Nicholl fires Dons warning shot

It is not about axeing or rotating, it is about picking a side which can win, says assistant manager

 

By Michael Gannon

 

Published: 01/10/2008

 

Wielding the axe or player rotation – the Aberdeen squad has been warned no one is assured of a place for Saturday’s crucial SPL match against Hibs at Pittodrie.

 

Dons manager Jimmy Calderwood left Charlie Mulgrew, Sone Aluko and Gary McDonald out of his starting line-up in the 3-2 defeat at Parkhead in the aftermath of Aberdeen’s League Cup exit at Kilmarnock four days earlier.

 

Defender Lee Mair and midfielders Stuart Duff and Derek Young came in and impressed in the narrow defeat.

 

With captain Scott Severin expected to recover from the shin injury which took him out of Saturday’s match, there are tough decisions ahead for the Dons management team.

 

Defeat by Hibs at Pittodrie is unthinkable for Aberdeen. It would make it five straight losses and a failure to win in their first five home fixtures of the season.

 

The pressure on manager Calderwood is building but his assistant, Jimmy Nicholl, said: “The players know the team is picked for a reason.

 

“There are better players at bigger clubs than ourselves who go through the same thing. They have to take it and get on with it.

 

“If you tell the players we are going to operate a rotational system, they accept it and do not bang on the door demanding a game on the Friday.

 

“It is not about axeing or rotating, it is about picking a side which can win matches.

 

“Jimmy dropped Gary McDonald against Celtic because he likes to bomb forward and it can leave Mark Kerr a bit exposed at times.

 

“You cannot afford that at Celtic. Charlie Mulgrew can have no qualms about being left out of the starting XI but he came off the bench and scored two, although he got caught out by failing to stop a couple of crosses.

 

“Then there is the likes of Sone Aluko, who has great quality, but sometimes you feel he is more suited to playing at home. When you play Hibs you have to contend with their diamond formation in midfield.

 

“You have to decide whether to stick to your 4-4-2 or do you adapt to cope with their formation? We coped well with Hibs last season.â€

 

While Severin is hopeful, attacker Jamie Smith and defender Andrew Considine are less than certain to return.

 

Smith met club doctors yesterday to assess his calf injury, while Considine failed to train yesterday due to his shoulder complaint.

 

The duo are unlikely to be risked if not 100% fit, especially with the international break giving them another two weeks to recover after this weekend’s match.

Its always the bald South Stand linesmen that are the worst.

 

Is he not the same cunt the a few years back chalked off our last minute equalizer at Tynecastle when, Steven Craig I think it was scored. Hated him ever since that day.

 

EDIT: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/4214187.stm was this game.

When you think of the hu-hah that surrounded the CORRECT decision against Rangers in the media - "Rangers robbed", etc - when in fact Boyd was offside and correctly flagged as such - then we get that abortion of a referee decision yesterday - is the media going mental - is it fu(k.

 

Mike McCurry, I wish your mother had aborted you.

How the hell the linesman on the Main Stand side got to officiate in the SPL ill never know, he wasnt good enough to look after a kids 5 a side match let alone anything else

 

Nish in the first half was almost inside Alukos shirt right infront of him and yet he still didnt wave his wee flag.

 

Infact it would be interesting to see how many times he did make a decision at all.

At one point there was a challenge on the line and it went out for a throw in, right in front of him and he looked across the pitch towards McFuddy to see which way it was to go

 

A joke of a linesman

 

 

As for the game, I actually left Pittodrie yesterday gutted that we had been mugged as I felt we were by far the better side ( with exception to 10 mins in the 1st half and 5 mins or so after Mulgrew was sent off), their keeper made countless saves to keep them in it and maybe if Mackie and Maguire had some shooting practice they might have found the net

 

Guys round about me in the Main Stand ( I had couple complimentary tickets) were all calling for JC to go blah blah but personally I thought the only thing I could fault him for yesterday was hooking Hodgkiss as him and Foster kept rentboy pretty quiet for most of the match and minutes after Hodgkiss goes off they break down that side for what turned out to be the winner

 

JC did yesterday what we all wanted to see in playing certain players and playing them in their proper positions.

 

As for Mulgrews red, (Nish I think maybe Fletcher) was clearly offside so there shouldnt have been a chance for the shot in plus where I was it looked to me like it hit Mulgrew on the shoulder after a deflection, hardly a penalty and a red card 

See these officials

 

do they have to ..lets say do CPD like most professionals?

or perhaps retake the tests each year like Pilots?

 

or is it a case of pass once and then away ya go?

Think some of them must get their license on ebay

Right on the button Kow, we wiz robbed but we had how many one on ones wi a dodgy keeper and effectively fucked them all up.

 

Ref=cunt

Linesman=total cunt  Have we had a few issues wi this cunt before?

 

Kerr and Seve looked pretty good in the middle, the defence still looked edgy but much improved, Miller did pretty well but was getting dragged too deep for my liking, although this could very well have been to make space for Mackie, who was horrendous but did work like fuck.

 

Foster and Maguire, dear fuck.

 

Agree with all of this,  The only real problem for us on saturdy was that our strikers are utter, utter pish.  Our backline did ok and our midfield didnt look like the complete strangers they did the first couple of games.  However. JC made a couple of hnges before the sending off and we were not as effective going forward. That to me is a worry.

 

So much fo the transparency with officials we were meant to hae.  I said to the boys before the game when I saw "that cunt" mccurries name that we would get fuck all out the game

I said to the boys before the game when I saw "that cunt" mccurries name that we would get fuck all out the game

 

We got a penalty which wasn't one.  But so did they.

We got a penalty which wasn't one.  But so did they.

 

Haven't seen any highlights but it looked clear cut for ours. It brought to an end a great move, one of the very few in the game.

would get fuck all out the game

 

As a whole Mizer. 

 

We can have all the posssesion in the world, but if Mackie canna hit a coos arse with a banjo, then we are gonna keep losing games horribly.

 

Him and Bebo can fuck right off.

Haven't seen any highlights but it looked clear cut for ours. It brought to an end a great move, one of the very few in the game.

 

Go watch them then, Miller gets infront of Bamba, but bamba would have intercepted the ball, they collide and for some nice reason the ref gives a pen.

 

Go watch them then, Miller gets infront of Bamba, but bamba would have intercepted the ball, they collide and for some nice reason the ref gives a pen.

 

 

The most ridiculous post of the week. I know it's just Monday but it's that bad it will stand the test of time.

Haven't seen any highlights but it looked clear cut for ours. It brought to an end a great move, one of the very few in the game.

 

Seen both highlights and real time, never any doubt from either. The highlights only showed how bad a decision it was that Bamba was not even booked. It would perhaps have been harsh to send him off (I don't subscribe to that either) but surely even a booking FFS!

The most ridiculous post of the week. I know it's just Monday but it's that bad it will stand the test of time.

 

Yes almighty one you are correct as per usual...........

 

I can watch highlights too and its not a penalty.

Yes almighty one you are correct as per usual...........

 

I can watch highlights too and its not a penalty.

 

Anyone else think it wasn't?

Anyone else think it wasn't?

 

I thought i was a penalty, after seeing the highlights i still do, even though the commentry seems to say it was soft

Stonewaller, and should have been a red card. 

I will try and explain it from the way I see it.

 

Both players are going for the ball, and Bamaba was in-front of Miller and would have got there first due to the angle and pace of the ball. Miller does cut across and get his right leg in front of Bamabas left leg and Bamba then goes into him and they go down.

 

I presume the way you see it is that Miller got in front and Bamba hit his leg, but the way I see it was that Bamaba was tripped by Millers leg.

 

I'm not complaining that it was a pen, but both players were trying their hardest to get the ball and a accidental collision happened. Don't know when accidental collisions became red card offences either......

 

I'm not complaining that it was a pen, but both players were trying their hardest to get the ball and a accidental collision happened. Don't know when accidental collisions became red card offences either......

 

But the ref doesn't see it as an accidental collision, or if he did he still deems that he's unfairly impeded the other player. Whether Bamba meant to bring him down or not isn't really important. The fact is he did bring him down and it was surely denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

But the ref doesn't see it as an accidental collision, or if he did he still deems that he's unfairly impeded the other player. Whether Bamba meant to bring him down or not isn't really important. The fact is he did bring him down and it was surely denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

 

Is the correct answer.

 

Had this "accident" happened in the middle of the park it would have been a free kick.

But the ref doesn't see it as an accidental collision, or if he did he still deems that he's unfairly impeded the other player. Whether Bamba meant to bring him down or not isn't really important. The fact is he did bring him down and it was surely denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

 

Im nae even going to try and work out what that cunt McCurry was thinking  

Im nae even going to try and work out what that cunt McCurry was thinking  

 

It was one of the few big decisions he got correct.

Right on the button Kow, we wiz robbed but we had how many one on ones wi a dodgy keeper and effectively fucked them all up.

 

Ref=cunt

Linesman=total cunt  Have we had a few issues wi this cunt before?

 

Kerr and Seve looked pretty good in the middle, the defence still looked edgy but much improved, Miller did pretty well but was getting dragged too deep for my liking, although this could very well have been to make space for Mackie, who was horrendous but did work like fuck.

 

Foster and Maguire, dear fuck.

 

 

Agree with this almost completely. I thought Foster looked much better in RM rather than RB. Maguire however.. is a waste of space. Can't believe we turned down £300k for him.

It's a penalty and a red card, or it's play on - how the fu(k the ref gives a pen and no card at all is beyond me - and what's more beyond the rules.

 

If he thinks it's an accidental collision, it's not a pen - just play on, if he thinks it's a foul, then it's a goal scoring chance (1-1 with a keeper is a clear goalscoring chance) so it's red and off.

 

That combined with the complete joke of a decision in the second half - I cannot believe there has not been more made of how poor a decision it is - Mike McCurry and that linesman should be banned from SPL games for a long while after their performance on Sat.

 

They get paid to do that job - and were almost on strike cos they don't get enough !??!!??!?!??!?

 

I cannot believe what a joke the SPL has become.

Just saw it again on the telly, and yes, its still the same - its a tangle of legs, not a pen!

Just saw it again on the telly, and yes, its still the same - its a tangle of legs, not a pen!

 

Still haven't seen it on telly but I don't need a replay to tell me that almost everybody, no, everybody, thinks you may be mistaken.