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Aye that 00 semi was good. Sunday night kick-off so think we only sold 6500 tickets but everyone was up for it. Everyone wanted us to lose because Hibs for the cup and all that. 93 we played them at Tynecastle when it was still terracing, Scott Booth winner. Hearts took the lead against Rangers at Celtic Park at the same time as we scored so for a brief time we thought we were getting an Aberdeen/Hearts final. 2012 is one of those games you're glad we lost, as we were gash and probably would have been on the end of the 5-1 drubbing Hibs got in the final off Hearts. I also think that defeat was the catalyst for the Aberdeen board beginning to realise we needed to invest more in the squad. 2017 was one of my favourite away days. First time we'd put on a supporters bus, everyone pished, five-goal thriller, lovely.

We've avoided Hearts again. Which is a peculiar thing. Both clubs make it to Hampden regularly, more regularly than most in Scottish football. Yet, in the two cup competitions, throughout all the years, we've only ever played two semi-finals against each other and one final. In the last 16 years, there has been seven occasions where Aberdeen and Hearts have both been in the semi-final draw together and have avoided each other each time; four in the League Cup and three times in the Scottish Cup. And of course, they've not met in a final in any of those years - the closest being 2014 when Aberdeen made the LC final, but Hearts - despite playing in Edinburgh against nine-man Inverness - lost on penalties. On the contrary, this will be the fifth Aberdeen-Hibs semi-final I'll have been at. The others being 93, 00, 12 and 17. Won three and lost one. Two of those years, Hearts were also in the semis. The chances of an Aberdeen v Hearts final this year? Well, incredibly, in their near 150 year history, Hearts have never beaten Rangers at Hampden.

We didn't qualify for Europe just to roll over and finish bottom like we're Hearts. Win and it's worth €500,000 and helps improve our coefficient for future draws. Beating Rangers would be lovely, but Thursday bigger imo.

If we're going to rest players then do it at Ibrox. Sacrilege I know, but County in the cup and Helsinki in Europe are more important.

Being 4-0 up on aggregate from the first leg we can send the kids up to this one... In all seriousness I have the fear for Wednesday. As well as we played on Sunday, 4-0 flattered us and County had plenty of chances of their own. But a repeat performance should hopefully see us through to another Hampden semi. I imagine it'll be the same side but someone (Hayes most likely) replacing McGarry. He might freshen it up a little with Clarkson in for McGrath, and Polvara back in for someone. I'm gonna say 1-2 Aberdeen after extra-time. A nervy night.

I used to go to some Banks of Dee games as a kid (from memory they played in the morning and Aberdeen played in the afternoon) so hold a candle for them. Can't see them beating Dumbarton though. My mate's loon plays for Deveronvale so would like them to do well. No idea if Broxburn are any use.

I was lucky enough to be at Feyenoord v Celtic on Tuesday before going to Frankfurt. Genuinely one of the best atmospheres I've ever heard. Some place De Kuip. We got there two and a half hours before kick-off and already there were big queues at all the turnstiles. Then 90 minutes before kick-off the stadium was full, the DJ playing all these dance tunes on the tannoy with everyone in the stadium bouncing along to them. During the game, any time the Celtic fans started chanting, the whole stadium just drowned them out. Even during half-time it didn't stop. Will definitely be back for another game.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/38478635/ajax-feyenoord-abandoned-fans-throw-flares-field?platform=amp Ajax-Feyenoord abandoned after the home support take umbrage to being 3-0 down. I actually considered missing my flight home on Friday from Frankfurt, and instead getting a train to Amsterdam and going to this. In the end the price of last minute trains & hotels was extortionate. Gutted I missed it, love a good meltdown.

Amazing what we can do when we play the ball on the deck. Shinnie was fantastic. Miovski such a clever player. Can see what it meant to Duk to score. Seems very Aberdonian to have a criticism after a 4-0 win but last 20 minutes Ross County really should have scored one or two. I know we were in cruise control by then, but gives them some encouragement for Wednesday. I think the performance in Frankfurt - even though we lost - was maybe just the wee kickstart to the season we needed. Get ourselves into the semis in midweek then have a crack against a fragile Rangers at Ibrox, who by all accounts were lucky to win today, and we're set up nicely for October when we have four of the five games at home.

Clarkson benched, Barron starts. Big call that but probably merited based on Thursday.

Hope all is well @BigAl, glad to hear you made it back at least.

Bavidge joins Kelty Hearts on loan until January.

Myself and @RicoS321 held a zoom call with Barry Robson this morning and we've agreed on this for tomorrow. We also discussed speeding up the pie queues and introducing Fish & couscous, and bratwurst mit kase, into the half-time selection, after some European scouting this week.

Decent performance that frustratingly should have been a draw. Agree Jensen and Gartenmann look good. I'd be inclined to play MacDonald ahead of Rubezic though. Clarkson just couldn't get it going tonight. At points he was getting in the way of others players, like me trying to play fives. Was a brave call from Robson to take him and Shinnie off, but it worked and Barron was excellent when he came on. Is there a set-up to get Barron, Clarkson, Shinnie and Polvara all playing at the same time? Maybe at the expense of McGrath who has disappointed so far and could see Miovski getting frustrated with him tonight. Devlin though. Aye I fucking like him. Cracking signing. As for the match experience. Police marched us through a forrest for about 20 minutes to get to the away end. It was just bizarre looking out into the trees and seeing random coppers standing there keeping an eye on everything. Afterwards, though, with it raining heavily, it wasn't fun being marched back through that forrest.

Wrong thread probably buy can't find the "where are our former Dutchmen?" thread, but interesting to note that Jay Gorter is playing in the first team at Ajax. By the looks of things he replaced the first choice off the bench at the start of the season and has been playing ever since.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/66836361 Here. Same tactics Robson used the last time we were at Tynecastle too.

If you haven't watched last night's Sportscene, then at 6pm there's a snippet of it going up on the BBC social media that shows how alarming our long ball strategy was yesterday.

Not that I'm tipping us to win, but it wouldn't surprise me if we put in a credible performance in Frankfurt because the way we're set up under Robson is suited to playing a team likely to dominate possession. It's when you give us the ball we embarrass ourselves. We'll press them, hound them, the likes of Duk will find space to run on the counter. Be a bit like the Celtic game which was our best performance of the season. Frankfurt would be better just letting us have the ball, laugh as we try and pass it at 100mph, make mistakes, and then just pick us off.

Well we didn't lose the game today because we had lost heart in the last 10 minutes. I think the effort was there. Any notable strategy, tactics, ball control, defending, movement and trickery were all missing.

Thing is, I disagree with all this. We were up for it, we just - like we did under Goodwin - had no obvious game plan. We had two attacking tactics today. The first: Collect the ball just inside the Hearts half, launch it to the front two, and hope they can turn into Dennis Bergkamp and take a touch, turn the defender, create a yard of space and then add a sublime finish, all while hoping the defender stands and watches them. The second: Anyone who gets the ball within 30 yards of goal, take a shot. I've been defending Robson and urging people to give him time, but this is no way to play. We have players who can actually play football and we don't need to be shelling the ball forward from the first minute.

Guys, I think I have a problem.

Far too rushed. This playing with intensity isn't working, we just give the ball away. Slow it down, pass the ball properly, let Hearts (who are just as poor as us, goal apart) run themselves into a frenzy, and we've got the front players to make clever runs and open them up. Instead it's kick and rush followed by pot shots from the edge of the box.

Team as expected. Strong looking bench too. Head says 1-1, but I've also £1 on 2-0 to the good guys. I genuinely can't see us losing today. I think, for all the worry that we're not as strong as last season, our first XI looks better than theirs and we'll be right up for it today.

I don't mind the rule, people should be allowed to change, but I do think there should be a limit on the grandparent rule. Say a maximum of two in your squad. We could have Barnes, Anderson and Adams all using that rule. I think that's a bit of an overkill.