I know we originally were gonna stick with the single thread for the league cup, but Panda broke that last time out 😬

Feeling more optimistic than at the start of the week? Aye, do I think we’ll win? not convinced. I still need to watch the highlights from yesterday but by most accounts it sounded like we were decent until the final stages.
 

The new manager has them playing with a bit of confidence, but there are still weaknesses there for us to exploit. Hopefully they come at us as we definitely play better against sides that’s do. 
 

out

bed

bed

lamb and calf day 😂

2-1 dons, miovski and Clarkson 

Genuinely got a surprise there to see Marshall. He's had a very quiet day so far.

Almost embarassed to be ahead,ach well...😎

Does bojan dive yes but there’s a hand/push in the back. No reliable var review??

Edited November 4, 20232 yr by OrlandoDon

4 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Does bojan dive yes but there’s a hand/push in the back. No reliable var review??

That’s what I don’t get. I’m sure we’ve conceded pens for less.

We were very poor. Sometimes it's better to be lucky thank good. Let's hope for a hearts shock tomorrow.

11 minutes ago, manc_don said:

That’s what I don’t get. I’m sure we’ve conceded pens for less.

To be fair, we should've had one against us with roos today. It evened out.

3 minutes ago, redordead said:

To be fair, we should've had one against us with roos today. It evened out.

Agree, but this is the weekly frustration. The refereeing with the introduction of var has not helped the game. I don’t get why the bojan dive isn’t reviewed, thought var was meant to review ‘crucial’ decisions. Surely worth someone taking a second look??

god we are an awful watch most games. The result is all that matters but that was not an enjoyable game. 
stupidity on Mackenzie’s part certainly didn’t help.

28 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Does bojan dive yes but there’s a hand/push in the back. No reliable var review??

That’s a penalty in every country bar Scotland (excluding the home penalty boxes at ibrox and parkhead).

Edited November 4, 20232 yr by wee toon red

2 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Agree, but this is the weekly frustration. The refereeing with the introduction of var has not helped the game. I don’t get why the bojan dive isn’t reviewed, thought var was meant to review ‘crucial’ decisions. Surely worth someone taking a second look??

god we are an awful watch most games. The result is all that matters but that was not an enjoyable game. 
stupidity on Mackenzie’s part certainly didn’t help.

I actually thought we played a bit better after he got the red tbh. But I was being distracted a number of times. That was a turgid watch, but Bojan stepped up when we really needed him to. Could and should have doubled his count, but we got the win and defended resolutely after that. Who do we want, hearts or huns? I get the logic with hearts, but weirdly I think I’d find losing to them in a final harder. Enjoy your evening dandies, perfect start to a sunny Sunday here! 

10 minutes ago, redordead said:

To be fair, we should've had one against us with roos today. It evened out.

This is a good point, def thought it was a pen and was amazed to not see it being given.

Here’s one for the inevitable “hibs were robbed/we stole that” chat.

6 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

That’s a penalty in every country bar Scotland (excluding the home penalty boxes at ibrox and parkhead).

It despises me to say it but do we need to hound and surround the ref on every decision like that until a second look is taken, or the game gets delayed long enough that someone checks and relays info to the ref??

About as subdued as it can be after a semi final win.Not sure what it was about us.Set up similar to Wednesday,but we were all over the place til we scored. Maybe nerves,first big pressure game for a few guys? Semi finals are often eye bleeding watches,can only hope weve got that out our system and step up to the plate for the final, certainly should quell any over confidence.

   Think playing the Huns in the final,as underdogs might suit us better

Edited November 4, 20232 yr by Elgindon

1 hour ago, wee toon red said:

That’s a penalty in every country bar Scotland (excluding the home penalty boxes at ibrox and parkhead).

And Hampden when either of the cheeks are to be advantaged.

Radio mentioned something about roos clearing out a hibs player but VAR didnt check.
Nothing in the youtube highlights (neither is the Miovski 'dive'

Questionable goalkeeping by Marshall IMO. He falls onto his knees as opposed to leaning back and sticking out his left leg. 

And in great 'kiss of death' commentry moments we have John Collins about 1min before the goal - 'Its only a matter of time' (in relation to hibs scoring)

Highlight here 

 

That was a hard watch. Thank fuck for Miovski. I really cannot see him being with us past January. Far too good for our league. No idea how he did not get a penalty. He did go over easily but player also pushed him. 
 

VAR as Orlando said brings nothing to our game. 
 

Going to go against the grain and say I thought we managed the game fairly well.  We absolutely conceded territory to them for large spells and were outplayed for the first 15 mins of the second half but aside from that I felt we kept them at arms length fairly well.  It wasn't a classic but we created the best chance of rhe game and stuck it away.   4 games in 9 days is a tough ask in any league especially when only one has been at home. The team deserves a lot credit for getting it the job done today imo.  

I think would rather the huns in the final, we both have a euro game the Thursday before and they are away to betis which will be tough for them.  Hearts would be all kinds of fresh and well prepared in comparison. 

 

 

Just back. Nearly blew it with that team selection, but got away with it. Absolutely zero need to take Barron back into the side, and completely upset the balance of the midfield. We were all over the shop until Polvara came on and just did the simple thing of holding position, exactly as he has done each time he's played. Barron is a fantastic player, but him and Clarkson are interchangeable in that setup, not mutual. We don't need to have all our best players on the pitch at once in order to have the best team, it was really naive. If it hadn't been for the shoulder offside nonsense, we'd have deservedly been going home losers. We started to come into it after the sub and then the shape pretty much remained after the yellow. Miovski is just immense, brilliant first touch and finish. No real standouts today, maybe Rubezic and McGrath. Great result and hopefully something we can learn from. Fair play to Robson for doing the right thing in bringing on Polvara, and not Duk or some other nonsense. Probably should have happened sooner, but he'd backed himself into a corner with the initial selection a little. Reckon we should have enough to beat hearts in the final.

Agree with TLG. We have struggled with the fixture congestion. Shinnie said afterwards they were still focussed on the Motherwell game til Thursday morning. And 4 games in 9 days, as well as being away from families and living in hotels for so long, it can't be easy for them

However I am struggling to understand why Robson isn't even giving fringe and bench players much of a go. Gueye, Sokler, Dadia, MacDonald, even Vinny could do with an extended run to give them competitive game time. It would also give the likes of Miovski a rest - the boy has some engine, but spotting him clutching his hamstring in this game is a worry and a sign that he's in need of a rest 

5 hours ago, wee toon red said:

That’s a penalty in every country bar Scotland (excluding the home penalty boxes at ibrox and parkhead).

I mean, technically you're right as it was IN Scotland, but are we forgetting the foreign ref and VAR who didn't give us a penalty v PAOK?

5 hours ago, manc_don said:

MI get the logic with hearts, but weirdly I think I’d find losing to them in a final harder.

2 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

 

I think would rather the huns in the final, we both have a euro game the Thursday before and they are away to betis which will be tough for them.  Hearts would be all kinds of fresh and well prepared in comparison. 

I'd be more nervous about a final v Hearts as they'll rub it in our face for years if they win, Rangers won't.

And like TLG says, they have a free week while we'll have Frankfurt to contend with.

However, the flip side is Hearts at their best aren't Rangers at their best. We'd also get a 50/50 split v Hearts, we won't against Rangers. 

I'm pretty easy about it all. The only finals I've seen us win in person was v Dundee and Inverness, and if we win it this year it'll trump both those finals easily, no matter who we beat to win it.

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Just back. Nearly blew it with that team selection, but got away with it. Absolutely zero need to take Barron back into the side, and completely upset the balance of the midfield.

That was my fault, I pushed for Barron to play.

But, I disagree. I just think Clarkson didn't need to keep coming so deep. He was picking the ball up in the wrong areas.

I also thought McGrath and Miovski were too deep. We were just too congested. You do that to make yourself hard to break down, but actually Hibs got in behind us pretty easily.

I don't think Polvara coming on - which meant we had the same line-up v Motherwell - changed the game or made us play any better. 

Edited November 5, 20232 yr by Panda

As an aside, like I said before the game, I didn't actually go as a 'fan', was working, although was pleasantly surprised my ticket was in the Aberdeen half of Hampden.

Anyway, to interview the players you have to go downstairs to a mixed zone area which is right next to the dressing rooms. You could hear the singing from the Dons dressing room, place was bouncing.

Needless to say, I've asked for the final off. As fun as it was getting to interview Shinnie and Roos and tell them how magnificent they both are, my nerves couldn't take working a final, will be right in the middle of the Dons end for that one.

Dunno if this video will work, but full-time celebrations (not the dressing room!):-

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Panda said:

That was my fault, I pushed for Barron to play.

But, I disagree. I just think Clarkson didn't need to keep coming so deep. He was picking the ball up in the wrong areas.

I also thought McGrath and Miovski were too deep. We were just too congested. You do that to make yourself hard to break down, but actually Hibs got in behind us pretty easily.

I don't think Polvara coming on - which meant we had the same line-up v Motherwell - changed the game or made us play any better

You're right, it was your fault. Clarkson was always going to come deep and it looked like Robson didn't really mind, thinking that we could fluidly switch Barron and Clarkson throughout, which we couldn't. The congestion was inevitable and it was fairly clear that it would be. What it also did was make each midfielder do twice the work on the big Hampden pitch during a period of heavy fixture congestion, and we nearly paid a price for it. The other issue is that if you try and get Clarkson to play with the discipline required in that shape (i.e. not to come deep), then it nullifies the best parts of his game. It might have been coincidence that we had a good spell of possession between Polvara coming on and McKenzie being sent off (really not enough time to validate), but Clarkson immediately became involved in the game in a good sense and I doubt the disciplined lines of four when we went to ten would have been possible with Clarkson wide right. Barron or Clarkson are the fresh legs we need to come on and win us games when one or the other is failing, or McGrath is struggling (Clarkson can play the forward midfield role in a 4-2-3-1 on his own very well if we need to keep him and Barron on). It's harsh on Barron, but not as harsh as having him start in a poor setup and playing crap for 60 minutes. We've got two fantastic young players who we can rotate in and out without much loss of ability, it's exactly the type of squad rotation we've been crying out for.

As an aside to Panda's aside, I genuinely didn't give a fuck whether their goal was offside or not by the time it was disallowed. Three and a half minutes to draw lines? It was a good goal, deserved and a result of poor defending (nobody claimed for offside so it wasn't like it was a deliberate trap), that should have stood. Offside by a shoulder has never been a thing in the history of fitba, it's absolute garbage. The shitey fake panto of winding up the opposition when they get their goal disallowed is cringey as fuck, and I was basically waiting for our goal to be disallowed for a foul in the build up. It reeks of pish.

Aye agreed on the whole offside thing.

VAR is supposed to be for clear and obvious stuff. ie if a penalty has been awarded and a replay shows it wasn't a foul, or someone punches the ball in the net.

Boyle's fingernail being offside isn't really gaining an advantage.

My sympathies with Hibs and all we can do to make up for this is beat Hearts in the final. We'll do it for you Hibs ✊🏻

34 minutes ago, Panda said:

Aye agreed on the whole offside thing.

VAR is supposed to be for clear and obvious stuff. ie if a penalty has been awarded and a replay shows it wasn't a foul, or someone punches the ball in the net.

Boyle's fingernail being offside isn't really gaining an advantage.

My sympathies with Hibs and all we can do to make up for this is beat Hearts in the final. We'll do it for you Hibs ✊🏻

Here’s my question, if it’s clear and obvious so many var reviews shouldn’t take place. Scotland v Spain and mctomminay’s freekick, clear and obvious? What is the definition of clear and obvious?

I think most penalty appeals should be reviewed, not so much a game stoppage but the twat in the booth can replay and quickly say hold on to the ref if the game needs stopped. Have yet to see the hibs claim with Roos yesterday but that and our claim, which I feel is a definite penalty, are huge parts of the game. I thought that was var’s purpose, to ensure big decisions aren’t missed. What we are seeing are goals being allowed/disallowed that are not clear/obvious, yet penalty appeals, and we seem to have suffered a few of late, don’t even get checked and they have a major influence on the outcome.

Ultimately, I think var has led to more confusion than clarity, and has had a clear influence in games. We say refs should play a big part in the outcome, yet var is clearly doing that now.