Bogbrush1903

This season has done nothing to change my opinion that Cormack could yet oversee our demotion to the Championship under his tenureship. I think that's extremely unlikely this season due to the points and goal difference. We'd pretty much have to lose all our bottom six matches and then the play-off. Possible but unlikely. If it did happen it would see Goodwin become the worst managerial appointment in our history. Just like the appointment of Glass, you must again question the haste of Goodwin's appointment. Did Cormack really go through due process to identify the best candidate for the job or was he, once again, swayed by bold interview chatter? We now have a situation where the manager has told half the squad they're surplus to requirements in early April with safety still yet to be assured. We've won one match in the league this year. If that run of poor form continues into next season then we could well be looking for a new manager by autumn. Cormack needs to identify an experienced man to handle footballing matters and recuse himself from any future managerial appointment prawcess. If he wants to continue being the figurehead and gimmicks man then fair enough but he needs a trusted experienced man in to handle the day-to-day running of the club. With rejuvenated Kilmarnock coming up, and perennial strugglers Dundee departing, things are set to become a lot more problematic for us next season. There could be less room for error.

Watching Gallagher & Besuijen digging up the penalty spot whilst other players argued about the penalty decision was one of the most pathetic spectacles I've seen at Pittodrie since this shite spell began around 28 years ago. The fact that this 'team' still had an opportunity (well mathematically at least) to make the Top 6 until finally being put out of our misery this afternoon is testament to the lack of quality in this sub-standard League. We SPL fans are the biggest mug punters in the world. That shite 'product' isn't worth a £5 let alone £25.

I'm fine with Considine leaving as he was on the brink of overtaking Bobby Clark and joining Miller & McLeish in the Top 3 appearances. With the best will in the world, Considine is nothing more than good pro who has eventually managed to attain a level of consistency as the years have passed by. Although we haven't any proof from this season, we should be able to do better. Having said all that, I would also have gave him a year's playing contract due to the hopelessness we've witnessed on various occasions from Bates & Gallagher this season. If he wants to reject that year then fair enough, but it's disappointing in the manner he and his advisors have reacted to the offer. The club doesn't owe Andy Considine anything. He's made a good living from the club and his 'loyalty*' was rewarded with a testimonial. He now needs to move on and stop damaging his legacy amongst the fans. The respect he garnered from the fans was hard-earned but now he seems intent to losing that respect to quibble over a couple of grand. *Loyalty to an extent although it was probably never tested with a better offer. I do remember there were rumours floating around that Oldco were interested at one point but that's certainly not a better offer crossing over to the dark side.

Dearie me, come on now, we've had a few, we don't want to start sounding like the Sevconians, we'll be wrapping Pittodrie in tinfoil next...

I actually turned to my mate and said it looked like Ferguson made the most of it. He does it all the time, I'm surprised the refs still buy it. I'm not saying Adam didn't strike him but Ferguson furnished with some theatrics...

I work for the biggest one and when I asked if they would consider sponsoring Aberdeen they said their policy is not to get involved in that type of deal... It'll be some pishy little local outfit as per normal

Exactly, so we concentrated on the cups instead and reached two finals in one season with a very poor team.

I can't decide if it's passionate for the club/city or just lazy. The way it's sung with gusto for ten seconds then fades out suggests it's probably the latter. I think the Oil Industry has sucked out the imaginative and creative aspects of our city's people and replaced it with money.

25th January 1984 5th Round replay Liverpool 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday. 12,000 Owls there. Sheff Wed is/was my English team. Liverpool would go onto play Walsall in the semi-finals where that man Souness would make the headlines again but this time for the right reasons. A wall collapsed because the stadium had too many fans in the away end and Souness rescued a young lad. Unfortunately another warning that went unheeded five years before the tragic events at Hillsborough.

Probably Alan Kennedy, Terry McDermott had left Anfield by 1984. Jaw breaking starts off camera at 6:24 in the following video...

Why was the carrier bag of nudey books taken to the game? Or were they hidden in the car? When psych band and Porto fans 10,000 Russos played The Tunnels in Aberdeen three years ago, they made a pilgrimage to Pittodrie and the drummer wore an inside out Aberdeen top from around the turn of the century. Damn fine band too..

I believe Porto's goal was a cross-cum-shot that appeared from the haar and looped over but to the side of Leighton. It was kind of fitting that those glorious European nights should end* in a haar that has only sporadically lifted over the last 38 years. I have memories of the small band of Porto fans in the Main Stand singing "Oporto" which was met with the reply of "shite" from the home fans in a "United, shite" kinda of style. I did read that the Porto sub and ex-Blackpool man, Mickey Walsh went drinking with a couple of Dons players to Willie Miller's Sweepers watering hole after the match. *We did have one final European hurrah with Fergie and a great win against Servette but that also ended in a damp squib against IFK, which I suppose was even more fitting as it ended in the Ullevi. Fegire's last European match was 0-3 reverse in Sion as we crashed out 2-4 on aggregate. Ironic that it all ended against the team where the ECWC run to the final started.

They were friendly; however, we walked through the police cordon at Hotel Dnipro with the foolhardy plan of enjoying a few post-match beers in the town. No sooner had we walked round the corner, than this car appeared with a screeching braking skid that wouldn't have looked out of place in The Sweeney. The car emptied of it's passengers with a battle cry as they exited with one of them waving what appeared to be a sword above his head. We retreated back round the corner through the police cordon and back into the safety of the hotel bar with the other 200 or so Dons fans staying there. We had been hustled onto buses after the match, which reminded me on watching the paparazzi getting taken away from the Princess Diana crash scene in Paris, and straight back to the Hotel Dnipro whether you were staying there or not.

I hope so, I've never seen the Dons play Cowdenbeath It's unfortunate that in the upcoming season where failure could equal success (as well as a lot of revenue for the club) in Europe, we won't be involved. We've never been knocked out of one European competition and landed in another. I would say the last seven or eight years of European competition has been getting gradually more frustrating with each passing year, as we seemed to been having our own version of 'Groundhog Day' with each European season seemingly on the same loop. Perhaps with the turnaround in playing staff, a more gentle start in the League Cup groups might be wiser. Besides, I really don't think we would have the depth in squad to play European competition until the winter. We certainly didn't under McInnes.

Good stuff from the big man

Haha, I think I might be doomed up Watching all that destruction and unnecessary misery on those poor souls in Ukraine is having a negative effect on me I think

I hope you're right but sadly I think it's gone too far now. Putin wants to control Kyiv and replace the leadership with a puppet regime. I think we're going to see a lot of bloodshed in the Battle of Kyiv and Odessa. The Ukrainians will, rightfully, resort to resistance tactics in response to the Russian aggressors. I can only foresee a protracted struggle along the lines of the Second Chechen War and the Soviet Union's ten year war in Afghanistan. Indeed, there are similarities to the latter conflict and the Americans will fight this war by proxy, which will prolong the struggle. I also think the conflict will extend into Moldova, Poland, Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania) and, most definitely, Belarus (they are already involved). But maybe I'm being overly pessimistic....

Well what I mean is that they don't require football or any other sporting contest to display their national pride, they are currently fighting and dying for their state's right to exist. I'm not saying they couldn't raise a team from expats but these players also have family and friends that will still be inside and outside the country fighting, dying and fleeing. The players, like West Ham's Andriy Yarmolenko are still playing at club level (although Yarmolenko returned after compassionate leave) but they may decide as a nation that competitive team sport representing Ukraine , even abroad, should be put aside for the moment to concentrate on the war effort (as we did during the First and Second World Wars). By the time June rolls round, Ukraine will likely be in the third month of conflict, goodness knows what the death toll will be or the condition of their main cities like Kyiv if Putin and his general decide to lay siege before going in. They already have quite a high profile expression of Ukrainian statehood in the manner they're defending their country from attack. War with Russia is much higher profile than anything football with Scotland or even a World Cup appearance can provide. There's no indication thus far that the conflict shows any signs of deescalating, quite the contrary. They may decide to play, you might be proven to be correct but I think all the evidence with regards the war and potential for escalation leaves the likelihood of Ukraine appearing at Hampden in June extremely dubious. If they commit to the FIFA World Cup play-off match, then UEFA may insist that they commit to their Nations League matches too. It just seems absurd to me at the moment that they might be ready to play fixtures in June.

It's not likely to though is it, that's my point

I see "national pride" mentioned a second time in relation to the Ukrainians playing a football match. I'm puzzled by it what is meant by this? The country is being blown to smithereens, the Russians are trying to kill every Ukrainian it meets including families of the players or maybe even the players themselves. The Ukrainians are using up all their national pride trying to fight the fuckers off. They might not even have a country by June. It's been postponed in the faint hope that Putin sees sense or gets overthrown by his generals; both of which are highly unlikely scenarios within the next three months. Putin spent ten years blowing Chechnya apart.

Sorry, I got Vale of Leven mixed up with Vale of Leithen. I've been doing the English FA Cup sequence this season which has taken most of my time (and money), starting at the extra-preliminary in Penrith, I follow the winners of each round. My last match was at Southampton (Wednesday night vs West Ham) but I went to Weymouth on the following Saturday. I'm attracted to having a go at the North Caledonian League. I've done Tain St Duthus and Loch Ness but that was during Covid.

Coincidentally (I assume), I was just discussing these matters on the Scott Brown retires thread on Friday afternoon... Never visited, I need to make a concerted effort to do the Lowland League. Went off the idea when the Gruesomes got in this season though...

Great stuff from those Hibs fans rescuing those kids from the Dnipro orphanage and now trying to get them across to Scotland. They're a credit to Hibernian F.C I'll be giving money

...well I take it all back. Vale of Leven have won it more than The Hibernian Newco... So this Hibernian is a phoenix club then...

As @starryfish mentions, Goodwin might have different ideas style-wise up front. He's scored fairly regularly but if he needs to be sacrificed to improve other areas of the team, or for the balance the team or to be replaced by a striker that fits more into our pattern of play then I'm fine with that. This season has been horrific and changes need to be made. I could be wrong but I'm not sure Ramirez would have the appetite for another season anyway. If he is unhappy then there would be no point in keeping him here to fulfill his contract.