Inside Left.net

To hell with ‘fair and balanced reporting’, we’re so thrilled at the win at Pittodrie yesterday that it’s impossible to write this without a hint of gloating or bias. So, to para-quote Bjorge Lillelien: Billy McNeill! Jock Stein! Kenny Dalglish! The Lisbon Lions! Martin O’Neill! Gordon Strachan! Gordon Strachan, can you hear me: your boys took one hell of a beating!

Far be it from me to turn this site into some tacky ‘Red Top’, but that headline just had to be written. Yes, it may have taken Aberdeen seven years to scratch the itch, but at last the Reds get a much needed victory – nay, thumping – over the Bhoys. Rangers await us next week and on the form shown yesterday, we reckon that the Huns are in for a trashing too. Bring ‘em on I say. You can read all about the spectacular result via the local Aberdeen press  or you can read all about Charlie Mulgrews’s massive weapon  or another one about Diamond exposing himself  but you get the drift I’m sure.

Strachan remains defiant but he’s got to be getting worried; Rangers, despite all their talk of crisis and ‘two for one’ sale offers, have managed to reduce Celtic’s once impressive lead to only two points. You can say what you like about Rangers deserving better but the truth remains: despite their performance both in the boardroom and on the pitch, Rangers are still up there, chasing the leaders and continuing to be as dangerous as they always are. They’ve got to keep Boyd – at least for this season – in order to keep the pressure on their city rivals as well as giving the rest of us an exciting conclusion to the rest of the campaign.

If the win over Celtic came as a bit of surprise, the thrashing of on-form Dundee United by Motherwell made us check about three different news sources just to make sure that the result was correct. The 4-0 defeat – at Tannadice remember, where United have only conceded 12 goals at home before yesterdays game – put an end to The Terrors’ good run and an end to Leveins 100-game milestone. It’s certainly a good result for Motherwell, whose form this season, compared to last, leaves a lot to be desired. ‘Well manager Mark McGhee is in danger of running away with himself we feel but sure, let him enjoy the moment. Some of the words used to describe yesterdays events at Tannadice include ‘demolish‘  , ‘rout‘  and ‘sorry‘.  I don’t think there’s much more to add to that (I’ll leave it up to The Arab Blog), except to say that thanks to that win at Tannadice, Aberdeen jump into third spot in the SPL.

Elsewhere, another manager no doubt feeling the pressure is Inverness‘ Craig Brewster. His side went down 1-0 to Hamilton on Saturday. Earlier on we heard Terry Butcher saying Brewster needs more time,  and now Dougie Imrie has got in on the act  but something has to be done up north before Caley drift too far from the rest of the pack. They’re now a point behind Falkirk and six behind Hamilton in 11th and 9th place respectively. There’s time to turn it around yet, but the results have to start coming anytime soon.

Rangers‘ Kris Boyd continued his impressive season, scoring twice  as he helped his side in a comfortable 3-1 win over Falkirk.  Hibernian overcame St. Mirren 2-0, Rob Jones and Derek Riordain securing the points  and Jim Jefferies goes radge once again as his side, Kilmarnock lose at home to Hearts  as Bruno Aquiar and Christos Karipidis hit the back of the onion sack.

In the First division, four draws, one win, and only 5 goals scored in five games makes this weekend one of the lowest scoring weekends for quite some time. Ross County where the only side to record a victory beating last season’s losing Scottish Cup finalists Queen of the South 1-0. The league table remains pretty much ‘as is’, St. Johnstone leading Dunfermline by five points. Airdrie United remain bottom.

First Division Results

Dundee 0-0 Morton
Dunfermline 1-1 Airdrie Utd
Livingston 1-1 Clyde
Partick 0-0 St Johnstone
Ross County 1-0 Queen of South
 

Second Division league leaders Raith Rovers keep on winning – their 2-1 win over bottom side Stranraer  extending their lead as second-placed Ayr United go down 2-0 at Stirling Albion. Elsewhere, Arbroath lose at home to East Fife and the points where shared at Peterhead (2-2 v Alloa), Queen’s Park (0-0 v Brechin).

Second Division Results

Arbroath 0-2 East Fife
Peterhead 2-2 Alloa
Queens Park 0-0 Brechin
Raith 2-1 Stranraer
Stirling 2-0 Ayr
 

Stenhousemuir, former runaway leaders of the Third Division slip against Dumbarton as they lose 1-0. The defeat allowed new leaders Cowdenbeath to extend their narrow lead at the top of the table, though only by the one single point as the Blue Brazil, eager to make their return to the Third Division last just the one season, could only draw 1-1 with bottom side Elgin City. East Stirling win 3-2 at home to Forfar and Annan Athletic continue to stay in the middle of the table following their 3-0 away win at Montrose.

Third Division Results

Albion 2-1 Berwick
Dumbarton 1-0 Stenhousemuir
East Stirling 3-2 Forfar
Elgin 1-1 Cowdenbeath
Montrose 0-3 Annan Athletic

Related posts:

1. The “it’s about the performance” Friendly Previews
2. Damn you Andrew Little! (or: “The Scottish Fitba Review”)
3. The Scottish Football Weekend Gala Roundup
4. The Monday Ballbag
5. Scottish Fitba Weekender

Tags: Aberdeen, SFL, SPL, Weekend Roundup

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 7:13 am and is filed under Weekend Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.