Ajja

It may have started that way but its now pretty consistently used to say 'don't you look stupid' to anyone who agreed that we needed a change of management. As I said, with hindsight its easy to say that was the wrong decision and to be triumphant about it, in humour or not just isn't helpful.

Thing is, I suspect their are several players at all clubs who are not interested in the club or the manager of any football club. It spart of the modern game and the managers who can crack it are not going to be managing Aberdeen FC. These players he is referring to were not performing week in week out last season either.

Excellent post GS Hindsight is a wonderful thing and for those who are now screaming that we should never have got rid of Calderwood its cleary a joyous time. I'm struggling to remember much clambering to carry on down the road we were on last season among the support back in the spring of last year. Yes we made Europe amidst poor opposition and we achieved a credible league finish but the football was awful almost all season and 90% of the fan base was not enjoying it. When I refer to 'treading water' that's what it felt like, another season of sub-standard football, poor cup runs and moderate top 6 finishes with a possible european place was not my idea of an exciting season. Would I take that this season ? Yes I probably would but thats the great thing about informing the decisions you should have made with future actions. Its hard to deny that performances and results have taken a step down and its hugely frustrating to face up to that fact but somewhere in this shitstorm there has to be some sort of belief that a better picture might emerge otherwise we might as well all just pack it in. What really pisses me off about some of the opinions in this thread is that so many people on here historically presented themselves as rational thinkers with a longer, more sensible viewpoint. Yet the prevailing noise on the site since about 10 games into the season has been one of total intolerence and short term knee jerk reaction towards the change of management. Acidic commentary about 'transitional phases' and barb humour about 'Jimmys dross' merely appears representative of the fact that you have no patience or support for anything McGhee might be trying to do. Before I get pelters for suggesting that we should just tolerate the shit we are being presented with let me make it perfectly clear that I am not happy with what is going on at the club. However, what I am willing to do is give the current manager more time to try and change things. It might have been a huge error to put him in place but we did and the least we can do is let him try to sort it out.

I also believe it was the right decision. There is no denying he lifted the club out of the shit and brought back credibility in many ways. However, we were treading water with him in charge, nothing more. We needed a change if we had any designs on a better future. Its undeniable that McGhee has not delivered. We are slightly worse off now than we were but that doesn't mean we would be anywhere else with Calderwood in charge. The environment changed when Calderwood went, our financial position downshifted significantly so its not an apples with apples comparison. I'm angry and frustrated just like everyone else but this constant need to apportion blame or point the finger at what should have been done is just getting boring as shit. We are where we are and no end of knee jerk, pissing and moaning will change that. Support the team, don't support the team. I couldn't give less of a fuck.

Very much so and therein we find the debate. I'd have to ask though, this retrospective analysis of how things might have been had we not taken this route....where exactly does it take us?

I'll give you that. We would certainly still have the money we paid in compensation.

I'm not converted. Easy to say we would be better off without the change. I don't believe we would have been.

Surprise dMcLean didn't get booked for taking his shirt off. The enture team left the park to celebrate as well. Was funny how they huddled around him and got his shirt back on him as if the ref wouldn't notice. Thought McDonald got into some great positions, its a pity he can't put the ball in the net as he would make a half decent striker

If it gives Celtic a false sense of security and lifts the pressure off the team ahead of a couple of big games then I'm OK with it being made public. Getting up the scum's collective noses is an added bonus

Ouch. Would have no worries about Kerr and McDonald but Mulgrew and Diamond are the two players who almost always perform against Celtic. We really would be playing an experimental side if we moved all these guys off the team sheet at once. Looks like a Young-Duff combo in the centre of the park, look out Scott Brown!

He showed signs of this early on at Starks park before the mud and the heroic closing down of Raith took it stoll (about 15 minutes in!). I thought he made some very good runs and did some intelligent things with the ball in the first quarter. He might struggle with teams who shut him down and allow him no space (as the whole team do!) but there is something there to hope for.

I think this might well be the best outcome for us in some ways. Celtic are likely to take us even more for granted than they might have done already. We have a history of doing reasonably well against stronger sides with a 'speculative 11'. Will depend on who he rests and more importantly who he brings in. With Celtic coming at us but not quite sure who each other are and how they play as a team and us having some young, aggressive players on the park that might test Celtics rearguard we might just have a chance. Oh and big Zander weighing in with a Goliathesque performance and Mulgrew pinging in free kicks! Makes me fucking ill how the OF are so utterly focused on each other that they think everything that goes on with any other club is either for or against them. Referees are all either 'masons' or 'papes', every club in the league is either a hun team or a green team, often both depending on who they are playing. You'd think these pricks were the the fucking axis the earth turns on :hammer:

Radio said that Kerr backed into Miller and stood on his foot and Miller had a wee kick out at him. Think it was Miller who was booked, possibly for his reaction.

Was just editing my post!

Happy with that, especially with JC coming up against Timothy and UTD getting the huns. Any result in those two games is a result for us. Dundee will be a known proposition for us now, we are less likely to take them for granted. Always better to face lower league opposition. When is this game played ? EDIT: Assuming we beat Raith! Remember seeing the Falkirk draw for last years semi and plotting that trip before Dunfermline decided to fuck that one up.

I only heard this song AFTER the final whistle. That said, McGhee has to support his players publicly, they are going to be down after recent results and while he had better be hammering them privately then he should support them in public.

I think Foster is correct. Zander and Mulgrew with Foster and Paterson doesn't look like a bad defence to me. Mulgrew has been very good at CB and ZD is, well he is ZD. FBs are both competent footballers. What's the issue here ? Are we suddenly playing Barcelona ? Its fucking Hibs, lets not turn them into gods just because they can beat Montrose and Hamilton by 4 goals. Fair enough, they are having a good season but we have enough to cope, no question. We managed with 9 men for some distance.

Hopefully there is a level, neatly trimmed playing surface for them to play on as well. The ploughed field that was Starks Park certainly helped the agricultiral brand of football on display from Raith and Ifil. EDIT: When is the draw for the next round ?

Thought that referee looked like a racist.

I thought there were section of play where McLean looked like an intelligent player but he was not coping with the close attention. He seems to want more space to play and against teams like Raith or Falkirk he won't get it. We may see something more from him against Hibs and Celtic. I actually think we might do better in these games as they will come out and play us. When Hearts did that we destroyed them, admittedly they came at us with nothing.

Kerr and McDonald had another poor game yesterday, they never got hold of the midfield, no crunching tackles or creative play whatsoever. Actually thought McDonald was marginally worse despite scoring the goal. Yet again, when we are without our 16 year old we look very light in midfield. The state of the pitch did not help our players, especially those who rely on pace (like Foster) but for me I though Ifil was the worst player in our team. I honestly thought he was going to gift them a goal everytime he went near the ball.

Yet again the lack of intolerence and understanding from so called grown ups in our support surfaces. What we are experiencing now is nothing different from what we have experienced since about 1995. With some pockets of moderate 'success' thrown in we are, and have been for 15 years now, a distinctly average football club. Every other club in Scotland outside them is dealing with the same disappointments and inconsistency. The environment has shifted down a few gears in this season in particular for everyone, even them, and possibly with the exception of a reasonably decent Hibs side we are all sinking fairly fast as Scottish football is drowned in a football industry starved of resource below the top tier and dominated by commercially marketed products coming from England, Spain and Italy. Why do we have to always be benchmarking our performance on the past ? We were doing this throughout the Calderwood years and now we are already doing it again. I don't believe that Calderwood would have done anything with our club this season, we are losing any player who shows any sign of consistency and we are increasingly disabled by money issues. Calderwood was losing a grip on the club because of these pressures, that is why he had to go. Its easy to say that he would do better without the measure of reality. Nobody is suggesting that McGhee is doing any better, results and performances would make a mockery of such claims. However, we are where we are and pissing and moaning about how we got there and who is responsible serves no purpose other than to promote divisions in the support and to make individuals look idiotic in their rants. The support yesterday was incredibly divided and almost duplicitous in its message. It was a drunken, baying crowd who were looking to blame and demonise almost every aspect of the club, even its own support. I'm surprised there were not people punching themselves by the end of the game. Cheering and booing players as they leave the park, fighting with fellow fans because they come from another part of the country, celebrating a goal like the cup itself had just been secured and then minutes later booing the team off and chanting 'your not fit...' and 'one Zander Diamond' with equal ferocity. It was all a little bizarre to be honest. I don't profess to know where the responsibility lies or the accountability but I am pretty sure that trying to run a football club in the current climate must be a pretty fucking challenging job. To manage a club like ours whose only real achievemnt in 15 years is levels of inconsistency that would have you tearing your own finger nails off must be just as challenging. Given the attitude of players prevelant in football these days, the lack of resources and the demands of a fan base starved of success I certainly wouldn't want to be giving it a go. If we are only willing to give the guy 30 games to make any sort of impact before we cry for change again then we should just get used to the idea that we will be this way for ever more. I used to enjoy posting on DT because I always thought it was the place where fans who can take the long view operate. They have understanding, they can show tolerence and patience in pursuit of the right answers. Sadly, its turning into a site where the primary concern is to turn in on itself and criticise, ridicule or punish everyone else.

There is often a fine line between a 'great' atmosphere and a hostile one. Today we saw both, the crowd was in good form early on but it was getting nasty as the game wore on. Its pretty fucking frustrating following the Dons, generally.

There was a little bit of niggle in the support. Mostly just the tension of the way the game was going. Folk not happy with the performance and making it known and other taking offence. some of it was due to folk standing the entire game. Didn't hear any chants for JC.

If he plays at Fir Park thats a cert. How old is Keane ? I'm convinced he will take the SPL for granted and will get very close attention from most defenders in the league. I think he will struggle.