In another action-packed weekend of Scottish football, Aberdeen fail to capitalise on last week’s epic win against Rangers, Hamilton record a rare win but a tunnel fracas after their game with Hearts will keep the SFA busy this week. And it’s a sign that all is not well in Scottish football when only 16 goals are scored in the Highland League and Fort William win again. Strange days indeed…
Posts Tagged ‘Inverness Caley Thistle’
The Monday Ballbag
Monday, December 7th, 2009Four to Follow Round-up
Monday, November 30th, 2009Jings. We really, really, really must stop doing this. Our predictions are pure gash folks! To wit: this week, we continue with what is fast becoming a tradition by getting none of our predictions right.
The Wednesday Ballbag – CIS Cup Linkage (Part 2)
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009Well, well. Another thrilling Third round of the CIS Insurance Cup nears its climax, with the remaining three games in this round taking place this evening. So last night’s fixtures turned out to be quite tasty. Extra-time, late goals, upsets and controversy.
Aye, t’was pretty good.
Especially if you’re a fan of the First division’s richest club, Dundee. For the Aberdeen fans amongst you, well, cheer up, there’s always the Scottish Cup right? We’ll away and win that nae bother.
If you’re a Hibee you’re not going to be too happy, given that you’d only beaten St Johnstone four days ago. Just tell yourself it’s only a diddy cup, it’s only a diddy cup. There. Feel better? Lets move on.
Can you imagine Jim Jefferies’ wee red face going even redder when St Mirren’s Andy Dorman scored the winner in the last minute of the game to put his side Kilmarnock out of the competion? That’s the second time this season that Killie lost to the Buddies, and by the same scoreline as well! Some people never learn eh?
Dundee United had probably the easiest night of the lot, winning 2-0 up in Dingwall against Ross County who can now enjoy the rest of the competion from the warmth of their front room, together with Inverness Caley, who lost 3-2 to Motherwell in extra-time.
So, onto tonights games. No real exciting fixtures here, other than perhaps the 2008 Scottish Cup Final replay between Queen of the South and Rangers. Rangers won 3-2 that time, making hard work of it, but really, you can’t see anything other than a win for Rangers here. Gersnet have a nice preview, but if you prefer big print and pictures, there’s always the Daily Record to inform and inflame.
The game between Falkirk and Celtic will probably worry Celtic more than it does Falkirk. With Tony Mowbray and his Bhoys sitting proudly atop the SPL, the last thing they’re needing is a midweek cup competition where your players might end up getting crocked or worse, lose. Oh the embarassment if that where to happen. Can you imagine the pure red rage that will descend on poor Rapid Vienna where that to happen. As for Jackie McNamara who faces yet another of his former clubs, he reckons it’s gonna be a right belter thenight. Let’s hope so eh?
Hearts take on the third of the lower leage sides, Dunfermline this evening. Dunfermline’s Nick Phinn reckons they’ll give the Jambos a good run for their money, though given his side have lost their last three games it’s hard to see quite how that prediction is formulated, other than perhaps the law of averages – you know, the one that says “we’re going to win at some point, maybe tonight, no?“. Ehm, no.
As always, the Daily Record is on hand with their insights, but if you cant stand the flashing text or the pictures of naked ladies (especially if you’re at work), there’s always the sedate respectability of ESPN.
Aberdeen: it’s just not good enough
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009Earlier on today we published a link to a story in which Mark McGhee, the new manager at Aberdeen insisted there would be “no cup slip-ups on his watch.”.
Well, only hours later and Aberdeen can add Dundee to the list of teams that have knocked the Dons out of a Cup competition in recent years, alongside other greats of the Scottish game such as Queen of the South, Dunfermline and Queens Park.
Let’s get something straight right from the start. I don’t care how well we played to get back on level terms. Aberdeen are an SPL side, Dundee are not. We should never, ever have gotten into a situation where we find ourselves 2 goals down against a team from a lower division.
The signs that this is going to be a year of hiding behind your tartan rug and flask whenever Aberdeen take to the field have been there since the team returned from their holidays. A poor pre-season, a disastrous European campaign that managed to make Falkirk’s performance in Liechtenstein look not half bad at all and a tepid start to a season that has seen us win 2 games, one of those against a poor opponent, Hamilton. And keeping three clean sheets is all very well, but it’s not much use if you’re not scoring yourself either – in those three games we scored only once, and even that was not from open play, but through a set-piece 2 minutes from time.
The defeat to Celtic aside – almost a given these days – our fifth place in the league owes more to the misfortunes of others than our devastating performances on the park.
It´s easy to blame our lack of progress on our lack of new signings over the summer. It´s a familiar story we’ve peddled before on this site so excuse us for trotting it out again. The theory goes that, hampered financially through the sacking of Calderwood and his backroom staff, not to mention the compensation paid to Motherwell for the services of McGhee and Leitch, Aberdeen failed to strengthen over the summer, making do with distinctly average signings that neither excite nor impress.
The ironic thing about this evenings defeat is that Dundee have been particularly busy in this season’s tranfer market for a First division club with a history of poor (financial) management, Backed by – and here’s another irony – an Aberdeen born, Aberdeen supporting businessman, Calum Melville, worth approximately a third of the reputed wealth of Aberdeen owner Stewart Milne, they’re not afraid to take a risk by investing in playing staff that will push Dundee towards promotion.
Perhaps if the cautious board at Pittodrie where willing to spend money on building up the squad and providing their managers with funds to not only buy but also pay players, Aberdeen might well still be the third team in Scottish football. In short, the lack of progress is infuriating, the lack of long-term vision, other than avoiding financial ruin is holding the club back. You have to speculate to accumulate, as the old adage goes. If Dundee, Hibs, Hamilton, Motherwell and Dundee United can do it, why not Aberdeen?
Yet, for all our lack of signings, the question remains: given it is more or less the same squad that finished fourth in the league last year, what is going on down Pittodrie Street that Aberdeen cannot seem to produce a decent performance from one week to the next?
Aberdeen spent £200k getting what was, in their eyes, the best manager for the job in hand to the north-east. It´s not a popular view, but questions have to be asked about McGhee´s approach to the job so far. Why is he not getting similar performances out of this team that his predecessor did? Why are the team underperforming?
On Saturday, Aberdeen travel to Ibrox for their second big test of the season. We´ll be there, supporting our team, but based on what we´ve seen so far, it´s not going to make for comfortable viewing. The funny thing is that we´ll probably win and for a short time all our troubles will be forgotten.
But it would be nothing more than papering over the cracks. The facts remain: Aberdeen are just not good enough. And if you want evidence of that, you should have been at Dens Park tonight.
