tarapoa

May as well get Ruby off here, before the inevitable second yellow to appease the masses. Shinnie also looks like he’s running through treacle.

The problem is when we did then string a few passes together, Clarkson then got caught in possession and with one pass Kyogo was through on goal. It almost made we want to go back to just shitfesting it and hoping the final score is not too embarrassing. Which clearly is the game plan here.

Can’t agree with that - Thessaloniki has been a fantastic city, which I would place into the San Sebastián bracket of ‘would happily come back again one day’. Hospitality from everyone we have encountered has been second to none, but admittedly we were kept well away from the Gate 4 ba heids. The racket they put in a stadium is something else though. A couple of their cops crossed a line at the equaliser and got a little baton-happy, but again some smart stewarding and cool heids from some worldly-wise dandies stopped that getting out of control.

I write this a little worse for wear after several days on the sauce, and the sounds of the noisy nightlife of this Greek city going on eight floors below. Experience has been nothing but positive. This was always the away game of the three in the group I targeted going to, and firmly believe it to be up there amongst the ultimate European away trips. The city itself is a wonderful setting and absolutely rocking . The Toumba was special in terms of an atmosphere you will just never experience in any UK ground. There was no real issues getting to and from the ground, which was always a worry. The fact that the team stood up to it and gave us a couple of cracking goals to celebrate just topped things off beautifully. We were never qualifying from this group, but maybe the only regret is a couple of more very gettable points in the home games and things could be very much alive for the couple of games to come. Still important to win in Helsinki, even if the bizarrely timed LC final now means just accepting playing a shadow team and enduring a horsing at home to an Eintracht side keen to win the group.

First impressions it’s a nice city with a lively and smart centre. Lots of bars, so hopefully plenty reds have gone for a non-Irish bar option too. I imagine the club’s request for folk to walk from a pre-determined square to a ferry port 1.2km away FOUR HOURS before the match will fall on deaf ears. Our Airbnb host did warn us of ‘many bad things happening’ with these ‘drug crazed oooltras’ of PAOK - so we’ll see what transpires. Maybe the fact that the jeopardy has largely been removed from the occasion after the arse collapse a fortnight back means things will pass off fine.

Interesting to listen to Jensen in his RedTV interview after the semi, saying that he feels PAOK are scared of us. Sleepless nights clearly judging by their weekend performance.

Currently having a break from reasonably enjoyable sing-songs on a bus down - as they have misguidedly gone down the Oasis route for a few mins, f**k that. I like this - we are not playing one of the weegie duo, and we’re not strong favourites against a ‘smaller’ club. Similar budgets, crowd, undulating form, strengths/weaknesses etc - only slight concern is allowing Hibs a Tuesday fixture and an extra day’s rest - may be a factor if it goes beyond 90. Other than that, bring it on and may the best team win, as long as they’re wearing red.

As ever with this kind of thing, a bit of both. Motherwell were poor. Getting a deserved second just before HT was particularly welcome, as I thought they were bound to markedly improve in the second half - but that really didn't happen until it became a training match late on. I am not sure how our lot can go from looking so listless and clueless three days after the European tie - to looking daisy fresh a further three days on last night and zipping it about with purpose and crisp passing. Maybe it is managerial instructions. I actually thought Robson might finally make a few changes for this one ahead of the semi, but he scratched the surface. One thing he did do is remove Duk from the starting XI, and a look at this season to date would suggest our better performances have occurred when he has done that. McGrath certainly looks all the better for it - and we finally saw a bit of last season's version of Clarkson too. Hopefully the boost from this result will ensure the players are at it on Saturday evening, as Hibs have had the better of us in recent matches and we're due a performance against them.

Agree probably between those two - but yet again Jack Mackenzie, a guy who I had personally written off as someone that was on a one way crusade to Forfar Athletic, also had a really good game and on this form should now be regarded a nailed on starter for most matches (certainly the bigger ones).

I'm still getting over your number one fan Chick Young telling us that we'd won a watch by outmanoeuvring Liverpool, AC Milan etc for the signature of Ricky Gillies. Sometimes you get these guys who are good at a certain level. O'Hara would certainly come into that category - Baccus maybe has more potential to step up a notch and play on a bigger stage.

Tactics to an extent, but also attitude. Everyone; management, players and fans, are up for the European games. Something a bit different, colourful occasions, different opponents, live on TNT/ James Richardson highlights etc There is then this huge comedown to the reality of domestic games, and the players just seem physically and mentally not at it. This is where good management would have utilised 20 plus players invested in effectively and ensured those hungry to impress came in for some of the Sunday league games in particular. Instead he just sticks to basically the same side again and again, and the predictable outcome is another insipid 90 mins of zero goal threat and a fairly easy win for the motivated and organised opponents. You then have the ultimate insult of St Mirren fans coming on here and saying they wouldn't swap any of their jobbers for any of our players.

He’s just irritating me now. There are a few times in recent games he maybe has merited free-kicks against him - but refs are now making a point of just ignoring everything involving him. It’s open season on him now for defenders, and he’s probably got no one to blame for that other than himself.

Last season was one of the few occasions that Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs finished in the 3rd to 5th spots. That is a lot less likely to happen as often as the top two finishing where they do, as the difference in wage/level of player isn’t that stark that it can’t be overcome with a decent manager, organised team etc There are certain pressures and expectations that come with playing for the bigger city clubs that are a bit less of an issue at other clubs. I think we are a particularly tough club to manage and only McInnes and Calderwood this side of the millennium have managed a sustained period of consistently finishing where our budget dictates we should. if we change manager, Robinson becomes an obvious candidate - but many think he maybe suits a Motherwell/ St Mirren size club and wouldn’t adapt at an AFC, Hearts or Hibs. I’m not so sure, but even if results were there, fans will then have a go at the style of football. Good luck to the football monitoring board with this one when the inevitable happens - maybe as soon as within the next week or two.

There are a few damning things mounting up on Robson, but I agree this gives most cause for concern. Kilmarnock's pitch is nowhere near as bad as Livingston's and with a bit of moisture on it, actually permits some decent football for teams that can pass the ball. Indeed Mcinnes teams had a great record down there, and it wasn't always a scrappy game - can remember a couple of 4 goal wins where we played some great fitba. Robson commented at Livi that 'going long' to use the pace of the front two was the game plan. It failed miserably that day, but then he goes and does it again with the same zero attacking threat. Trying to accommodate Duk, who is looking more and more like a one season wonder, is now becoming as big a hill for him to die on, as the constant exclusion of the half-a-dozen aforementioned players who were meant to form part of the squad to cope with all these extra fixtures. He seems to have fallen into a lot of the basic traps in how not to manage AFC - and sadly it's looking more and more that he just enjoyed an extremely fortunate run of fixtures earlier in this calendar year. We seemed to get Motherwell, Livi, Hearts and Kilmarnock at home all at ideal times due to the opponents' form/managers/away records at time - then the three worst sides in the league (United, St J, Ross Co) as away games. The post-split performances perhaps offered more insight into what was ahead. Other than Ross County at home and around 25 minutes in Sweden - anything decent this season has come from using 4-5-1 against bigger and better sides. An Aberdeen manager will not be permitted by the supporters to do that in 75% of games, but if we deviate from that, then it seems that every other manager has completely worked out how to stop us. Feel bad for Robson that this is looking ominous for him now, but he isn't helping himself - and Agnew is perhaps not the coaching genius that we perceived either.

Dons doing their best to give the impression of a ‘lost the dressing room’ dying embers of a managerial era performance.

Shinnie needs to come off before he gets a red.

Poor game, but awful stuff from us in an attacking sense. Some really questionable decisions against us though - early potential Red not looked at, but Gartenmann booked for Vassell backing into him a couple of times

Two massive games for PAOK coming up and a couple of diddy ones in their domestic league.

Only 14k sold so far for this one - not sure if the flat performances so far at Pittodrie this far season or maybe just the fact it’s school hols have to led less take up for this one. Given full houses are often accompanied with the team shitting the bed, maybe a more low key build up will suit us against the undoubted step up in quality that is PAOK.

If Liverpool’s Hungarian goalkeeper Adam Bogdan hadn’t blundered and let in a late FA Cup equaliser at Exeter, Aberdeen would have been league champions in season 2015/16 (despite us having a slightly inferior side to the one we had in 16/17).

One of best matches, and attacking performances from Dundee, that I recall was when Greg Stewart played for you. Decent Dons side under McInnes that didn't tend to concede many, but him and Harkins ripped us a new one that afternoon. We had to rely on a last minute equaliser from The Rat for a 3-3 draw. Saturday has the feel of the kind of match which seems to be troubling Robson this season. If we get an early breakthrough, we should be fine - but if, as expected, Doc has Dundee well-organised, then we could struggle as our playing style/tactics seems to be based on being fast on the transition - which is useful for around 20% of our Pittodrie fixtures. Width and guile against sides that close down all the space is something that has eluded us so far.

Ah the old Dundonian have a go at Aberdeen thing gaining momentum. Reading this, it's as if a visit to the Hilltoon or Clepington is akin to Beverly Hills.

Tony Doc knows what he’s doing - expecting a tough match for our latest 6pm encounter, which now seems to be the norm when we face a club from that city home or away.

Might need him to do us a turn on Sunday........