wee toon red

At the first goal, Motherwell managed to get three players in the box by the time the boy shot. We had Logan and Lowe. Where the fuck was everyone else? It's not like it was Usain Bolt that was breaking through. The second was, as you say, weak from two or three of them and Ferguson booting the ball off his own man at the third didn't help. When you concede goals like those three and miss sitters like Shinnie and Wilson then you get what you deserve. The only saving grace is that we haven't been giving goals away like that every week so hopefully a blip, perhaps brought about through Devlin's absence.

BT's coverage is undoubtedly streets ahead of Sky's and it'll be a pity to lose that. However, if they weren't prepared to pay "the going rate" then tough luck.

20,000 tickets are more than enough. I assume all those who “boycotted” the semi are still protesting for this one, hence why more or less anyone who wants a ticket can get one ??

Great result and I'd say a pretty decent performance all things considered. Wouldn't particularly criticise any Dons tonight. May put in a shift even if he still doesn't look like he's entirely sure how to kick a ball, GMS looked pretty dangerous and I thought Ferguson in particular was excellent in the middle hour of the game. Defenders were pretty solid, did Lewis have a save to make? Good starting lineup from McInnes and good use of the subs too, so pass marks all round tonight. Pity the international break is here but plenty positive signs to take into it.

--------------Lewis---------------- Logan--Devlin---McKenna--Lowe --------Ferguson--Shinnie-------- --GMS-------Wright------McGinn- -------------Wilson---------------- I’d also go with rico’s team above. The major concern would be relying on gms, Wright and mcginn all being on song together and contributing, but if we can get them the ball then there should be plenty creativity. Unfortunately we’ll probably see ball in for Wright, cosgrove for Wilson and maybe even consi in for Lowe.

Eh? If players aren't expected to learn anything from matches then they're not going to stay at the level they're playing at for long. They're not robots, so while you'd hope the manager might learn more in a tactical sense, the players still need to be learning all the time.

Just catching up with the highlights. Yet another nonsense decision against us for the first penalty. Why did Logan get booked for conceding the second Hearts penalty but the Hearts boy that fouled McGinn didn't?

I agree with Tam McManus. Total embarrassment the club kicking up such a fuss and the supporters letting them down with such a pish turnout.

Aye, good on the club again. Pity no-one wants to buy the shite seats/the trains aren't running on time/I hate the HunFA but won't go help the team try beat them etc In all seriousness, it's great that Milne (Cormack?) seems to have grown a backbone but unfortunate, and short-sighted, that the board didn't wake up before a large portion of the support had thrown in the towel.

I don't for a minute disagree that we're treated as second class citizens when it comes to the arrangements, and, indeed, football as a whole. However, you either go to see and support your team, enjoy the atmosphere and hopefully celebrate a win. If people aren't going to the game because they can't get the best seat in the house then the TV companies have definitely won. There's some list of excuses why people aren't buying tickets, from your suggested "I don't want to sit in a shite seat" to others' "the SFA/SPFL are all Hun bastards" when the reality is that people aren't going because they're not really that interested and/or they expect us to get beat.

If people aren't going to the semi as some kind of anti spfl or sfa thing then that's their right. But to shift maybe 15,000 tickets for a semi and expect 23,000 for the final is a bit rich - presumably those same people will continue their "protest" for the final anyway?

If (when) we don't sell all our tickets for this one it'll be hard to complain about future allocations. For the club to stand up for the fans - for once - and argue for more than initially allocated, and be given more, and then not get the support of the fans is pretty poor.

As far as I can see there are 55 teams in the Nations League.

Not quite. 10 groups for the normal qualifiers. Top two from each group qualify. If any of those teams are due to take part in the Nations League playoffs, their playoff place will fall to another, non-qualified, team from the Nations League. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020_qualifying

We would go into mini playoff with the winners of the other League C groups. Straightforward knockout, to be played after the "normal" Euro qualifiers are finished.

Excellent win, good to see four new names on the scoresheet. Hopefully McLennan not seriously hurt. Sounded like the first two goals were especially good, going by the radio.

You’d hope this is the kind of game where Anderson and Campbell should be on the park tout suite

They maybe, kinda, somewhere have a point - although Hearts could argue that Celtic played four games at Hampden last season so it evened itself out...

Interesting if true. Could well provide the link between the midfield and attack that we're missing but, equally, could be over the hill and arrive with a shite attitude.

You'd think, but then with Hearts having used Murrayfield for home games a year ago they'll probably use that as a reason to have them in Glasgow.

This "seven defenders" chat is pretty tedious, not to mention completely incorrect. For starters, Dom Ball is and always has been a midfield player who can (arguably) cover in defence, while Shinnie has played more games in midfield than defence in his entire time at Aberdeen, even if you can argue the toss over where his best position really is. You could put out a team of "defenders" but if you asked two of them to play on the wings and another two up front that's pretty different to playing all of them in the defensive areas, which is what the "seven defenders" brigade try to imply that McInnes does so they've got another stick to beat him with.

Bring the bastards on

I think Shinnie works better in there than GMS would, and, also better than anyone else we've got with the exception of Ferguson. Lowe at LB and Shinnie in the middle is, potentially, better than Shinnie at LB and Ball in the middle. Gleeson and Forrester were in "my" team purely as more attacking options than the team McInnes is likely to put out. In reality, the best way to get a result against Celtic is to get in their faces and put them under pressure constantly. With that in mind, I'd definitely have Shinnie in midfield as he has the drive and energy to do that. That also happens to be the way I'd set the team out every week so, picking a team from our full squad (so obviously not for Saturday), I'd go: ----------Lewis---------- Logan - Devlin - McKenna - Lowe McGinn - Shinnie - Ferguson - GMS ---------Wright------------ ---------Wilson--------------- So with no Ferguson or Wright this weekend(?) I'd pull Wilson back to that attacking midfield position, put McGinn up front with Frank Ross wide right and play Ball in CM as I think he has more energy and athleticism than Gleeson.

It's certainly bold but I doubt we'd ever win possession with that midfield, let alone do much to help out or shield the defence. If you want an attack-minded team, how about: Lewis Logan Devlin McKenna Lowe Gleeson Shinnie Forrester McGinn Wilson GMS At least Shinnie in that midfield would provide some kind of screening for the centre backs.