Just in thoughts

[caledonia]

just in also

Maybe now people will admit JC is a complete arse.

Sure the players are at fault also but its JC who brought back young and signed bus, mcnamara etc

And also plays players out of position and tactics are mince most of the time.

fuck off back to holland calderwood and do us all a favour

[manc_don]

I too am totally sober and gutted. In fact, after the game, I went to bed! mainly cos i'd had 3 hours sleep the night before but still.

 

The thing is, I think we've all known for sometime that something isn't quite right down Pittodrie way. I admire your rationality sneckie, and I ythink I agree with you. We were devoid of anything today. Within the forst 10 seconds you could tell how it was going to go. We had no fight, no vision, it was like a team full of strangers. I just can't help but think where we're going to go from this, w have no money, the players can't be arsed, and elements within the club loath the support...its just a bit of a mess.

 

Good luck to QoS though. They thoroughly deserved it. I'm just incredibly gutted and jealous its not us in the final  

[tlg1903]

Didn't see it, im 5 hours behind uk time and woke up just after it finished.  You know its weird, i thought i'd been through it all in terms of disapointment in the 90's and early 0's. Unfortunately not, aberdeen are still able to bring me to new lows.  Its hard to comment on a game i've not seen but this really is a kick n the teeth.  Losing a semi to utd was hard to take but at least they are a decent side.  Calderwood has a lot to answer for after today.  He's had some impressive results in charge of aberdeen but there is no excuse for shipping 4 goals to a 1st division side

[Cowie]

Didn't see it, im 5 hours behind uk time and woke up just after it finished. 

 

lucky you.

[tlg1903]

Unfortunately its not stopped me getting dogs abuse, mainly from fucking ICT fans

[Guest swaddon]

Unfortunately its not stopped me getting dogs abuse, mainly from fucking ICT fans

 

Tell the pair of them to fuck off, and ask them when the last time they went to Hampden was, besides playing Queens Park.

[Cowie]

Unfortunately its not stopped me getting dogs abuse, mainly from fucking ICT fans

 

Looking at it rationally, ICT and Qots are essentially the same sort of team - Cloggers.

We have basically gifted them a victory through our inability to defend long balls.

 

Notice that we shipped 3 goals the other week also.

 

[BrownyBrown]

Looking at it rationally, ICT and Qots are essentially the same sort of team - Cloggers.

We have basically gifted them a victory through our inability to defend long balls.

 

Notice that we shipped 3 goals the other week also.

 

 

Whereas we aspire to be cloggers. If only we were that good. 

[Cowie]

Whereas we aspire to be cloggers. If only we were that good. 

 

You have no idea the amount of times i was shouting for the ball to be kept on the deck today..

 

Also, did you notice that every defensive header, instead of being directed to another red shirt (or even being cleared ffs), went up in the air or sideways - Qots  pretty much always got the 2nd ball in these situations.

 

We looked very nervous, which is a surprising considering the amount of experience that the team has.

 

 

[capitalsharpie]

We headed back to Edinburgh as soon as we possibly could and had sobered up to a brutal extent by the time we got home. On the way home we came up with these conclusions.

 

Jimmy's tactics were virtually non existent. Nobody in the defence knew what they were doing and where they should be.

 

Namara was dreadful and we actually stopped conceding when he left the pitch. He should be the first out the door, he clearly doesnt give a damn about AFC if he is travelling fom Edinburgh every day.

 

There in NOBODY in that team that is worth keeping. Except Diamond. He is the only one that  has shown comitment to the club. Despite him being  a tim.

 

I dont want to hear anything from the tango man unless its an apology for fucking the whole thing up. He can blame the players all he wants, but ultimately its up to him to get the players up for games like these and its only him that picks the squad.

 

Every single problem with our bunch of players was exposed today. Weve been riding our luck up until now. It just completely fell apart today.

 

Hat off to QoS though, Like microcuts sed, they had a gameplan, stuck to it and were more organised a the back. All the best to them in the final.

 

I have never seen auch a poor performance since the dark releation days of alex "the prick" miller.

 

I was neither a Jimmy GTF person or a jimmy lover before today, my knee jerk reaction ater the game was that the best thing that could have happened was for him to resign immediately.

[CtS]

Ouch.  They say it's the ones you love that hurt you most, well the dons fecking hurt me today.  As one of my boys started crying as the realisation of what was happening hit him, his old dad was only just holding back the tears. 

 

I thought our departing duo of Miller and Nicholson were our better performers today, however the defending was laughable at times.  Despite that, with a wee bit more luck we could have still sneaked a win, but it wasn't to be.

 

On a positive note, the Red Army were magnificent again.  The fans make the club in my opinion, and long after managers and players move on, you and I will still be there.

 

Fellow Reds, our day will come.

 

 

Stand Free. 

[HeedTheBall]

Some interesting comments in this thread. Sneckie is almost correct, we’ve had a handful of decent performances this season, that’s true. But look further back we’ve only had a handful of decent performances in each of the seasons Calderwood has been in charge. It’s not like, on the whole, we’ve played any different in other games than we did today. We’re consistently poor. Or ‘sloppy’ if I can steal a phrase. 

 

The bench was interesting today too. My immediate thought was ‘who can come on and change the game, the way we’re playing?’ I'd be keen to know the reasonings behind the bench selection but I doubt we'll ever know.

 

Soutar, just doesn’t inspire confidence and that influences the decisions and actions of the defence. He’ll not leave his line for anything, not just crosses. The team’s much weaker with him in goals.

 

The 500k in 4 years is a red herring. Not many clubs, well not in the SPL, actually spend hard cash. It’s Bosman’s and the like. Compare what we pay as a basic and then you may get a more accurate reflection on investment in the team. Money isn’t the be all and end all as we discovered during the years of overspending. Motherwell and Hibs have all invested less than us and are currently higher in the league than we are.

 

And luck, forget that. I personally don’t want to rely on luck in order to win games (yeah it often required against the bigger and better teams). Certainly not against 1st division teams. We shouldn’t have had any penalties today and QOS didn’t win the game through luck. They were the better team and hats off to them for that. Let’s give them the credit they’re due.

 

I also disagree that this was the poorest performance this season. Utd in the wee semi was worse. Our performance today was consistent with the majority under Calderwood. High balls and flick-ons. No passing. No movement. Players not wanting the ball and hiding, to me it looks like they're frightened to make a mistake - now I may just throw in some speculation here, are they concerned about getting crucified by Calderwood? Just like Cowie I spent a large part of the game just saying ‘get it down, play a pass and keep it simple’. But I very much doubt our team is sent out to play that way. In fact, I’m convinced that they’re not. Look at the evidence over the last few seasons.

 

Let’s be brutally honest. We have some good players who are not performing and we are not a good team. Blame the players if you want but the evidence to me suggests that the underperformance of the players lies at the feet of Calderwood for the way he sets out his teams to play and the way he is so quick to blame the players when things go wrong.

 

His post-match comments are no surprise and he's not someone I'd want to play under. How many of our players feel the same do you think?

 

At least the Masters and a fine red are helping me cope with life as a Don just now. 

[jmo]

Fuck

 

 

Just Fuck. I mean I've drrank and drank but i still remember, it doesnt get better.

[glasgow sheep]

Utterly humiliating experience, again.

 

You can rationalise the defeat all you want.  Yes we have been poor all season. Yes we have maybe ridden our luck in past seasons.  Yes we haven't had loads of cash to spend.

 

However losing 8 goals in two semifinals at any time is a disgrace.  Even more so when one of the teams is a whole division below us. 

 

Quite what JC was thinking starting with McNamara I have no idea.  Where the fuck were JDV and Walker?  Why Soutar? Why the persistence with long-balls?  What the hell was going on with our defence, as although fucking atrocious McNamara can't be blamed for the complete shambles back there? And what the fuck has happened to Seve?  A moment that summed it up for me was seeing tosh shouting out instructions to his team mates and encouraging them while our captain trudged up the park looking at the ground moaning about fuck knows what to himself.

 

I've  been sceptical about JC ever since the Queen's Park debacle and today yet again emphasised his failings which can be summed up with failing to learn from mistakes and picking/dropping players because of personalties rather than ability.

 

It is also extremely worrying that come the summer we will have managed to lose the spine of a decent side: Anderson, Hart, Clark, Nicholson, Miller and replaced it with Pele-era dross: Bus, Mair, Duff, and god knows who else in the summer.

 

How have we managed to lose all these players? Is it simply Milne and Miller who have to take the rap? Or has JC lost the dressing room to an extent?

 

I've been through some shit times following the dons but the manner of our defeats in the two semifinals is almost a new low.

 

Finally I'd like to repeat the comments about the support today.  Even at 4-3 and obviously out of it the support still sang their hearts out. 

Well done to Queens who thoroughly deserve their final appearance.  Good luck and enjoy your day in sun.  Quite when we'll get ours I'm not sure

[mizer]

Fuckin cunts! All of them and their family!

[capitalsharpie]

How have we managed to lose all these players? Is it simply Milne and Miller who have to take the rap? Or has JC lost the dressing room to an extent?

 

 

 

Surely this should have been a season where we used these players to build on the relative success of last season? To lose all these players plus nicholson an miller in the summer is just not acceptable.

 

[Cowie]

Fellow Reds, our day will come.

Stand Free. 

 

Take it your hoping for some sort of immortality ala highlander?!?

 

 

Just like Cowie I spent a large part of the game just saying ‘get it down, play a pass and keep it simple’. But I very much doubt our team is sent out to play that way.

 

Technically we were the better team i thought. We look pretty good going forward and on the rare occasion we were level, I thought that we looked like we had the ability to carve out a few chances. 

 

To win - not draw level again . 

 

I'm not one usually one for proportioning blame, but yesterday the blame has to lie at the feet of the back four (+ soutar).

They have played together against higher quality (SPL) opposition & not looked as woeful.

Problem is I cant really see an easy fix for this...

As individual players, Maybury, Diamond and to a certain extent Considine are all capable defenders. J Mac is totally past it.

It seemed to be a combination of nerves and disorganisation that fucked us over - & lack of organistaion is not something I want to hear at the end of a season!!

[glasgow sheep]

 

Surely this should have been a season where we used these players to build on the relative success of last season? To lose all these players plus nicholson an miller in the summer is just not acceptable.

 

well that's it.

Losing Russel clearly had a massive impact in our season, but in retrospect the loss of Hart and Clark is probably just as important, and along the so many players being unsettled it can't have been good for team morale.

 

Of course it might not have been such an issue if we had brought in decent replacements but our scouting network seemingly consists of players JC has previously managed or seen kick a football in the SPL and his son in Holland.  I dread to think what our starting XI will be next season

[Guest leith_red]

Cunts.

 

At least you were in Canada...or wherever...

[glasgow sheep]

Kings of the South

 

Click here to see a slideshow of action from the match

Queen of the South 4 - 3 Aberdeen

By Michael Grant at Hampden

Comment | Read Comments (1)

 

QUEEN OF the South have always managed to one of the great and evocative names of Scottish football without doing much to be worth talking about. Yesterday they rose up and produced a result which launched them into the cup final and may yet take them into Europe.

 

In a day laced with unbridled celebration as well as simmering anger, Hampden staged one of its most entertaining cup ties. Queens will grace the final for the first time in their history because they handled the occasion when their fancied opponents could not.

 

It took poor play to make it an outstanding spectacle - both sides defended horribly but Aberdeen took by far the greater share of the blame - but the drama was relentless.

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The victory was a triumph of Queens' character and their strikers' finishing. Three times they went ahead only for Aberdeen to cancel each of their leads within minutes.

 

When the First Division side did so for a fourth time the match briefly seemed ridiculous and another equaliser seemed inevitable. Aberdeen had half an hour left to find one and could not do so.

 

The recriminations in the north-east must be long and thorough as Aberdeen figure out how they could be shown up by a First Division team. Losing the match had always been a possibility but to concede four goals was an unpardonable collapse.

 

They hauled 14,000 supporters with them to Glasgow and Jimmy Calderwood and most of his team failed them and will not be forgiven. When the final whistle went red and white scarves rained down on to the trackside.

 

Those supporters had jeered John Stewart when he came on as a 42nd minute substitute for the unfortunate Stephen Dobbie, whose trickery had been a handful until he succumbed to a knee injury.

 

Stewart once scored a winner for Aberdeen at Parkhead but did little else before being released, which explained the jeers. Not only did he answer those taunts with the unanswered fourth goal, he produced a second half display of pace and directness which Aberdeen could not handle.

 

"If you get taunted it gives you an extra incentive, an extra edge," said Chisholm. "He won't be very popular in Aberdeen tonight."

 

Sean O'Connor's brawn gave Aberdeen a headache as well. Andrew Considine and Zander Diamond have never had an uglier 90 minutes together and goalkeeper Derek Soutar and full-backs Jackie McNamara and Alan Maybury were accomplices in the defensive mess.

 

Calderwood talked of how far managers are from the touchline at Hampden and hinted that his senior players - the likes of McNamara, Maybury and Scott Severin - should have taken more responsibility on the pitch.

 

The lack of leadership was undeniable although supporters will wonder how a manager cannot overcome a First Division team with a group of players who have beaten FC Copenhagen, won at Celtic Park and led twice against Bayern Munich.

 

The club had envisaged a place in the cup final and the probability of returning to the Uefa Cup next season, but all of that was beyond a team which cannot defend.

 

Queens were exposed at the back too and unless they tighten up it may cost them the chance to win the final. It was their only flaw in a day their excellent 10,000-strong support can savour for years.

 

When O'Connor bullied Soutar at a free-kick the ball fell for Steve Tosh - one of three former Aberdeen players who started the match before Stewart came on to make a quartet - to lash a shot into the net. Considine equalised with a powerful header over Jim Thomson to make it 1-1 at half time.

 

There was no inkling of the adrenaline rush still to come. From the restart Stewart made an early impact by racing away from Diamond and crossing for Burns to score at the second attempt. Within three minutes it was level again as Barry Nicholson pounced after a Lee Miller header was saved.

 

By now Queens were wise to Aberdeen's defending: Tosh launched a long ball at them, Considine floundered, O'Connor twisted Diamond and buried another goal. No-one bothered to mark Considine as he equalised again with a header to make it 3-3. Where was it going to end?

 

"I just thought we kept blowing it, we kept getting our nose in front and kept giving a goal away," said Chisholm. "I thought we're not going to do it'. I did expect Aberdeen to come back a fourth time. I thought the game could have been 7-4, or 6-5."

 

Instead there were only the seven goals and the last of them settled it. Aberdeen did not defend a ball from the right and when Thomson flicked it on Stewart had all the time and space in the world to bury it.

 

McNamara was booed off by the Aberdeen supporters before storming straight up the tunnel. Without him they pressed to equalise yet again but were never convincing.

 

As the two ends of the country converged on Hampden, it was a regal triumph for the south.

 

Queen of the South substitutes: Stewart for Dobbie 42, Paton for McCann 90 Not used: Grindlay, O'Neil, Gilmour Booked: McCann 70

Aberdeen substitutes: Mackie for McNamara 62, Young for Maybury 80 Not used: Langfield, Duff, Touzani Booked: none

Referee: K Clark Att: 24,008

 

[capitalsharpie]

Yes we scored a few times (twice by a defender in al of that) but we shouldnt have to score FIVE GOALS against ANYBODY to win a game. no matter who they are. You DONT win ANYTHING conceding the goals we have this season.

 

Judging by Namara's reaction after being subbed, I think he will be offski regardless.

 

 

 

Prick

[OrlandoDon]

Quoting JC after the game -

 

"For some strange reason Queens were better than us and defensively we were awful, as we have been all season."

 

No wonder. Have we ever had a consistant back 4 all year. Changing the back, changing the keeper all season - what exactly do we do in training - it's April and we're still chopping and changing. No wonder we lose goals at an alarming rate. JC has had an entire season to fix the defense which he hasn't done and this has cost us all season. He's had more than enough time to train a 'post Anderson' defense.

 

The fans have been outstanding yet again but we're let down yet again. Time for a change - everyone can see that. JC is clueless - 4 years into the job and we've no foundation to even build a team for next year. I certainly don't trust him to rebuild.

 

 

[Sharpie]

Our performance today was consistent with the majority under Calderwood. High balls and flick-ons. No passing. No movement. Players not wanting the ball and hiding, to me it looks like they're frightened to make a mistake - now I may just throw in some speculation here, are they concerned about getting crucified by Calderwood? Just like Cowie I spent a large part of the game just saying ‘get it down, play a pass and keep it simple’. But I very much doubt our team is sent out to play that way. In fact, I’m convinced that they’re not. Look at the evidence over the last few seasons.

 

 

That's exactly it. That's the reason Calderwood has struggled to win the fans over. Our tactics nowadays are get the ball forward by any means as quickly as possible. Guile doesn't come in to it any more. Knock it long and then scrap for the seconds. 1st Division tactics in a lot of ways.

[Kowalski]

just in also

Maybe now people will admit JC is a complete arse.

Sure the players are at fault also but its JC who brought back young and signed bus, mcnamara etc

And also plays players out of position and tactics are mince most of the time.

fuck off back to holland calderwood and do us all a favour

 

Aye but yesterday we had 11 players on the pitch in a 4-4-2, in pretty much positions they should all be comfortable with and they fucked up, mainly in defence.  McNamara clearly shouldn't have played, but the rest of the back 5 were awful too.

 

Our players have no bottle.

[capitalsharpie]

That bunch looked as if they thought they could just turn up to win.