http://www.aberdeen.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=506778

 

I don't understand it. Why does a section of the Aberdeen support prefer Darren Mackie over Steve Lovell? There is no proper reason!

 

The facts are Steve Lovell is the best striker at our club, yet Calderwood doesn't play him:

 

Lovell - 0.29 goals per game

 

Mackie - 0.27 goals per game

 

Miller - 0.20 goals per game

 

Maguire - 0.09 goals per game

 

'But Lovell's goals are rubbish', I hear you cry. It's not that they're rubbish. It's that he's a natural predator that is always in the right place at the right time. Note the countless last minute winners and equalisers since he joined us.

 

He is also, to my eyes at least, the best one on one finisher. Off the top of my head, his first goal against Rangers, his last minute winner against Hearts at Tynecastle, the only goal in the 1-0 victory over Hearts at Pittodrie last season as well as the goal against Rangers in the last game of the season. You see, to finish one on ones, you need composure. This is something Darren Mackie doesn't only lack, but doesn't have. When the world is at his feet and he only has the keeper to beat, he's like a man on fire. Hibs 3-3 and Celtic 5-1 is all I'll say.

 

Lovell has played 30 and scored 5 this season. Mackie has played 26 and scored 4. What Soccerbase doesn't tell us is Lovell has played approximately 300 minutes this season, compared to Mackie's 1950.

 

Jimmy Calderwood obviously has some sort of personal vendetta against Lovell. Don't believe everything you read in the press, as they say. Well, when RedTV were doing the usual pre-match build up to a game this season which Lovell wasn't in the squad for, the commentator told us he saw Lovell in the canteen earlier in the day, when he knew he should have been on the bus on the way to the game. He asked him why he was in the canteen and Lovell replied because he wasn't picked, behind the unfit Mackie and some youth player. The next day Calderwood says in the Evening Express Lovell was struggling to shake off an injury.

 

When all you Mackie lovers know you've lost the argument, you will say 'Lovell's too lazy, Mackie gives 100% week in week out'. Well, it's not that Lovell is lazy, it's that he doesn't run about pointlessly for 90 minutes. He stands in positions where he can get the ball, and in places the ball is likely to fall to. Mackie on the other hand, is praised for defending and running about. THAT IS NOT HIS JOB. He is meant to score goals and he doesn't.

 

I just don't understand it.

 

Apart from you two needing a room, I have to say Lovell is nothing but an anti-hero used by the JMG mob, fuds, to show a level of mis management at AFC.

 

Lovell has a pea size heart.

 

Toodle pip Stevie.

 

 

 

Would that be me and Darren, me and Stevie or me and Padre 

 

 

Would that be me and Darren, me and Stevie or me and Padre 

 

 

 

Certainly not with me. I'm married. 

Certainly not with me. I'm married. 

 

Ach well it was worth a try...............

 

How is Bridget these days 

You sure? I reckon you're thinking of Robbie Winters.

 

Yip. Ebbe often played with 3 attacking players with Stavrum usually taking up position wide right.

Yip. Ebbe often played with 3 attacking players with Stavrum usually taking up position wide right.

 

He used to play up three up front, and Mackie, Winters and Stavrum interchanged a bit.  It was just like watching Barcelona! 

He used to play up three up front, and Mackie, Winters and Stavrum interchanged a bit.  It was just like watching Barcelona! 

 

Though quite often it ended up with the wide players ending up too deep due to having to track back.

His whole Aberdeen career was based on ifs, buts and maybes and neither of those three things score us goals.

 

If only Mackie was SPL-quality, he would've scored that goal

But he's not an SPL-quality striker!

Maybe if we ditched him for the first time in TEN YEARS we would have space for a striker who actually knows how to score goals ... no I don't mean off the back of his head when a keeper accidentally throws the ball against him

 

 

Basically, my point is, Lovell IS a top-quality striker. Mackie is a good sprinter who just so happens to ping the ball off his feet in whichever direction he hopes. Sometimes the ball comes off his feet and hits the net. Mostly, though, it ends up in the RDU.

 

But the sad matter of fact is, Mackie has been getting a wage from Aberdeen since July 1998 but has only scored 53 goals in that time for us in all competitions (excluding friendlies). I'm sorry, but less than a 6-goal average across all seasons is not a statistic that any striker should be proud of. Maybe a midfielder can get away with this sort of statistic. But a striker?

 

The boy just turned 28 this month. If he hasn't peaked yet, then it's time to cast him off. In my view, it was time to cast him off about six years ago. But the Pro-Mackie Brigade will no doubt shoot me down for saying this. A fully fit Lovell playing next to a fully fit Miller would, in my view, be the most potent strikeforce in Scotland.

 

Crazy idea ... what about a cheeky look at Naismith. Ever since I saw him tear us apart against Killie three years ago, I've been highly impressed with him. Cheeky as fuck. Dirty as fuck. Complete gadgie! But a bloody lethal striker. Do Rangers even know he's on their books? If not Naismith, then maybe Boyd! Both these players have more talent in their left toe than Mackie has in his entire body.

Naismith could do a better job than Lovell or Mackie, even in his current "fucked knee out for a year" state.

even in his current "fucked knee out for a year" state

 

Fucked knee? Probably still recovering from his initiation into The Stone Cutters ... err I mean his medical before signing for Rangers.

Fucked knee? Probably still recovering from his initiation into The Stone Cutters ... err I mean his medical before signing for Rangers.

 

He got done by Martin Hardie stamping on him 'accidentally' in the Scottish Cup semi.

Fucked knee? Probably still recovering from his initiation into The Stone Cutters ... err I mean his medical before signing for Rangers.

 

Dunno how, padre was telling it was a Thistle  player I think who did him and that the huns didnae get him off the park subsequent damage means he'll be out a lot longer.

 

Useless medical/physio staff at the huns too!

the huns didnae get him off the park subsequent damage means he'll be out a lot longer.

 

Useless medical/physio staff at the huns too!

 

Commonly known in sporting terms as the "Ian Durrant Manoeuvre":

Make the most out of a situation so that, in case said player can possibly recover quicker, any chances of a quick recovery are eliminated by unnoticed actions from said player's management team, physios and doctors. Said player and respective club can then spend a lifetime harking on to apparent guilty club/player for the rest of their lives about how they wrecked the prospects of "Scotland's brightest talent"