A day of the week

Ah yes, an old firm double header. Celtic well and truly dispatched. Up next, the other half of the ugly sisters! I'm up bright and early.... on a Saturday too. I am supposedly meeting a friend for a nice sociable breakfast as he's off to the Cove game later in the day. I meander up town on what turns out to be a frosty spring morning only to have my phone ring as i'm almost there. The Cove game is off. Bastard. Never mind, I buy some things I don't need and head on back towards my flat.

As I head closer to Pittodrie I notice the unwashed have already started to arrive (and it's only 10.30am). The union jacks, the lack of dental hygiene, not to mention simple soap and water give away the game. All the usual ingredients are in place.

Once everyone arrives we meander towards the stadium, walking past the hordes of weegie zombies on the way, avoiding their grating accents and bleating for 'any spare tickets pal, by the way etc'. They drive past in buses banging on the windows like caged animals, the gutter trash of society without a doubt.

And so, to the game itself.... Boyd is dropped for the Huns. HOORAY! They are only playing 1 up front? HOORAY! They are surely there for the taking? An early free kick. Up steps Mulgrew, great strike, it looks in. No, saved by the self proclaimed ladies man. ANNNNNNNNNND.... that's it for the first half. Seriously dull stuff. 0-0 written all over it.

The second half was much the same affair. The only thing of note that happened was the usual Rangers clobbering of our keeper (this time by that headless chicken Kenny Miller). Bossu had to come on and coped well against a very poor Rangers team.
Rangers struck the post through the gap toothed spanish gypsy and Mackie missed a great chance from a Mulgrew freekick floated into the box. That was pretty much it.

Still, 4 points from the old firm in 2 weeks, I think everyone and anyone would have taken that beforehand.

And in other amazing news, all 6 season ticket holders were in attendance. Stone the crows!

Up next, Falkirk away. If we have any aspirations of getting third spot we must keep up our recent good run of form.

Well. What can I say? That was a turn up for the books! 4 goals (yes, I did just say that) against the Tims. When was the last time that happened? Frank McDougal. He scored all 4 that day... we spread them out a little yesterday though (it would be rude not to).

I was confident all week that we'd get some sort of result in this game. I thought perhaps a sneaky 1-0 or 2-1 win given the decent run of form we'd been on of late. We almost got a full turnout of season tickets too.... almost. 5 of the ticket owners present.... one day it'll happen, perhaps the Rankgers game next Saturday.

So, we head down towards the stadium, past the hordes of weird looking people with no teeth, weird shaped faces and an even weirder dress sense. A motley crew and no mistake. Once the stench had left my nostrils I grabbed myself a chicken pie and a wee bovril to ward off the cold and took my seat... ready for a routine Dons win... or something along those lines.

The first 10 minutes did not look good for us. Celtic were all over us. Oh dear. Slowly but surely we worked ourselves into the game however. Aluko in particular was menacing down the left and whipping in some wonderful crosses (more on that aspect of the game later).

We finally took the lead around the half hour mark with a wonderful goal from Gary McDonald. The ball broke to Duff on the left wing, he turned well and put a great ball towards the back post, McDonald pulled off his marker and planted a great header beyond Brown into the top corner. No chance. YES!

Oh wait... but it's Celtic. I forgot. Straight up the park. Goal for Brown. Dreadful marking. Jesus wept... we've seen this before all too often. Time to roll up the sleeves and get on with it.

But wait... hark, what's this? 2-1 the Dons! A wonderful ball from Kerr, the Celtic defence are static and in steps an unmarked Duff to volley past a helpless Brown in the Celtic goal. First Dons goal for the local boy, and what a cracker to open his account. Half time, all is well.

Into the second half, and what do we do? You guessed it. Sit deep and defend our lead. BIG mistake, especially against Celtic. They throw everthing at us, and what happens? You guessed it. Equaliser, Scott McDonald (the swine). Here we go, a late Celtic winner, just like at Parkhead earlier in the year.

We seem to be made of sterner stuff right now however. We seem to roll our sleeves up and go for it. And it pays off, big style. A free kick is whipped in by Mulgrew and Diamond throws himself headfirst at it and the ball arrows into the top corner. Then the ref blows for a foul on Mackie. Then it's disallowed. Then it's a penalty to us. No wait, it's a goal! Come on Dons, hold on for a well deserved 3 points.

A minute later. Free kick (again). Whipped in by Mulgrew (again). Diamond at the back post (again). GOAL! (again) 4-2 Aberdeen. Cue mad celebrations. I think we ended up about 2 rows down when that 4th goal went in. Absolutely amazing. Only one team was winning from that point on.

On watching the post match analysis when I got home one thing struck me. Gordon Strachan comes across as a bitter, bitter man. He can never hold his hands up and admit his team were well beaten on the day. All rubbish goals apparently, the pitch was useless too apparently. His glib remarks that used to be funny and refreshing when he was managing in England do little now to hide the fact he's struggling under the pressure of managing a big team. In fact they are no longer even funny, he just comes across as an arse.

All in all a wonderful day. Re-live it here in all it's glory. Roll on next Saturday and Rangers at Pittodrie. It's about time we pulled off an old firm double. Lets hope the boys (and the fans) are up for it. Until then....

ONE LEE MILLER, THERE'S ONLY ONE LEE MILLER, ONE LEEEEE MILLLLLERRRRRRR, THERE'S ONLY ONE LEE MILLER! Yes, Big Lee does it yet again! Kilmarnock away. The last time there we got royally humped in the CIS cup, with the mighty Bertie Bassett (sorry Bossu) in between the sticks. Surely time for revenge?

Again, a radio job for me. A round trip to Kilmarnock on a Tuesday night really didn't grab me by the cockles. Still, I had a few informants at the game to keep me up to speed. Now, a nice bright start will do nicely, keep it tight.... oh dear, 1-0 to Killie 10 minutes in.

SHITE!!! Ah well, that's us done, we'll never come back from that were my immortal words. What's that you say? 1-1 Lee Miller. Surely not! See, I always knew we'd come back from 1-0 down. What did I tell you?

Into the second half and another magnificent goal (which turned out to be the winner) from a man on a red hot run of form. He can do no wrong right now. Let's hope he keeps up this goal scoring record against the old firm in the forthcoming matches.

2-1 Aberdeen. Final score. Match reaction and highlights are available here. Backs to the wall for the last 20 minutes or so, with a few chances for Kilmarnock to equalise but a great away win in the end. And more importantly, up into the European places with everything to play for in the remainder of the season.

In saying this, holding on to Lee Miller is vital in order that this becomes a reality. Unless someone comes in with a 'silly money' bid, we really must keep hold of our top scorer and best player. The club need to show a level of ambition and show we are not there to sell a player as soon as the first offer comes in (Russell Anderson anyone?). Especially to Rangers, which would be a bad move for Miller. He wants European football, and if we continue playing in this manner, it is a certainty for next season. Keeping this squad together and adding to it, rather than losing some of our best assets, should be the priority. To be fair to Willie Miller and Jimmy Calderwood, they have come out and said he is going nowhere and even Big Lee himself has said he's settled and enjoying his football. But then it is football.... who knows what will happen in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space.

Up next, Celtic. At Pittodrie. About time we beat them up here. Can't wait!

Well.... sort of. Certainly a potential banana skin to avoid! Something which we haven't been very successful at in recent cup 'runs'. Alloa Athlectic away, on their mighty synthetic surface. Over the course of the match build up Jimmy has maligned it saying it was a disgrace, then that it was better than expected. And after the game itself proclaimed it 'a leveller'. What. The. Fuck. Are. You. On. About. Jimmy?

Still, a 3,000 sellout and a good soaking for the Dons fans on the terraces due to the abysmal weather!

The match itself? As I wasn't there, I can't really put forth much of a review. By the sounds of things on the radio and in the press, we started the game brightly, culminating in a deflected opener by man of the moment Lee Miller from a MaGuire shot.

After that? What do you think? The usual... we sit back, ask them to come at us, and lose a bizarre equaliser just before half time. Alloa have the ball in the net, the ref then disallows it, then awards them a penalty, which is then delayed due to rolls of ticket tape being launched onto the pitch by the Dons fans behind the goal.

All is well shortly after the break as Sone Aluko scores what proves to be the winner. Cue a few anxious moments before the final whistle, but we've scraped through and more importantly have a home tie for once in the next round (against East Fife).


On another note, congratulations to 'Handsome Lee' for picking up the player of the month award. Well deserved for the big man and hopefully the rumors of imminent bids for him from The scum, Leeds and Norwich are well off the mark. If they are true, nothing less than £2M should be accepted for a man at the very top of his game.

Next up? It's back to league business tonight.... Kilmarnock away in a rearranged fixture from the end of last year. Win this and we're up to 4th. We won't blow it. Will we? Till tomorrow......

Ahhhh, the festive period. A time of sex, drugs and rock and roll (wait, did I get that right?). Anyway, none of those were forthcoming for me, unless you count Guitar Hero on the PS3 as RnR?

So between the hangovers and illnesses of the festive period i've neglected to keep up to date with my Dons thoughts and gripes. 3 games to catch up on, and for once it's MOSTLY positive (note I said mostly). I'll keep it short and to the point.

Now.... the first game to catch up on wasssssss.......... let me think. It was so long ago. Hmmmm. Inverness away, just before Christmas. To cut a long story short, we hammered them 3-0. Goals from Miller, McDonald and Mackie (all mightily impressive I may add). I listened to it on the radio as I had a stinking hangover.

Next up, Hearts, on the 27th. Pretty much a sell-out at Todders. And for once, we didn't blow it! Excellent atmosphere, a match we were never in danger of losing and an absolutely terrific winner from 'Handsome Lee'. Player of the season by a country mile for me so far. And I must add, I hate Hearts, bunch of cheating scum. Berra, die!

That brings us up to the most recent game. Hamilton away. I must profess I didn't even contemplate going. And switched off the radio as soon as we lost the first goal. I have no idea how the game panned out apart from the score... a 2-0 defeat. Terrible stuff. I don't really want to know how it went (all I heard about was a flu outbreak and a narrowed pitch), but if you are so inclined, the match reaction can be found here.

Next up it's a cup weekend. Alloa away. After this latest disaster lets hope we pick ourselves up and push on the cup. It's been LONG overdue.

Half season review. B-. Stop losing stupid games. Arghhh. No wonder my hair is falling out.