Bogbrush1903

The final playing appearance at Pittodrie was 22nd April 2000 by Jim Leighton for Aberdeen against Hibs (2-1 Dow and Solberg). 6,191 days after the glorious day or 16 years, 11 months and 11 days. I think it's unlikely that Simmie will take caretaker reigns again because he's moved away from coaching staff. I think 30th April 2022 was the final hurrah for the Gothenburg Greats at Pittodrie. 38 years, 11 months and 19 days since May 11th 1983 or 14,234 days...

Despite McGoo being a sandwich short of a picnic, it will probably be the final time we see a Gothenburg Great in a prominent role (i.e player or manager) at a match at Pittodrie...

Aye, I'm brushing that under the carpet

You read it here first...

Tomorrow really is the big one I feel that will decide whether we're headed for the play-off or not. You could easily see us following up defeat tomorrow with another one against St Johnstone. However, a win I think will finally put any lingering fears to bed. I don't care if it's a shitfest 1-0 Lewis Ferguson penalty win, just get the job done and lets lay this season to rest before the final couple of games. In the back of my mind though, I think Dundee are going to with this...

Haha, his voice was on my mind when I typed... For the benefit of others, who may have missed it... From the Bob Monkhouse jokebook, which was so famed that someone stole it... "When I was younger I told my parents I was going to be a comedian and they laughed. Well, they're not laughing now..."

We ain't laughing now though...

"Americans are so spoiled"...she must think Aberdeen is akin to living in Soviet-era Tajikstan. It all reminds me of Ian Rush's spell at Juventus. Some can embrace a new culture, adapt, assimilate and enjoy whilst others moan like hell and put themselves under stress until they get on the plane home. And lest we forget, 3 million Americans carry a loaded firearm every day. Fair play to them if they miss that nonsense... Is that Glasgow Cathedral behind them?

I hope the players aren't feeling sorry for themselves like some in this thread seem to be. We need three points on Saturday and forget about whatever else has happened this season. They just need to focus on the three points.

They were there for the taking as much as Sporting in Lisbon will ever be there for the taking for Aberdeen. We sat in when slightly more adventurous and aggressive tactics might have gave Sporting something to think about. As it was, we limped out of Europe. I'm not using this match as stick to beat McInnes (although it was another example of a far too negative approach during his final season)with but someone mentioned Stavanger which triggered my memories about Sporting. I did use the word abysmal which was too far and which I now retract.

With McInnes winning the Championship and Aberdeen losing again, it's inevitable that people will cast their eyes back favorably to the McInnes era. With relation to Killie, McInnes was allowed to bring in a lot of players in January and managed to fend off a part-time team. He won, it's an achievement of sorts but not manager of the year stuff. The fact is that our decline started during the McInnes reign and continues to this day. It was he who wanted big Declan for instance, so we would have had that useless lump coming anyway. Although, hopefully he would've been wiser that to partner him with the even worse Bates. There could be an argument to say that we would've been more stable under Milne-McInnes; however, Cormack-McInnes wasn't going to work because the spiv wants to be top dog. Unfortunately, the common denominator to our problems has been the increasing influence of Dave Cormack. We can only hope he's learning from his mistakes although the unnecessary rush to appoint Goodwin, and the £75 million stadium chatter last week suggests not.

We were playing against team bereft of match practice and we failed to give them the run-about. We sat in, lost an early goal and allowed the tempo to be played at snail's pace for the rest of the game. Even the failed Scottish policy of 'keeping in the game and then having a go in the last fifteen minutes' wasn't present. We managed one shot on target. Sporting went onto win the Portuguese league but a week later they would get thumped 1-4 at home by LASK (3rd in the Austrian league) and who themselves would be knocked out in the next round. We had match fitness advantage, an empty stadium, their preparations disrupted by Covid but we didn't lay a glove on them. So, in my view, a wasted opportunity. Abysmal might be too harsh a term but an unsatisfactory performance even taking into account the standard of the opposition.

That's a film about Savant syndrome (in particular, Kim Peek) but I read a very interesting story about acquired savantism after high-school drop out Jason Padgett was attacked after drinking in a bar. It suggests that savantism could exist in us all...I highly recommend giving it a read (see link below for BBC article regarding the case)... https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190411-the-violent-attack-that-turned-a-man-into-a-maths-genius

I tell you no lies Mr Dun. I did see Dundee win at Montrose in September 1991 (the same day Aberdeen would win at Ibrox for the last time against Oldco and the last time all told until 2017). Although I had never seen Livingston win at Pittodrie in 90 minutes (they did win 2-3 after extra-time in League Cup tie in 2003) until yesterday I have seen five no score draws with Aberdeen and Dundee at Pittodrie and a score draw four times with 13 home wins. Other than that, I saw Dundee draw 1-1 at Tyncastle (Ian Jardine and Stuart Rafferty) in November 1985 which was the first game of Hearts unbeaten run before Albert Kidd appeared, and I saw a Tayside derby in 2015 and a 3-0 loss for the Dark Blues when Shift Key scored a couple. The only time I've seen Dundee beat Aberdeen was in December 2005 at Dens when Barrett scored and Steven Craig was sent off for Aberdeen. So I've seen Dundee 32 times and they've won twice. That's a 6% win rate.

Is it really intriguing? A manager is judged on current form by boardroom, media and supporters alike. For instance, Willie Miller had us playing some of the best football I've witnessed at Pittodrie but by 1994/95 he was leading us to relegation. Miller wasn't judged on what he'd done previously, he was judged on where we were headed. We won well in Stavanger (in front of an empty stadium) but I don't what the etc means. We were abysmal in Lisbon when the home side looked vulnerable.

I stopped going to Pittodrie from around 1997 to 2000ish before slowly starting to return but I was at four Dundee games during that period.. 20/12/2003 2-2 (Anderson, Hutchinson, Novo, Wilkie O.G) 10/01/2004 0-0 Scottish Cup 02/10/2004 1-1 (Sutton, Heikkinen) 19/03/2005 1-1 (Whelan, McManus)

I've personally never seen Dundee win at Pittodrie in about 25-30 games since 1984 but that must be under threat next Saturday. To have any chance, Goodwin needs to have us attack with purpose, play Considine instead of Bates (play anyone instead of Bates), play Ramsay and play someone off Ramirez. But McGhee, despite himself, seems to have Dundee fighting and we've been withering since conceding that second equaliser at Dens. Even the fans seem to be nonplussed. I think Dundee will take either a point or three back down the road.

The problem is though that we don't get rid of Celtic or Sevco even if they don't play in the Scottish League. They will continue to get the majority of publicity and the Scottish League will be pushed to something akin to club Rugby Union where former relevant club teams like Kelso, Melrose etc have been pushed to the backwaters and replaced by whatever the Edinburgh and Glasgow sides are called. Or the footballing analogy could be viewed in Wales, where Cardiff, Swansea and Newport are operating at completely different level of interest than the likes of Broughton and Llanelli. For instance, how long could the biggest sides from the Scottish capital or from Scotland's third largest city play in a secondary competition before wanting out themselves? We're not talking about little places like Broughton, Llanelli, Kelso or Melrose. We won't be happy to be left behind no matter how many league titles, Scottish Cups or League Cups. Will players at a decent level even be interested in coming here from abroad with a diluted league (in their eyes)? You'll never stop the Scottish masses aligning themselves with Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dee. It's similar to bands. All the cool people support the bands nobody has heard of, and all those that lack imagination jump on the biggest bandwagon. I'd preferably like both ugly sisters to move completely out of Scotland. They don't just hold Scottish football back, they hold back Scottish society. However, they have to do that because their hook is religion from a bygone era. That's what separates Celtic and Sevco and the rest. That's what attracts their mug punters always willing to give more money to their perceived cause, and what these two monsters supposedly represent, or at least like their fans to think that's what they represent. What they actually represent is money making machines. Like a Ponzi scheme, they are gifted money by mug punters with the promise of success. They pair of them give me a headache. They're the two most boring clubs in world football. Unfortunately, the rest of Scotland has been lumbered with this lifelong disease no matter which league they play in. We'll never truly be rid of them...

It's blue sky thinking like this that can kill a club the size of Aberdeen. And when I read that, it makes me think that this new stadium will never be built. I find it difficult to understand Cormack. He seems to want to run before he can walk. I suppose it's the spiv's way. We're currently going through our worst season in a decade and our fate is yet to be known, and he's talking about building a stadium for £75 million when we'll be lucky to have 8,000 fans for each of the last three league matches. In the article, he also seems to accept that this the most expensive and least attractive time to start a project like this but he wants to do it anyway...

Pie in space?

Hmmmm, interesting, has Arbroath said they're remaining part-time even if they are promoted? I hope they do, when was the last time a part-time side played in the top league in Scotland? Gretna must've been full-time.

Do we even know how much this new "world-class community sports complex" is going to cost club and council? It's a bit tricky to give an opinion without that knowledge. I know this is a bit cynical and typically Aberdonian take but after 20 odd years of listening to this it all seems a bit...

Confidence and mental strength can be the difference between a successful player and one that doesn't make the grade. A manager can only give him so much, the player himself needs to dig deep and find that swagger which will give the manager confidence in the player. Whether he is or not, Campbell looks soft and, unfortunately, that's not ideal in the dark ages that Scottish football resides in. I think he should've loaned out as a younger player to give him more of a streetwise edge. He looks and plays like he's been overly protected, unwilling to take a chance on the pitch, but rather play it safe. A player needs to mix it up now and again to keep the opposition on their toes.* *But he did show that determination to get into the box when he scored at Livingston on one of his first appearances. Perhaps an over-cautious manager has been partly to blame for the player's on-pitch caution, which makes the decision to return the player to the manager that held him back all the more baffling from Campbell's perspective. I'm sure I read that Arbroath was interested. I think that would've been a good move for him.

That's correct, he needs time, and he'll get time as the pressure will ease as soon as we secure our safety. But if we don't secure our safety, then his 11th and 12th games are going to see intense pressure on the team and scrutiny on his position and decisions.

And i think a couple of those matches, Hearts away and yesterday was as bad, if not worse, than anything we witnessed under Glass. We need to give the new manager time but there's ominous early signs. The fans will not be fooled by gimmicks or advertising campaigns. The only way to shift season tickets is getting something worth watching on the pitch. Nobody at that stadium yesterday left thinking, "Oh I must buy my early bird season ticket" or, "I can't wait for the next game". It was eye-bleeding torture.