Panda

I'll take penalties right now, as I can't see us beating them by two clear goals. I think it's clear one major strength Qarabag have is they are solid in defence - that's now six games they've played this season and they've only conceded to spot kicks. I do actually think we should play the team we plan to play on Thursday at Tynecastle. Get the forward players at least gelling. We've four days to recover afterwards & it'll be Qarabag doing the travelling so they're not exactly going to be fresh either. Like I said on the Hearts thread - the next game is Ross County at home and no disrespect to them that's when to give players a rest. I can't remember last time I was so nervous for a game - I don't even think the last cup final we made I was this nervous. It would be massive for us to be in the group stages. I really wanted us to come back with a draw as with no away goals rule they would need to come here and try and beat us. But now they've something to defend, and as above they seem pretty good at that. Hopefully we can do what Apollon Limassol did to us and wipe out the first leg advantage within the first 20 minutes and build momentum from there.

Lewis Ramsay McCrorie Gallagher Mackenzie Brown McGeouch McLennan Ferguson Hayes Ramirez Fucking intae them. Pump them and build up momentum ahead of Qarabag. They can all rest next Sunday when we play Ross County at home. Europa Conference League is nice and that, but three league wins out of three and the title race is on.

Glass saying in his interview that two Qarabag players (their captain & whoever was number 6) are both suspended next week after picking up their third bookings. Think we're okay on that score are we?

The 23-page proposal which has three options (one of which doesn't include the stadium). https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/documents/s123822/APPENDIX D - LEISURE STADIUM ver2.pdf So it's not going to be the site where the Hotel is which was previously mentioned, but instead the cricket pitches. When I was at school, I can't remember what the project was or why I did it but I invented a new football team from Aberdeen (can't remember the name), who had white home shirts & yellow away shirts, and their stadium was to be on the exact spot these plans are. Now, fair enough, I've taken my time getting started on making the dream a reality, but the council are kinda pissing on my childhood plans here.

According to Boyle the talks were well underway over a new contract long before the Dons interest broke. Aberdeen either unaware or were trying to unsettle him/an opponent.

Lost to a bang average side which is the most frustrating thing. Got at them more in the second half but goalkeeper has had an easy night. Jet offered nothing in the first half. Ojo was poor, I don't think I've ever seen an Aberdeen player in my life who gives the ball away as often as he does. We need to open contract talks with Calvin Ramsay on the plane home though. Cracking player. Qarabag definitely beatable at home, but problem is we need to beat them by two clear goals really (unless we're planning on going all the way to pens) and we're short in defence and attack. They'll frustrate us at Pittodrie I think unless we manage to get an early goal and have them rocking. At least the away goal rule been scrapped, otherwise they could have ended the tie in the first 10 minutes at Pittodrie.

Aberdeen letting the pitch beat them. Qarabag are still making passes and getting through Aberdeen, while as soon as we get it we convince ourselves we can't do anything cos it'll stick on the pitch. It's almost like they've got into our heads. Jet been poor but he has to stay on because with Considine off we're now short in height, so we need him defensively at set-pieces. I'd think about putting on McGeouch to tighten things up through the middle. But, I wonder if Glass has another treble substitution up his sleeve at the break.

JET been a waste of a shirt so far.

1-3 has a nice ring to it.

They've played five games - four European and one league. We've played seven. So there's not that much difference. Their results so far 0-0 Ashdod (home) 1-0 Ashdod (away) 1-1 Limassol (away) 1-0 Limassol (home) 1-1 Zira (away) Worth noting, the two goals they've conceded have both been penalties, so in five games they've yet to concede from open play. I also listened to the Here We Go podcast and the fella suggested if Qarabag have a lead to take to Pittodrie, they will frustrate the hell out of Aberdeen.

Aye but the point was you wrote the guy off before you had watched a single minute of him play. It's convenient to your argument to declare you were right because of his mistakes on Sunday & the emergence of Ramsay. To me he's looked a decent back-up player, which is what he is. I think he'll improve too once he plays more and settles in - maybe not better than Ramsay, but a better back-up. I don't really see it as the bad signing you're suggesting it to be. I'd say he's an improvement on last season's Shay Logan.

Atlanta fans could have written Hernandez off for the same reason, "couldn't get a game for Aberdeen". A lot of people questioned the signing of Ramirez too based on how many goals he'd scored. And Brown too was meant to be past it. But when you say is he going to be a good signing - depends what you expect. He's probably not going to be first choice due to Ramsay's emergence. He's a pretty decent back-up who has actually been alright this season, but has had one poor half of football. I'd say in relative terms he has been a good signing so far. He's getting the brunt of the criticism because his mistakes directly led to the goals. But Gallagher got done at 0-0 and Lewis bailed him out. McCrorie made a poor mistake at 1-0 that should have led to a goal. How many times has Lewis made horrific mistakes and lost us games? Who actually had a good second half for us yesterday? Our poorest player this season I would argue has been Hayes, followed by Gallagher, then McGinn. Gurr not even in the bottom three despite yesterday.

So basically you made up your mind about him before a ball was kicked? He's played okay this season, was decent enough in the first half and played a big part in Jet's goal. He's had a poor second half, it happens, but too early to completely write the guy off.

McGeouch has been excellent this season so not sure I agree with that. He was far from the worst. I don't agree either we made too many changes - that suggests we didn't pick a team that was good enough to win. We scored early, dominated the first half, and really we should have added to our lead. What let us down was the lack of a penalty box striker to finish off the moves. We've all identified we're still short up front - maybe Ramirez should have started but that's about the only pre-match change that stood out. You can't legislate for Jack Gurr making those mistakes (and you can't keep playing Calvin Ramsay twice a week and burn the guy out), everyone was raving about Funso Ojo in midweek, the injuries to Hayes and Hedges shows why its a risk playing your strongest XI days before a massive game. We got too lazy at 1-0, too slack in possession. We didn't up the tempo to match Raith. It was back to last season and the players needing a kick up the arse at times. That could have happened whoever we picked. We looked like a team that got a wee bit too cocky and have began to believe their own hype, overplaying things at times inside the box (we actually only had one shot on target the whole game) rather than showing the hunger to go and finish the tie off when on top.

I don't understand your point at all. Are we not trying to get to the group stages in order to get those glamour ties? I wish we were playing dross from a minor league in the playoff round. It was all well and good getting Burnley but after two games it was over. Someone worked out the likely pots in the group stage a few weeks ago based on all the favourites winning, which granted will be out of date now, but there was potential for a group of:- Roma, Feyenoord, Union Berlin, Aberdeen. Alternatively: Tottenham, Rennes, Ferencvaros, Aberdeen. I'd say either of those groups would provide a few decent European nights. Then again, easiest group if we want to make the knockout stage: Viktoria Plzen, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Alashkert, Aberdeen. Which aye, fair enough might not be quite as enticing on paper, but it's still six cracking European nights if you like that sort of thing.

Yep. I'm coming up for it simply because I can't remember the last time I was even at Pittodrie, but it put a lot of potential friends off - went from six of us to just two of us. For comparison, Rangers/Malmo (a qualifier, but a Champions League one) was £29. Celtic £21 (£19 for season ticket holders). Hibs/Rijeka was £23. St Johnstone/Galatasaray - dunno what prices were but season ticket holders were free. Should be a full house & rocking, but think we'll struggle to get past 14,000.

Yeh, it is. I bought a medium & had to send it back for a large, and even then it's fairly tight. But then I'm about a stone overweight.

No, draw for the play-off round is on Monday and we'll be unseeded. We could land someone like Roma or Tottenham. Looking through all the current seeds I don't think there's a single tie where you could consider us favourites, but there's some preferable ties to others. I tend to think Qarabag or AEK Athens might be the ones we want based on them not being too convincing in qualifying. In fact, as I'm writing this, AEK Athens are about to get knocked out unless they can find a late goal. Feyenoord too are about to be taken to extra-time so they could fall. Maybe a case of some big names there but not many of them firing on all cylinders yet.

Fair enough I suppose. If the job is just about done by half-time, he has five subs to play with in the second half.

I'm over 35 and I've already bought the new home top ? To be fair I only really wear it to the gym, and I live in Glasgow so feel an extra need to spread the Dons gospel. And, that was the first home top I'd bought since 2005.

I wonder what picture/pose they'll use as their inspiration. The photo they've actually used at the top of the article is good. That might be a hint they're using that one. The Fergie one at Old Trafford has him with his arms folded & grim faced. It's actually a bit crap. Would hope ours would have him in a happier pose.

But it's not just these two games. It's Hacken -Dundee United - European game - Livingston - European game - Raith Rovers - possibly another European game, etc etc. Games every 3/4 days. If there's an opportunity to rest someone, especially someone who is 36, we should take it. Again, my worry is we're so light up front that Hedges, Jet & Ramirez could be ran into the ground, and Hedges doesn't have the best injury-free record either. Just thinking of Dundee United. About time we stuck one on them.

Actually, totally forgot about Teddy Jenks, would probably start him. I'd say ahead of Ojo, but then I'm actually intrigued to see if Ojo can follow last week up with another good performance or if that was just a fluke.

I know we don't wish to be complacent, but with a four-goal lead, do we rest a few players for Dundee United? Especially Scott Brown - surely we want him starting v Dundee United but not after playing 90 minutes v Hacken. Especially since - providing we make it through - we then want him fresh for the first leg next Thursday too. At 36 that's going to be an issue managing his minutes. For as long as we're in the qualifiers we're going to be playing Thursday-Sunday. He's a big game player but any chance to give him a rest we need to take it - Neil Lennon just constantly played him last season even when he looked jaded and that was one of his many wrong decisions. I'm presuming Declan Gallagher's suspension is over, while the likes of McGeouch, Campbell & Gurr must be itching for a start. I'd go with:- Lewis Gurr Gallagher Considine Mackenzie McGeouch McLennan Ferguson Ojo Jet Ramirez -- Still think that's a strong enough team to get a result, and certainly not one I'd expect to blow a four-goal advantage.

I'm gonna be lazy and just say 73