to carry passengers. We definitely need quality midfielders - there's just not enough grit and guile between Clarkson, Polvara, Barron, Duncan (I will exclude McGrath from this until I have seen more of him). We are asking a hellavah lot of a 32 year old Shinnie who will inevitably pick up at least one suspension through the season. Polvara ticks the physical attributes boxes. He has some potential (we have seen the odd glimmer of talent), but I don't think he is good enough on or off the ball to be a midfield mainstay. Yet he has started every competitive game so far this season.

Anyone who has watched our domestic games this season won’t be surprised by this performance or the result. The hype after a good 30 mins in Hacken was wild. Is Rubezik this years Stewart?

Man for man, we have been absolutely pitiful today - as poor as anything we have served up in the last few seasons. Getting exactly what we deserve here.

Too many aimless 50 yarders in the general direction of Duk and Miovski who are totally isolated. The mids and wing backs not having any impact. Defence and keeper looking ropey.

We were slow to start on Thursday and we have been shocking so far today.

What a state football is in if a ref sees a pen there after 50 replays. That said, Mackenzie looked like a big fearty ducking in for that cross and making him self culpable for both goals. Morris and Duncan have struggled. Polvara hasn’t been great. But we have missed 3 or 4 fantastic chances. Still time to sneak an important away goal.

Yeah those unknown quantities could go either way. Lots of dice rolling in this new look squad - hopefully the scouting prawcess has us coming up with double 6's on most of them. Central midfield is a definite weak spot. I hope we are still fishing for a quality player that compliments Shinnie and Clarkson. The others you list are squad fillers.

Agree with this. Granted a few of our primary targets have not worked out, but the lack of meaningful progress on any plan B or plan C ahead of a lot of important August games, including Hacken, does hint at a lack of options or conviction. Hopefully the management have the measure of Hacken and their patience with signings pay off. I’m getting twitchy though.

I presume this means we need to sign and register players who don't blow up our "locally trained" quota before midnight on Wednesday, or, we are limited to the current squad for both legs v Hacken? There's still plenty time in the window for deals but it is starting to look unlikely that we will be bolstered in time for the play-off. I must admit that I had expected a bit of movement since that rotten Livi performance. The club probably feel they can take a calculated risk for the play-off tie with a conference league safety net...... and a reasonably decent change of beating Hacken with the current squad. I hope it doesn't back fire.

Yup. It was a hard watch. One dimensional and zero courage or quality on the ball. I could almost forgive that sort of performance on Sunday lunch time after a hard Euro tie the Thursday prior. I expected better today. Livi made it hard for us with presses and physicality. But we need to be confident and sharp enough to at least try and play around and through that. I’m struggling to think of a single moment today where we put any meaningful move together through those Livi reducers. Thank f*ck we still have 4 weeks to get some signings in. We need more reinforcements than I thought.

Ooft. Grim. Woeful. Nae quality. Livi looked the more likely to snatch a win. If that performance is anything to go by, we will be eaten alive next weekend and in the Europa play offs.