tarapoa

If you try to imagine if peak Brazil 1970 had got the chance to play peak Netherlands 1974. This will potentially be the extreme antithesis of that. That was often the case when both sides were comfortably in the top half for a few seasons a decade or so back - now we have the current shower of imposters. Important three points for someone though, just to avoid sphincters getting too twitchy and ensure the alternative of a benign nothingness to end the league season.

Rubezic is raw, but at least he is happy enough competing for basic defensive headers. Gartenmann and Jensen both look like they need to be alongside someone of that ilk. Even top class defenders sometimes have bad chemistry eg Miller/Hansen 82. I think these two are both potentially ok players if they have the right partner - that is clearly not each other. Haste ye back Slobba

Very few managers will have a flawless recruitment record and its the easiest thing in the world to try and prove a point by naming the duds and not successes. I think darker forcers were at work by the time we recruited the three amigos. Even then, I actually didn't think Callum Hendry was that bad, and Hornby had pedigree at U21 level, plus had been at Everton and Reims, so seemed worth a shout too given the predicament. The less said about Kamberi the better. Maybe signing known quantities that are tried and tested in this league is a better formula than whatever it is the likes of us and Hibs are trying to achieve. We have bigger budgets than most, but I do often think that £1-2K-a-week players that get themselves solid and organised must love playing against £2.5-3K a week players trying to play open expansive 'stylish' football from the back etc. That is why McInnes, Robinson and Docherty will all likely finish in the top half and a couple of them will have summer continental sojourns - whilst us and Hibs can play a really entertaining bottom six dead rubber at Easter Road in early May and look forward to Peterhead or Methil in July.

Happy to. I made a comment about Jimmy Calderwood getting sacked for being 4th and playing apparent 'dull' football - and got jumped on regarding a completely different manager, for whom I partially agree with your comments.

I know it's a dull polarising subject (in an era of them), but there are two sides to it. We were 4th (in the empty stadia season), which was being talked about as "failure", "disappointing" etc etc. They had played some really good stuff with the Hedges, Wright and Watkins triumvirate being anything but 'stone age' in style. All three of those players ended up being unavailable and then the Scotland U21 Covid thing took Ferguson/McCrorie out for a while too - whilst Joe turned into the 2024 Roos. Yes, there was that series of dire games, the three deadline day amigos and the feeling things had run their course - but the fact the four years since have been like this has come as no surprise to many of us. The 'philosophy'' has gone from open expansive Atlanta-ball to watching a mid-70s Neil Warnock come up for a bit of giggle. A couple of poor results in the coming weeks and McInnes'' bitchslapping of Cormack will have reached new levels. Hopefully that can somehow be avoided.

Right now we seem to be employing very open tactics that will play right into McInnes' hands............not helped by comedy goalkeeping and defending. However, we have so much ground to make up, that it feels past the point of even bothering trying to $hitfest a result. It just won't work and is unfair on those that make the 380 mile round trip. It surely can't be any worse than that effort earlier in the season. I know the wisdom was that Sundays after European matches were likely to be a struggle - but the team was ragdolled from start to finish that day with the not unusual spectacle of players the club have been willing enough to let go looking like world beaters against us. Think there is some historic bad blood between these managers after 'The Battle of Bramall Lane'. Makes for an interesting watch on YouTube.

Still not sure we got a big enough sample size to judge properly. Some clubs in our league seem to get a lot out of these big target man types. In fact, there have been a few AFC defences 'bullied' by them over the years. Our fans, clearly due to being connoisseurs of the beautiful game, seldom take to such players. Maybe he is just mince, but he scored more goals in the Belgian top flight than Shankland.

Sacking offence at AFC that was.

A lot of our fans will be happy with these basketball style matches we’ve started serving up given the moans about entertainment levels over much of the past decade. It’s as if there has been acceptance that Europe and even the Top Six are now out of reach, and Warnock has come up for a bit of a giggle and some fun for the supporters (if you classify losing easy goals as enjoyable that is).

Head to head?

Good - normally much prefer the Friday option and hate lunchtime ko's - but will be on a plane home on the Friday evening, so feared I'd miss this.

The jekyll and hyde tends to be within games as much as it is in terms of inconsistent results in general. Very few teams will ever dominate for 90 minutes, but my worry is how bad the drop off can be. Maybe the team tired themselves out coming back on Wednesday after really good spells either side of HT, but it was a bit of a mess by the end with Well looking much more likely to snatch a winner. This might be quite an entertaining game, but the fact that neither side here is as good as the sum of their parts means there's a fair chance there's a post-split bottom sixer at Easter Road still to come in a few months.

Shayden Morris and Senior Toilet to come off the bench and turn a tight game in AFC's favour with a masterclass in wide play.

My mate and I did spend a large portion of the first half double-checking Young and Duff weren't actually on the park. I notice our local sports media have gone down the 'brave man admitting he got it wrong', 'experience able to turn things round' narrative - nope, sorry - this was an unnecessary binfire that Stevie Wonder could have told him had no chance of working. The race to be 9th hots up with such a hard-earned point. ........as for the 'thrown under a bus' nonsense used to defend certain players. Even allowing for bizarre team selection, there is Morris (who can run fast in a straight line). Just some basic intellect and spatial awareness could presumably still mean you could give the wing-back position half a go? He really is one of the worst players I have seen at AB24 and that is a low bar.

Three of our five league fixtures since the break have ended 1-1. I am almost conditioned to accept that is probably the most likely scoreline this evening.............with the team giving the impression they're not that disappointed with it, despite injecting a little more urgency into the aimless huff and puff during the last ten minutes.

Administration is an interim step that clubs with dedicated fans who will pull enough will help the club find a way out of. Liquidation, however? That is accepting the end of the club and its history, with potentially having to start again as a mickey mouse phoenix club.

We had just got back from an emotionally draining energy cities derby victory against Viking Stavanger in the Europa League. To use Robsonspeak - "I'll not use the excuse that the players were tired, but...." Robinson clearly enjoys scudding us 3-0.

"Are you with me?"

Bring back replays - many of my best 'domestic fitba match' memories are Scottish Cup replays under the lights. Penalties in early rounds are for the League Cup. ps unless it's Celtic or Sevco who should be given a bye in these circumstances.

Possibly the main reason I have DNA is this event - and to be fair to Warnock, he'll be a bit more comfortable in front of an audience than the lug-howker.

Only the third Sat 3pm k.o. of the season at Pittodrie - looking forward to our first ever meeting with Bonnyrigg Rose, following the (cough) joyful experience that was our first ever meeting with Annan last season. We should win comfortably, but have a habit of making these things stickier than they should be. Still recall after their late equaliser, being happy to draw with Stenny at home a few years back in the days when we had replays (which IMO are part of what the Scottish Cup is all about). Nice to hear Bonnyrigg are taking a good crowd up - more than the Edinburgh clubs sometimes do for league fixtures.

I think one of the pods made the point that when he came back in around March last season, he was very good, but had genuine competition in Gorter. The rest of his time has been fair to middling at best, with shot-stopping one of his strengths in amongst some clear weaknesses with crosses, erratic kicking and diving the wrong way at penalties. I agree the first Sevco goal last night was a much bigger rick than the second, but a top keeper deals with both better.

I’m still bitter about it.

Boyata did that to GMS in the LC final a few seasons back. GMS carried off, no pen awarded and then that classless p***k Christie runs up the other end and scores the only goal. Rules yet again applied to differing standards in this country.