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£50 a ticket is absolutely fucking horrendous though.

This was a beauty, arguably one of the best we've ever had:

As pointed out by the Here we go podcast. Here's John Beaton putting Aberdeen down to 10 men in a semi-final. And here's us winning it anyway.

Holy fuck You seriously couldn't make it up Always the victim https://thecsa.co.uk/scandalous-decision-on-ticket-split-i-have-written-to-ian-maxwell-this-morning/ Scandalous decision on ticket split. I have written to Ian Maxwell this morning. I said earlier that I thought Aberdeen would demand a 50/50 ticket split for the upcoming Scottish Cup Final. I thought that common sense may prevail and Aberdeen would have received around 15,000 tickets, which would have been at least a couple of thousand more than they took to the semi-final. I was quite angry when I heard the SFA decision yesterday, but I suppose not really surprised, Mr Maxwell has been no friend to Celtic during his time, even I think Celtic supported him to get the job. I have written to him this morning; the letter is below. Mr Maxwell, Chief Executive, Scottish Football Association. I think the decision taken by the SFA with regard to the ticket split for this year’s Scottish Cup Final was a scandalous decision, and one that is a slap in the face to the supporters of Celtic Football Club, who have been a cash cow for the SFA and Hampden Park for many years. Since the 2017 season, Celtic will have played in fourteen finals, seven Scottish Cup, and seven League Cup, so counting semi-finals twenty eight appearance in total. In this year’s Scottish Cup Semi-Final Celtic sold in excess of 37,000 tickets, Hearts reported sales of 20,000, Aberdeen 13,000 (at most), and St Johnstone somewhere around 3,000, so Celtic sold more than the other three teams put together, and received 25% of the profit. Just imagine Mr Maxwell if St Johnstone had managed to beat Celtic in the semi-final to play Aberdeen in the final, you wouldn’t have been able to give away more than 30,000 tickets. Now in the final every Aberdeen supporter who attended the semi-final should be guaranteed a ticket, while around half of the Celtic Supporters who attended the semi-final will be denied the opportunity to get a ticket, is that a fair solution to the problem that is Hampden Park, you could have played the Final at Murrayfield, Celtic would still have sold at least 40,000, Aberdeen would probably be around 15,000. Dave Cormack claimed if the semi-final had been at Peterhead they would have sold their 20,000, well let me tell Mr Cormack this, we visit Aberdeen on Wednesday night of May 14th, there will not be 20,000 Aberdeen fans in attendance that night, although he’ll probably pull the stroke of guaranteeing all in attendance a Cup Final Ticket. Finally, Mr Maxwell your tenure as head of the SFA has been underwhelming to say the least, imagine if the SFA was run as well as Celtic FC, maybe you wouldn’t need to milk the hand that feeds you so regularly. I also wonder if your favourite team that play in Govan had not got put out of the Cup by Queens Park, and were contesting the final, would Aberdeen be receiving 20,000 tickets? I very much doubt it. I won’t be holding my breath, or wasting my valuable time waiting on a reply from you. Regards, Joe O’Rourke, General Secretary, Celtic Supporters Association.

wouldn't worry too much, they'll probably just make you write out an article about James Forrest one thousand times.

For me it’s the other way round. I find that if Morris is up against a pacy full back he can’t easily get the better of at the first time of trying, he’ll retreat into his shell and not bother trying unless he gets a head start. Keskinen never seems to let failure bother him. If it doesn’t work first time, he’ll keep going at it. End product isn’t always there, but he’s still usually the player on the pitch most likely to produce something from nothing. If he can find consistency in his output, he’ll be a multi-million pound player.

Fucking, fuck sake, that is tragic. @Panda do the BBC do individual stats for players on fouls committed? I'd be interested to know how many Devlin made. Obviously, we'd have to add one for the foul he committed on Knoester that Knoester got booked for. That's embarrassing from Hearts though. It was a late challenge, with force, which is open to interpretation - it was a careless challenge to make on a booking. You can't be releasing a statement based on a mildly dubious yellow, you've got to be saving those for the big ones. Fucking bitterness. Pathetic. Even if you don't agree with the yellow, necessarily, there's not a person who can't say that they couldn't see why the ref might choose to award it. It's pathetic shite like this that got us the tedious fucking crap that is VAR (yes, I did hesitate before celebrating Dabbagh's winner. Yes, I did sit through that fucking nonsense after our first goal, utterly clueless as to why a corner could be offside). How long before second yellows are drawn into its fucking awful remit? Just fuck off, you Jambo cunts.

Emotional day for myself, really bad week with this condition. Been in / out of bed all week. Fuck this MS/MOGAD shite. Yup, had to miss the semi-final due to this bloody disease, watched on the TV and got very emotional, really thought those minks would steal it until the 2nd red card. But when that goal went in, I hope a few other older fans had a tear in their eyes. Fingers crossed I be okay for the final.

Dons fan won a tournament in Augusta this weekend.

I'm not sure it's lack of ambition to be honest. Maybe more like self awareness. If he knows that he doesn't have what it takes to reach the levels of our first team, then a payday for a couple of years is probably something that appeals. He might not get the opportunity again, and in a couple of years time, he'll still have age on his side to go and play for County or whoever for another 4-5 seasons and fight for a starting place. Goalie is a very unique position, it's completely different to some of the young players joining them to sit on the bench as we've seen in the past. Or maybe it isn't. But I think it is!

Technically, my 100% record of always being right is still intact as we didn't sell 21,000, but I shouldn't have doubted our support, and I apologise to the 1,200 fans who could have missed out on a ticket if the board had done what they often do and read my posts before making important decisions.

Because we'll win the cup happily.

Happy Albert Kidd day!

Looking at that list makes you realise what a strange season it has been. We started with a back four of MacKenzie, Devlin, Rubezic and Molloy and finishing with a four of Shinnie, Jensen, Knoester and Dorrington. The keepers have played half a season each. Shinnie playing a different position to where he started. Nilsen brilliant then shite. Clarkson shite then better. Morris in and out. Duk awol then a starter then sold. Devlin an international one minute then warming our bench! McGrath great then injured then away. Nisbet shite then great. And of course there is Ambrose .

This is the Donstalk Player of the year. Way more important and prestigious than the AFC one.

Same thing irritates me about goal of the season. Mitov runs full length of field leaving tic players in his wake before smashing it into the top corner to win the Scottish cup... But trophy aalready awarded to a tic or sevco player for a tap-in...sorry 'team goal' at home to killie back im August

One time we were in pre match, standing against the bar and one of my mates without thinking pointed over the bar counter at the optics and the big German Shepherd just about had his hand off. He sure as hell didn't make that mistake again

Looking forward to next week's statement - "Another Manager Fox Off"

https://youtu.be/Z0R8d7ygvns?si=_D429iKBhJ9VNnO_

A certain track by Joy Division might have “accidentally” been playing on my phone walking through Waverley last night.

An Aberdeen fan marrying a hearts fan? Bit sick. Should the BBC really be showing that sort of thing?

Aye, it was clear what he was doing, but it was still the wrong call. Shinnie did get stuck in when moved to midfield, but I'm not convinced it was the real problem. Palaversa just stopped retaining possession and looked confused at being on a football pitch. Polvara is capable enough to put his foot on the ball and try to play the game. I'd say he's quite similar to Palaversa. The biggest problem about the change was the change to the winning formula on left and right though. Jensen isn't a left back (I'd rather see Devlin there, at least he'd keep things simple and be aggressive) at all, and we just had a gaping hole where Shinnie had been, as well as disrupting our back four. A positive improvement in midfield, outweighed by a negative at fullbacks. When you're 2-1 up, you probably shouldn't be fucking about too much with the back line. It's a big problem in the coming fixtures though. Clarkson seems to have found his feet, and is now able to play ninety minutes at the tempo Thelin wants, but Palaversa is still a good bit short. With Nilsen out, we're going to need someone capable of playing that last thirty minutes, as it's a hell of a lot to ask of Shinnie after running up and down the line for an hour. I can only assume that he thinks Polvara doesn't have the work rate required to play there.

Back in the early 2000s, me and a couple of mates tried to get a "Meadowbank ... wank wank wank! Meadowbank ... wank wank wank" chant going at Almondvale to piss off the Livi fans. Chant didn't catch on

I am not sure McInnes will work well in system where he is not going to have much say in who is signed.

Mcinnes did a good job for us, but he’s nothing special. He came to us when the Huns went to shit, and at a time we signed McLean Hayes mcginn, arguably three of the top players to have played in our league in a while (outside of the old firm), and a goal scorer in Rooney. He had a good squad and still only won one trophy, and that was arguably a primarily Craig brown squad. Im one of those who felt he underachieved with us and the resources he had, so I’m fine with mcinnes there, you know what you get and he’s not an overly creative mind.

Nominated for manager of the year by football writers

I think it's quite nice actually, might just get one.

Nothing's been said about a third kit but I think it's a requirement to have three strips registered for UEFA competitions - plus it's another way of enticing cash out of people's pockets - so you can count on there being one. We've had plenty navy kits in the past, not sure of the reason but it doesn't bother me. Different if it was royal blue mind you!

He's in the latest season of Peaky Blinders too. Plays a football ref that refuses to be corrupted. Dons fan in real life seemingly. Wonder if he managed to get a SC final ticket.

Sitting on Celtic's bench or ours probably doesn't make much difference to a player, although their seats look a bit more comfy than ours. Has there been anything to suggest that Doohan actually wants to go?

A club statement to the effect that we won't be offering down payment in future should be forthcoming, hopefully.

Last time we won the cup in 1990, we lost 1-0 three weeks before the game...

Technically my original post was an example of being unbiased, and your correction breaks the BBC guidelines. I'll probably be sacked now. There's zero tolerance on these type of things.

Always worth it

Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Final Aberdeen v Celtic Saturday 24th May, 3pm kick-off Hampden Park, Glasgow We can confirm that an allocation of over 20,000 tickets has been secured for Aberdeen supporters for our forthcoming Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Final with Celtic. This will be the largest allocation we have received for a final in recent years and was only secured after agreeing to underwrite the cost of any unsold tickets. After extensive discussions, we were initially faced with the option of accepting a guaranteed 16,800 tickets, with a potential (but not guaranteed) additional 2,000 tickets. However, driven by our collective belief and confidence in the Red Army, and wanting to give every Dons supporter the best opportunity of being there to back Jimmy and the team on Saturday 24th May at Hampden, we agreed to underwrite a larger allocation which includes the North Stand up to the halfway line. We believe this significant allocation is a testament to our commitment to ensuring as many fans as possible can support the team at this crucial match, our first Scottish Cup Final since 2017. Ahead of the League Cup Final with Rangers in 2023, which was our last final at Hampden, our allocation sold out within a matter of hours, and we expect demand to be similar this time round as we look to bring the Scottish Cup back to Aberdeen for the first time since 1990. With the above in mind, we advise all Dons supporters to use the coming days to organise friends and family to be ready to secure your tickets on Monday 5th May, as we aim to make history together. Ticket prices have been frozen from last year’s final with concession pricing in place in all areas of the stadium. Full ticket information can be found below. Sales Process Phase 1 – 300+ priority points from 8am on Monday 5th May (Online Only) Phase 2 – 150+ priority points from 11am on Monday 5th May (Online Only) Phase 3 – 40+ priority points from 2pm on Monday 5th May (Online Only) Phase 4 – All supporters with a previous buying history from 5pm on Monday 5th May (Online Only) and in-person and over the phone from 1pm on Tuesday 6th May. Key Points – 4 tickets per qualifying account can be purchased during phases 1-3 – 2 tickets per qualifying account can be purchased in phase 4 – You can check your Priority Points balance here Priority Points 1 priority point per allocated ticket Pricing North Stand Adults – £50 Over 65’s & Under 16’s – £30 South Stand Adults – £50 Over 65’s & Under 16’s – £30 West Stand Adults – £40 Over 65’s & Under 16s – £25 Wheelchair Pricing North Stand Wheelchair spaces: £30 – Adult, £20 – O65/U16 South Stand Wheelchair spaces: £25 – Adult, £17 – O65/U16 West Stand Wheelchair spaces: £20 – Adult, £17 – O65/U16 All come with a complimentary PA ticket if required Accessible Seating Accessible blocks will be front of P1 & P3 & offers non-turnstile access. These will be charged at £25 – Adult, £17 – O65/U16, with a complimentary PA ticket if required. Alternatively, tickets can be purchased from the general ticketing allocation and will still qualify for a complimentary PA if required, however these must enter via the turnstiles. Designated Sections Ultras Aberdeen – Blocks B5- B8 in the West Stand Supporters Clubs – Block C2 (North), Blocks B2-B3 (West) Family Block – A4 (West) Supporters Bus 4 Supporters Buses will be running from Pittodrie Check in: 09:00 Departure: 09:15 £25 per person (10% Dons Cash back) Ticket Delivery Please note, as was the case in the Semi-Final all tickets will be in digital format for this match through the Hampden Park App. · Purchase your tickets through AFC. · Download the Hampden Park App. · Tickets will show within the App from 15/16th May onwards o Tickets will all go to the lead purchaser who can then forward them on to others o Maximum of 2 forwards per ticket · You can use multiple tickets within your account if other members of your group don’t have smartphones to download the app themselves · The QR codes on the ticket become live on matchday Scottish Cup Final Display Fund – Ultras Aberdeen Ultras Aberdeen are raising funds for a Cup Final display at Hampden, with the aim of having the best ever display produced by an Aberdeen group and inspiring the Dons on to victory. You can support the cause here. Any and all spare funds will be used for materials and displays at Pittodrie. Information on how you can get involved in producing and setting up the display will be posted in due course.

My liver shuddered at just reading that name.

What do the animal rights crew have to say about Panda baiting?

Interesting debate trying to be raised by Pep Guardiola about Man City not selling out their semi-final allocation, and questioning why all the semis are down at Wembley. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cvg7ljpyv7yo A different conversation in that they have suitable stadiums elsewhere to use. But some of the ticket prices are shocking, some up to £150. For me, semis should never be at Wembley or Hampden anyway, unless there's little alternative (ie Tottenham v Arsenal or Rangers v Celtic). Again, the alternatives up here probably don't help us much - we'd have had to play Hearts at Murrayfield, Ibrox or Celtic Park. Anyway, despite Pep standing up for the little guy, I hope the two-time European Cup winners Forrest beat them. Not because I particularly give a shit about English football, but because before the semis I put on a Forest & Aberdeen cup double at 40/1 odds.

Turns out the manager.

As Manc seems to be struggling with when players contracts are due to expire thought I would stick this in here again.

Jury is still out for me on Oday on game time alone. I do think he has shown a decent touch at times and he's got the right place right time instinct but I'm far from convinced he's worth spending big on. That could change in the next 6 games 2bf, he's been at the club a few months now and should be a bit more settled so let's how he does. I would absolutely keep Nisbet and will be disappointed if we don't try to but mostly agree on Okkels, Sokler and Gueye being moved on.

Hearts have released a statement about Devlin’s sending off: https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/blogs/news/club-statement-scottish-cup-semi-final

Saints to beat tic twice in a month. Believe!!

Piece of piss, never in doubt. Some honking performances today, but we rode through it. Good to see that diving wee cunt Devlin get sent off, and I loved the way we knew that those dirty hammer throwers would go down to nine, so just played it calmly around them until then. We were poor, but the back four were fine defensively (although not sure how Jensen lasted the match). Shinnie and Clarkson good. Palaversa poor, and Gueye might look good on the telly, but he's a complete liability. Either giving the ball away, or just ignoring his man, a terrible team player. Okkels good when he came on again, as was Keskinen before he went off. Morris largely anonymous. Polvara offered something when he came on. Anyway, gives us the chance for glorious failure next month.

Why? Why's he taken Keskinen off? He's been our only feed into the strikers.

That's fine though. Hibs have done the right thing; increased the tickets available to Hibs fans, but are still setting out fair allocations of just under 1,500 for the away team. It's the normalising of away allocations of 600 and 800 that's the issue. It's not a healthy thing for Scottish football.

Bottom 6 shite again. 11th season in last 13 that this yo-yo club has finished below us.