Panda

Kinda glad Rangers beat Hearts to be honest. Aberdeen v Rangers in the League Cup is always a bit special. I think the first ever League Cup final was Aberdeen v Rangers 1946/47. Fergie's first cup final with us was Aberdeen/Rangers 1978/79, the first final to go to penalties was Aberdeen/Rangers 87, the first cup final I remember was the 88 Aberdeen/Rangers final, first one I remember us winning was the 89 Aberdeen/Rangers final, and the first final I went to was the 92 Aberdeen/Rangers final. Nothing to fear. We'll be underdogs, aye, but we've won two of the last three meetings with Rangers, and we've shown up well enough in big matches this season. And we've shown yesterday that even when we're second best we have match winners in our team. I fully expect Rangers to get the majority of the tickets but hopefully we'll at least push strongly for a 50/50 split. The whole average crowd/how many you sold for the semi, is irrelevant. Cup final, both teams are meant to have the same chance - same number of players, same numbers backing them.

I think, since Fergie, it's:- League Cup: won 10 lost 7 Scottish Cup: won 4 lost 8

Aye agreed on the whole offside thing. VAR is supposed to be for clear and obvious stuff. ie if a penalty has been awarded and a replay shows it wasn't a foul, or someone punches the ball in the net. Boyle's fingernail being offside isn't really gaining an advantage. My sympathies with Hibs and all we can do to make up for this is beat Hearts in the final. We'll do it for you Hibs

As an aside, like I said before the game, I didn't actually go as a 'fan', was working, although was pleasantly surprised my ticket was in the Aberdeen half of Hampden. Anyway, to interview the players you have to go downstairs to a mixed zone area which is right next to the dressing rooms. You could hear the singing from the Dons dressing room, place was bouncing. Needless to say, I've asked for the final off. As fun as it was getting to interview Shinnie and Roos and tell them how magnificent they both are, my nerves couldn't take working a final, will be right in the middle of the Dons end for that one. Dunno if this video will work, but full-time celebrations (not the dressing room!):- IMG_3203.mov

I mean, technically you're right as it was IN Scotland, but are we forgetting the foreign ref and VAR who didn't give us a penalty v PAOK? I'd be more nervous about a final v Hearts as they'll rub it in our face for years if they win, Rangers won't. And like TLG says, they have a free week while we'll have Frankfurt to contend with. However, the flip side is Hearts at their best aren't Rangers at their best. We'd also get a 50/50 split v Hearts, we won't against Rangers. I'm pretty easy about it all. The only finals I've seen us win in person was v Dundee and Inverness, and if we win it this year it'll trump both those finals easily, no matter who we beat to win it. That was my fault, I pushed for Barron to play. But, I disagree. I just think Clarkson didn't need to keep coming so deep. He was picking the ball up in the wrong areas. I also thought McGrath and Miovski were too deep. We were just too congested. You do that to make yourself hard to break down, but actually Hibs got in behind us pretty easily. I don't think Polvara coming on - which meant we had the same line-up v Motherwell - changed the game or made us play any better.

That's the team we wanted (well me anyway). Fucking intae them.

Parking - if there's events at Hampden then there's parking restrictions all over the gaff. I park in Millbrae Road, which is just outside of the parking restrictions, and is close to the Church on the Hill which is a decent pre-match boozer, then a 20 minute walk to stadium. Hibs have sold around 15,000. We announced on Monday we had sold 12,500 and presume we've sold a wee bit more since then.

Not expecting many surprises, but would like to see Barron and Clarkson both start. This formation isn't quite correct, but you ken fit like.

Agreed. I think the board, like the fans, will be disappointed with some (a lot of) the performances and results. However, he's had enough good performances to show that maybe there is something there and they should hang fire. You can't argue he's useless when he's won at Ibrox, stuck four past Ross County and Motherwell, was close to results against Frankfurt and PAOK, and this time tomorrow night could be in a cup final. And add to that leading the club to third after the Goodwin shambles last season. And the board don't want to be accused of being trigger happy anyway, and as poor as it's been under Robson at times, it hasn't reached the critical levels it did under Glass and Goodwin yet. I think we're all just bemused at this long ball football when we've actually managed decent results when we've passed the ball. The Hat and Twitter? Aye. The Dons support can be a cesspit at times. There's a large percentage of Aberdeen fans who never wanted Robson and will refuse to accept he'll ever be the right man. Winning the league cup won't change that, because it didn't for McInnes who suffered the same (not from the majority, but a very vocal minority) and even at his peak was still receiving ridiculous criticism. Yes and no. To be fair, everyone in the Championship is playing the same number of games, and they all have similar sized squads, so therefore there's no real advantage. That's not the case with us - we're playing more games than everyone bar the two clubs with massive resources and bigger squads. However, don't complain the players are tired when you're essentially picking the same team every week bar two changes. And stop launching long balls that gift the ball to the opposition meaning we're always chasing and having to press to get it back, then claim the players look leggy.

Great thread. Saturday will actually be a bit surreal for me because it'll be the first Aberdeen game at Hampden where I'm not in the Dons end. Even the 'neutral' ticket I've got I think is more towards the Hibs end, and the fella I'm sitting next to is a Hibee. Going to be awkward when I go mental at Miovski's winner. All the betting sites have Aberdeen as the underdogs, understandable I guess since the last three Hibs-Aberdeen games are an 8-0 aggregate in favour of Hibs, and two of those were at Pittodrie. Interesting to note is how the team have just stayed down in Glasgow following the Motherwell game rather than heading back up. Think they're training at Lesser Hampden today.

Semi-final on Saturday. Hopefully no-one is reckless enough to start a new thread for it and ruin our cup hopes.

This sums it up for me. We should be raising the bar higher for the Aberdeen job. Has had a good three months. But it's November, let's see what he achieves over the season. Jack Ross Jim Goodwin Robbie Neilson Paul Hartley All managers who had decent spells, were hailed as impressive young managers, made a step up and got found out. You could of course add Barry Robson to the above group. But he's about to win the League Cup..

Pass the ball look good. Punt it long look bad. We now await Hampden to see what version of Aberdeen Robson brings with him.

FIFY Surely the penny will drop eventually. If not, I fear Robson is broken and needs sent away and returned in 7-10 days with new parts. I want the return of the version of Robson that took over in February. Interim Robson > permanent Robson.

Nah I'm gonna defend Robson here, I'd say he is tactically more aware than Goodwin, who was hopeless. Goodwin just articulated himself better in interviews.

I'd say, considering the turnover of players and the likelihood that every signing is not going to a good one, that our summer recruitment was good. It's certainly capable of being third, and if we were to change Robson the new man wouldn't be coming into a shitshow like previous new managers.

Considering Robson was caretaker for three months before being given it permanently, you'd like to think the club in that time were looking at suitable candidates, and therefore still have a list of potentials to move for should Robson not work out. Or am I just being naive?

Oh I wasn't saying we should stick with Robson, I'm saying I can't see Cormack or Burrows making a change. I'm genuinely bemused at how Robson isn't connecting the dots every week. I don't know how he and Gunn can put together a good squad, and then with that squad play such turgid tactics.

Well I think the general consensus on this thread was that it was the right choice to appoint him, and most were prepared for some inconsistency and erratic performances as Robson's new signings settled in. I think it's fair to say we've fallen short of even that. Being 10th isn't the worst thing, it's the fact we deserve to be 10th. I tend to think Cormack, because he won't want to be known as a trigger happy chairman, the bar will rise now for what deems to be a sackable offence. For McInnes it was the football being boring and Aberdeen struggling to finish third, for Glass it was bottom six and out of the cup, then Goodwin survived a horrendous run of results and a cup exit to Darvel - pretty much quitting himself after the Hibs thumping. Therefore I don't think Robson is in any danger, even if we lose the next two games.

Robson post-match has just said he should have freshened things up today. If that's all he thinks didn't work today then what hope is there?

Well I for one am shocked that our tactics of lumping it forward didn't produce a positive result, considering the enormous success it's had this season.

Long ball football again. The tactics are reliant on the defence mistiming a long ball so Miovski or Duk can get in behind them. If that doesn't work, then hope something comes from a set-piece. As for the goal, Mackenzie (who has been one of our better players to be fair) has to be stronger there. Don't worry though, if we don't score in the next 25 minutes of the second half, the triple change of Sokler, Clarkson and Hayes I'n sure will change the game.

Robson has two teams. His league team and his European team. Wouldn't have taken much thought to predict the above. Don't want to hear any excuses about tiredness today.

Contact sport doesn't mean you can kick someone's leg out from under them.

Robson said in his post-match presser that Miovski and Barron were struggling and had to come off, and Polvara had cramp, and they actually wanted to make the subs earlier but the fourth official wouldn't let them.