Ajja

Dunt.

So we are allocated the away end and if we sell that out we have an option for one half of the touchline stand. Should manage to sell the 1,600 away end quick enough and the full 2,500 tickets won't be a problem. Helen should be giving us the whole touchline stand as they will never sell out their allocation for a midday game on TV.

Do they give the OF more tickets?  I thought they made appoint about refusing to give them more than the 1 stand when they opened.  Crazy to think folk are talking about 4000 at Love St (sic) when we had about 4000 at Pittodrie yesterday.

 

Anyhooo I shall be there regardless and given our less than impressive record there I envisage  pretty tough game, possibly a replay.

Think they give the OF behind goals and half the stand up the side that holds 2,500, probably gives them around 2,800-3,000 tickets.

Normal away end plus one side of pitch would be good. That would mean around 4,000 Dons fans in the ground and guarantee a wall of noise supporting our team. Not sure they would be willing to give up home advantage for a few dollars more though.

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/resources/documents/SFAPublications/SFAHandbook/12%20CupCompRules.pdf

Not sure if that is out of date but in item 41 it says up to 20% for visiting allocation, which as I said is the capacity of the away end at St Mirren, probably designed for that rule in advance.

I thought where cup matches are concerned the away fans are entitled to a percentage of the grounds capacity (30% rings a bell)?  If that's the case then we'll get more than 1,600 surely?

I think that is correct but is it not 20% which is 1,600 in 8,000 ? They may give us half of one of the other stands which take about 2,500 each. Can't see us getting anymore than around 2,800 tickets and I'm pretty sure there will be more demand. Possibly very limited public sale.

Could be a ticket scramble for this one. Their away end holds about 1,600 so unless they give us two stands then there will be a lot of disappointed Dons fans.

Time for the MPB (Madrid Panic Button) to show its face 

If Partick can dispense of these West Fife tinks at home then we should not be concerning ourselves at all for this game. Two of my staff are Dunfermline fans, if we lose this game I think I will sack them both, austerity measures and football prejudice.......a heady cocktail indeed.

Thought he looked very good considering the guy flew up from Norwich late the night before. Apparently was gasping to play but Broon put him on the bench. Showed a good attitude from the off and looked pretty composed seeing as he had no idea of the personnel or system we were playing.

If we assume that we are not going to catch Killmarnock in that period leading up to the end of February and that none of the teams below us will catch us then we are basically competing with 4 other teams to get 5th spot going into March. Here are the fixtures each team has with possible points;

Aberdeen;

Celtic (H) 1 - 0 points achieved

St Johnstone (A) 3

Motherwell (H) 3 - 0 points achieved

Kilmarnock (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

Hamilton (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

Hearts (H) 1 - 1 point achieved

Total 14 (Giving us 33 for season)

* Points based on what we might need rather than what is likely

St Johnstone;

Hearts (A) 0 - 0 points achieved

Hamilton (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

Aberdeen (H) 0

ICT (A) 1 - 0 points achieved

Dundee UTD (H) 1 - 1 point achieved

Huns (A) 0

Total 5 (Giving them 30 for season)

ICT;

Dundee UTD (H) 0

St Mirren (A) 3 - 1 point achieved

St Johnstone (H) 1 - 3 points achieved

Hibs (A) 1 - 0 points achieved

Total 6 (Giving them 31 for season)

Motherwell;

Kilmarnock (H) 0 - 0 points achieved

Huns (A) 0 - 0 points achieved

Aberdeen (A) 0 - 3 points achieved

Hamilton (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

St Mirren (H) 3 - 0 points achieved

Celtic (H) 0

Total 6 (Giving them 34 for season)

Dundee UTD;

Hibs (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

ICT (A) 3

Celtic (H) 0 - 0 points achieved

Hamilton (H) 3

Hearts (A) 0 - 0 points achieved

St Johnstone (A) 1 - 1 point achieved

Hamilton (A) 3 - 1 point achieved

Total 11 (Giving them 37 for season)

Current table;

5. Motherwell 34

6. ICT 33

7. Dundee UTD  31

8. St Johnstone 30

9. Aberdeen 30

Table after all the above fixtures could be;

5. Dundee UTD  37

6. Motherwell 34

7. Aberdeen 33

8. ICT 31

9. St Johnstone 30

After losing to Motherwell we really need St Mirren to take something from Motherwell to get a sniff at top 6. I suspect UTD will make top 6 so we will want them to beat ICT as they look catchable. Looks like its all about catching Motherwell, assuming we can take points in Perth and possibly sneak a win against Hearts.

Only just clocked this game is on ESPN. Bonus.

If we assume that we are not going to catch Killmarnock in that period leading up to the end of February and that none of the teams below us will catch us then we are basically competing with 4 other teams to get 5th spot going into March. Here are the fixtures each team has with possible points;

Aberdeen;

Celtic (H) 1

St Johnstone (A) 3

Motherwell (H) 3

Kilmarnock (H) 3

Hamilton (H) 3

Hearts (H) 1

Total 14 (Giving us 37 for season)

* Points based on what we might need rather than what is likely

St Johnstone;

Hearts (A) 0 - 0 points achieved

Hamilton (H) 3

Aberdeen (H) 0

ICT (A) 1

Dundee UTD (H) 1

Huns (A) 0

Total 5 (Giving them 31 for season)

ICT;

Dundee UTD (H) 1

St Mirren (A) 3

St Johnstone (H) 1

Hibs (A) 1

Total 6 (Giving them 35 for season)

Motherwell;

Kilmarnock (H) 0

Huns (A) 0

Aberdeen (A) 0

Hamilton (H) 3

St Mirren (H) 3

Celtic (H) 0

Total 6 (Giving them 34 for season)

Dundee UTD;

Hibs (H) 3 - 3 points achieved

ICT (A) 1

Celtic (H) 0

Hamilton (H) 3

Hearts (A) 0

St Johnstone (A) 1

Hamilton (A) 3

Total 11 (Giving them 37 for season)

So with all that in mind, the table looks like this come March 1;

5. Dundee UTD  37

6. Aberdeen  37

7. ICT 35

8. Motherwell 34

9. St Johnstone 31

All looks reasonably achievable but it depends a lot on us getting a high points haul, basically winning 4 games on the trot sandwiched between draws with Cletic and Hearts at home.

Doesn't matter why he is there, he is getting a chance to impress and I hope he takes it for Scotland's sake.

I still have every confidence that we'll get past Dunfermline. I've seen nothing to change that point of view. Obviously being an Aberdeen fan means that nothing is a sure thing but I think Broon and Knox will steer us past without too many problems.

Agreed. After the cup game we have two huge games against St Johnstone and Motherwell than we must win to push for top 6 and we should be confident going into those games as well. Celtic are not the benchmark for us at present, they'll keep.

this is a good signing.

 

I'm disappointed we didn't get Hughes. Heard that Norwich wanted us to take on Hughes' full wage for the loan and we just wouldn't or couldn't do it. Hughes wanted to come to us.

Think this may be the positive effect that Brown has at Pittodrie, players who actually want to come and play under him knowing they will improve their lot as a result.

As bad as these two were, they aren't the long term cancer that takes a wage from the club. We have cut away the fat, now lets start toning muscle.

Langfield can’t offer many saving graces

 

By Michael Gannon

 

Published: 31/01/2011

 

Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield knows the Dons have let down their long-suffering supporters yet again and that it will take an almighty effort to win back their affections.

 

The Red Army invaded Hampden for the League Cup semi-final against Celtic, with 14,000 optimistic souls helping to swell the attendance to 38,085 – the biggest gate in the last four of the competition since the Old Firm met in 2002.

 

But a familiar capitulation will lead to recrimination and Langfield is aware they cannot keep subjecting the supporters to such painful humiliation.

 

The 4-1 scoreline fails to reflect the poverty of the Dons performance in an encounter which was all but over after 10 minutes. By the time the third goal arrived in just 21 minutes, some of the Red Army was on the retreat.

 

Langfield said: “The minute the third goal went in I knew supporters would start heading for the exits. Then when the penalty went in a lot of them would be fearing the worst. We had to pull together as a group and make sure no more goals went in. But it is a very disappointing day after it promised so much.

 

“Every man knew what he had to do and what he did wrong.

 

“There is nothing I can say that the supporters do not feel themselves. We know we have let everybody down.

 

“We know they follow us in great numbers, so we have to pick up our heads and try to win back their trust. We know it is going to be very hard. I have been here so long I am used to it but we have to go again and try to get them back onside.

 

“I am working as hard as I possibly can to get this club to finals and winning finals. It has not happened, so we need to build a relationship between us and the supporters again. Hopefully, we can do it in the Scottish Cup.

 

“This was my first time playing at Hampden and you don’t get a bigger stage. I was grateful to get the opportu-nity but we did not do ourselves justice. We have to try to get back here and, hopefully, send the supporters back up the road happy next time.”

 

The Dons looked a defeated lot right from the off. The untested 5-4-1 formation was a calculated risk which backfired, causing confusion in the ranks and chasms in the flanks.

 

The goals were symptomatic, however, not systematic.

 

Langfield said: “We changed the system but that would be totally looking for excuses. Each player in that dressing-room knows they did not do themselves justice. We just capitulated.”

 

The test will be contract renewals, if he keeps Langfield then we know nothing is going to change.

I'm more concerned about Diamond now to be honest. I think he is indicative of a regime that has got comfortable with failure and although I always felt there was a player there waiting to get out after Saturday I think his footballing limitations and poor decision making just keep letting us down when it really matters. He needs to go now.

I think most peoples problem is not that we lost but in the way that we lost. If we had got beat 4-1 but it looked like we were even making it hard for celtic I am sure that many fans would not be as hurt as they were or are. The big problem is that we made it far too easy for them as you yourself have alluded to in your second paragraph.

Agreed. We have some serial offenders when it comes to not turning up to these games. We need to move them on from this club but that only serves to re-iterate my point that its going to take Brown time. He has at least demonstrated that he might make the right changes, unlike McGhee who failed to show a change of fortune from day 1.

Said much the same in the match thread.

 

Scottish Cup is where it's at anyway 

So you did, I didn't go near the match thread. I assumed a train wreck! Only read the one about our support and it confirmed my fears of knee-jerkville. 

I expect a virtual kicking for this post but fuck it, I'm going to post it anyway.

I am as gutted as everyone else about the way we played on Saturday, it took us 45 minutes to realise we were at a cup semi-final and there is no excusing the lack of fight that we showed in all areas of the park.

However, this is the team that 8 weeks ago was getting horsed by anyone who came up against us. We were the SPL punchbag with no confidence, an imbalanced squad and a battered support. Despite the obvious changes that Brown has made to the teams morale as well as a few personnel changes that looked to have improved things we have a long long way to go to be turning up to a semi-final and knocking out Celtic. A Celtic side who are flying, who brushed a strong Hearts side away with little effort 3 days previously. They were strong and fluid and we were nowhere near competing with them.

Just because 14,000 fans turn up to watch us, doesn't mean we become a great side as a result. We have beaten some of the poorest sides in the SPL and East Fife over the last weeks, it's improvement but people need to realise what Aberdeen FC are at the moment. We are a fragile side with a few encouraging results under our belts with a glimmer of optimism ahead. It doesn't all just change overnight and this game came too early for that team. Celtic are streets ahead of us and it showed. We just have to pick ourselves up, forget the blow it delivers and keep rebuilding. If we can keep seeing some momentum then maybe the Scottish cup becomes a more achievable goal.

SF.

LOL. Calm down folks.

Isn't na na na...a Celtic ditty ?

Problem is if you unfurled your flag and then were asked to take it down and you handed the steward a fire safety certificate which option do you think you would find as a response;

a. Oh I'm terribly sorry sir, carry on then

or

b. Just take it down and shut your mouth if you want to see the game son.

Pointless trying to get around the rules, they will either let you or not depending on how they feel and it will have fuck all to do with a fire certificate.

Any youngster on the fringes of Premiership first team would pretty much bring something to benefit us

Exactically Al. There needs to be a little calming of expectation among the support. A matter of weeks ago we were going down to Division 1, 8 weeks later we are disappointed to be getting a player who is on the fringes of a mid-table SPl side.

I just heard it was Obertan too. He's never impressed me whilst playing for Man Utd but maybe he'll do better in the SPL.

I hope you are taking the piss there mate. Obertan would piss his way through the SPL, ever day of the week.