bloo_toon_red

My thoughts on Toshney's stupid challenge aside, that's assuming Aberdeen hadn't gone on to score, which they may well have done. It's all ifs buts and maybes. Dundee FC are where they are through their own fault and nobody elses, least of all Aberdeen FC. We have our own problems to deal with. They want to pass the buck for their own situation, fuck em. That's no less than they deserve for employing a disagreeable twat as a manager. Dundee FC have gone well down in my estimation over the past few months. The boy Gardiner is using Dundee FC to raise his own profile and not much more.

Have a great night everyone going along to this. I'm not in Glasgow anymore so unfortunately wont make it but if I was I'd be there with bells on, especially given that today I have an anniversary all of my own to celebrate! Well done to Bobby for doing this, and the poster is a belter. My money's on the Dons to win in extra time. All the best for tonight.

With the U-20 season now finished, and with them having done pretty well in finishing 2nd, start McManus for the final 2 games and perhaps one or two others.

It was clearly a rash challenge from Toshney, making contact & impeding Pawlett's movement. So, both and therefore dubiety. Nobody's right and nobody's wrong. So why even bother with the 2 match ban? The whole situation stinks. There was a dive at the other end that wasn't dealt with yet because the ref makes a "mistake", Aberdeen FC and Peter Pawlett get punished. If Pawlett had been punished on the day, it'd be a yellow card and that's the end of it. Clubs and players being disproportionately punished for referees' mistakes is categorically fucked up.

Was it a foul, was it a dive, or was it both?

As the absolute most basic principle of foul play, contact has everything to do with it. Quite simply if he was fouled, which to me it looked like he was, it was a penalty, regardless of how he fell.

I hope he contests the ban. If he doesn't, his name is tarnished and he admits he's a cheat. If he does it will prove my own thoughts that contact was indeed made and it was a legitimate penalty. I'm going to support my team's player until proven otherwise.

Oh dear. The same guy that once wanted to put a hole in a Rangers player?

Rightly or wrongly, drink driving is more prevalent & socially acceptable in society (!) than what biting is. My mate is seriously hacked off that his 3 yr old son got bit in nursery a couple of months ago. That's the level of maturity you're speaking about here. Suarez can't call himself a man if he thinks he can get away with biting another. He got an eight match ban for a previous serious misdemeanour in England. It's perfectly logical that he'd get a longer ban for yet another one. Manc, I'm surprised at this coming from you, this argument is utter pish, it's his second serious offence while playing football in England, both times having carried out offences that would be unacceptable out of a football ground let alone in it. Suarez is a grade A scumbag. If he's any kind of a man and wants to earn some respect, he'll accept his punishment and come back stronger next season but the opposite applies if he chooses otherwise.

Shouldn't wait to hear about a ban, if Liverpool FC want to be seen as having any kind of morals whatsoever they should get rid of him.

I see that Donald Findlay is still a smeg breathed orange poison pusher.

It'll piss a few folk off but it's not like there's nowhere else to sit. I only ever sat up there for the atmosphere, and now that is pretty non-existent. Any reasonably-minded fan seated up there (!) will realise that it makes no financial sense for the club to keep it open. It'll take a substantial cost element away from matchday operations in terms of stewarding, catering, cleaning, security. And the club saving money has got to be seen as a good thing.

RDU ST holders supposedly receiving discounts on STs for new season. Good move by the club I say and good on them for consulting the fans.

Clubs voted for a change in voting majority from 11-1 to 9-3. There was no plan b on the table today because they've talked about it for months, filtered out the best bits from plans a-z to come up with a plan that had been agreed upon in principle by all 12 clubs until last week. It's not difficult to understand why there's anger & frustration. Stuart Gilmour's season ticket assertion is pish and is typical of why traditionalism will continue to prevail over progress. Everyone needs to get it through their heads that the new set-up is designed to reward aspirational clubs. St Mirren have just won a national club competition and yet they are looking backwards? Thank fuck I'm not a fan of that club. Doncaster definitely has to walk now. And Rangers can just get to fuck.

With specific regard to a 16 or 18 team league, the fans are categorically wrong. The very best teams have absolutely nothing to gain, learn from, or improve by playing against teams traditionally in the lower echelons of the Scottish First Division. Why, when our national team and young talent production line is at an all-time low, should we come up with a plan to prop up teams in the first division and below, and resultantly "spread the wealth"? It's a preposterous idea when you have a country that can only sustain 20 full-time clubs - and the definition of the word "sustain" is very much in question as well given the state of Hearts, Dunfermline and a few others. The 10-10 format with regional leagues below is the best option. The 12-12 is a watered-down version of it. In exactly the same way as the SPL was a watered-down version of the Scottish Super League idea first discussed in the early 1990s. Compromise isn't always a good thing. Let the SPL/SSL/whatever we decide the top division will be called simply look after itself. If the sides in the tiers below can't cut their clothm then that unfortunately is their problem. A good number of football clubs need to be left to die, and only then will Scottish Football wake up to the fact that the deep-rooted traditionalism needs to die with it. I think the only way out of this if there is a no vote is that we will see another breakaway forming. St Mirren and Ross County will be kicked out and I suspect the "rebel 10" will go their own way, maybe bringing Partick Thistle and dare I say it Old Sevconians with them.

On the BBC News website it said "LIVE: Margaret Thatcher Dies". Gutted I missed it, will there be a repeat?

This result is fitting in that it characterises the Brown reign. Rarely won a battle during his tenure, especially a game we've HAD to win, rarely score and even when a gilt-edged opportunity such as Killie failing to win their two home games against bottom-3 opposition we still go down with a whimper. If our manager was anyone other than Mr Respectable (draw your own conclusions to if that is merited), he would've been hounded out months ago. His legacy is a soft, non-scoring, ageing, profligate and unbalanced squad. He has not improved Aberdeen FC at all. He has been a monumental catastrophe for Aberdeen FC because he has not improved upon the legacy left by McGhee. Epitaph of the respectfully forgettable Craig Brown: Out with a whimper.

There are alot of very good players in the SPL who are out of contract this summer. Above and beyond that, Dunfermline released 7 players, a couple of whom I'd like us to take a look at a bit more closely. Paul Gallacher for example has signed a short-term deal with Ross Co and will be available again. I haven't seen much of him recently but I'm sure the concensus would be that he was punching well below his weight in the SFL, and I recall him being a better keeper than Langfield anyway. I'd like to see us adopt a policy of signing players under 25 unless exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise. Barry Douglas at Dundee Utd, Murray Davidson has already been mentioned, I quite like Tudur-Jones of ICT, McGowan at St Mirren, David Wotherspoon at Hibs, Chris Humphrey & Nicky Law (unlikely to leave Well for us?). Any others we should be looking at?

The whole top6/bottom6 is a real paradox this year. With Dundee Utd, Hibs & Hearts in the bottom 6 I can see us struggling whereas if we sneak into the top 6, I can see us kicking on and getting 4th place ahead of St Johnstone & Ross Co, meaning that we should be hoping that Celtic win the cup to force an extra UEFA Cup place from the league...

Like Al, I'll take this with a big pinch of salt but it has to be said, the boy is a cracking player and I'd be delighted to have him at AFC - sign him up on a long contract with a £1m release clause and I'll be happy.

The alternative solution is pretty obvious to anyone who can compare Aberdeen FC's fortunes over the last 10 years. A singing section of any kind is not the answer. Are those who sing so insecure that they're feart of offending the sweetie rustlers? The answer to that is obviously yes. The fucking fairies who suggest these things have the club they deserve.

Bardsley, Brown, Berra, Fletcher, Morrison, Fletcher all missed over last two games in my opinion. I wouldn't underestimate just how much extra Brown's industry & Morrison's creativity & intelligence brings to this team. A McFadden-shaped hole still exists in this team, here's hoping he can finish season strongly with Mwell. Whatever happened to Stephen McManus? Is the boy Martin at Norwich any good? Playing at RB every week in EPL but despite being in every squad for past 2yrs, still can't dislodge Hutton. Dixon had good debut v Serbia, certainly better performance than Mulgrew's on Sat. Caldwell, Hutton, Adam & Miller now really need to be moved aside. Hanley, McArthur, Dorrans, Burke all extremely out of their depth. I suspect Strachan is experimenting.

In my view, McInnes is only an "unexciting appointment" in considering his tenure at Bristol City a failure - the mitigating circumstances there obviously being that he had to slash the wage bill whilst keep them challenging in the Championship. I think we have got to cut him that slack, and from what I recall, even the Bristol City chairman himself acknowledged that it was an incredibly difficult job to do in what is arguably the most competitive league in the world. I don't believe for a second that any professional football club manager takes any notice of what fans say on messageboards. A handful of regular posters spouting nonsense is hardly representative of a regular hardcore of 7,000 attendees on any given Saturday. Aye, we're a dour bunch in the NE, but it's pandering to negativity to suggest that anyone would allow themselves to be put off by such nonsense. I don't understand how we define "exciting" when it comes to a managerial appointment in the middle of the worst financial crisis to hit Scottish football, exacerbated by the hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds Stewart Milne has spunked away on sacking coaching staff. Maybe a better word would be "imaginative", and then I'd understand it - I'd have liked a foreign, or modern-minded coach. But the fact we've got McInnes, who I would've been delighted to have taken from St Johnstone a couple of years ago, for nothing, represents brilliant business in my opinion. A young coach, not long retired from the game himself, who will have some modern ideas on how to coach and man-manage young players, I firmly believe his star will rise and if that happens while he is with us, then it's a win-win.

Pretty pleased with this appointment, I liked him at St J & thought he was in for a big future. Didn't work out at Bristol but it'll perhaps make him hungrier to succeed. No expectations between now & end of season where he can just set about task of working out what is dead-weight. Got a good feeling about this one, I think he's one of the most promising young Scottish managers going. Welcome aboard Del-Boy!

That was Jim McInally.