Hibs Archives - Aberdeen Voice

No Place like Home: Dons 2 Hibs 1

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Sep 302012

Andrew Watson celebrates a victory at Pittodrie.

I was still devouring my Smarties cookie ( not courtesy of Todder’s rip-off refreshments counter … my pal, meanwhile, mid-bite, had a Pittodrie Pie in his moo – watch out, Angus!), having barely sat down, when Aberdeen opened the scoring against vistors Hibernian.

Vernon, fresh from proving his worth as ‘super sub’ with a late winner at East End Park in the League Cup earlier this week, sensed blood; looking set to beat the keeper – and was thwarted. But not to worry, Niall McGinn slotted home the rebound!

1-0 …

… sorry, still rustling my sweetie wrappers!

As an aside to the proceedings, and having returned to the Merkland Stand after a one game stint in the Dick Donald monolith, the atmosphere on our patch was loud.

Kids! At least they do you proud, chanting in remarkably broad Doric (as if the chest couldn’t heave heartily enough), “Aberdeen!” as fervently as the Kincorth youth used to – apparently – extol the virtues of the Labour Party on the streets at election time (the SNP sensing, over the course of time, that support for independence was improving as the stones thrown their way got smaller).

Hopefully their dedication, as young troops of the Red Army, wills on the weary legs of our industrious young midfield maverick Fraser, who took the sort of hiding you’d expect to result in a straight red card.

Ah well, yellow better than nothing. Needless to say, that very challenge was probably the reason for Fraser’s second half exit, replaced by Irishman Magennis after fifty-four minutes.

However, having managed to restrict my naming of Motherwell players to just one famous son last weekend, an earlier instance, in the thirty-third minute, necessitates a mention for one particular Hibee.

Striker Eoin Doyle’s goal, hammered into the net from twenty-two yards catching goalkeeping League Cup hero Langfield unawares, courtesy of a deft turn that left Reynolds in the shade of the South Stand, is something to behold. You might catch it on the BBC website, if you’re … ahem … sadomasochistic enough to want to watch it!

1-1

Some tense stuff, at both ends, before the end of the first, and commencement of the second, half.

About fourteen minutes into the last forty-five, with Fraser swapped for Magennis, Aberdeen were now pressing for a second, decisive goal.

The added physical bulk (as tough a mite midfielder Fraser is) in the last third was hopefully going to be the difference between half-chances and a winning goal. Ideally ‘goals’ plural – but hey, we’ll take anything at this point!

After some hard work, and some hairy moments in the ‘wrong’ half, Magennis unlocked a besieged, but stubborn Hibs defence with a low cross scrambled into the net by Gavin Rae after seventy-one minutes.

2-1!

A subsequent substitution for the Hibees five minutes later also threatened to make an impact upon the score-line, again in the ‘wrong’ half!

Reynolds, at fault for Doyle’s super strike, caught wasting time claiming offside, redeemed himself with a fine goal line clearance – Langfield having been already beaten.

The welcome return of midfielder Milsom, in for Vernon at the ninetieth minute, added padding to the middle of the park, stifling Hibs in typical Aberdeen fashion. That being not very well, sometimes!

Credit where credit’s due, the backline of Anderson, Reynolds, Jack and – I can’t believe I’m saying this – Considine, availed themselves for the majority of the game.

However Langfield, at one point totally exposed by lax marking, must have counted his, albeit mixed, blessings when a Hibs ‘hotshot’ proceeded to blooter the ball well over the bar. Rugby, anyone?”

Final score: 2-1.

So, Craig Brown has achieved a winning display at home. Unusually enough, a home win has proven more elusive than an away win with points taken from St Johnstone a few weeks earlier. We did it!

One can’t help but feel – how shall we put it – guarded optimism about this team and the season ahead. Hopefully a League, or Scottish, Cup Final? The tenacity is there to progress and winning ugly seems to me, on the whole, to be a good sign. Hopefully, moreover, we’ll get some silverware?

Second place in the league, too?

Definitely getting ahead of myself!

Dons Announce Ticket Details For Semi-Final

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Mar 222012

With thanks to Dave Macdermid.

Tickets for the Dons Scottish Cup semi-final against Hibernian at Hampden on Saturday 14th April (12.15 pm kick-off) will go on sale online and at Pittodrie Stadium to season ticket holders and shareholders (those with a minimum of 260 from the original allocation) from 9 am this Saturday 24th March, with a maximum of two tickets per eligible supporter. The ticket office will close at 5.30 p.m.

These top priority groups will have until close of business (5 p.m.) on Saturday 31st March to purchase their tickets with a general sale operating from 9 a.m. on Monday 2nd April.

Aberdeen have been given an initial allocation of 12,500 tickets with prices for the North Stand being £23 for adults. The Club has also been allocated the West Stand with prices at £15 for adults and £5 for Under 16’s in the family section. Postal applications will be accepted.

Supporters are also urged to retain their tickets from the SPL match against Inverness Caley Thistle on the 24th March, the game with Dundee United on Saturday 7th April and post-split home games as, in the event of Aberdeen reaching the final, a voucher system will operate.

In light of the early kick off, Pittodrie Stadium will be closed on Saturday 14th April.

For info – Dave Macdermid – 07710 580148 – dave.macdermid@bigpartnership.co.uk

Aberdeen 4 Dunfermline 0 – Pittodrie Stadium 30/9/11

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Oct 012011

A Scott Vernon hat-trick sent Aberdeen on the way to doubling their SPL goal tally for the season, and in truth the Dons could and should have scored more as they finally clicked in the final third. Vernon’s main challenger for the man of the match award was Pars goalkeeper Paul Gallacher, who pulled off a string of fantastic saves to keep the score down. In addition to his saves the home side hit the woodwork four times and Rory Fallon missed an open goal. Philip Sim reports from Pittodrie.

At long last, Aberdeen looked hungry for goals and showed a more ruthless up front. Many pundits have claimed Vernon and Rory Fallon are too similar to play together, but they showed in this game that they can operate effectively as a partnership.

Fallon is a traditional target man, winning flicks and holding the ball up, whilst Vernon, freed of this responsiblity, is allowed to play in his preferred role facing the goal.
After his first goal he was also playing with real confidence, and looked a completely different player to the isolated and frustrated Vernon of a few weeks ago.

The whole team seemed buoyed by the goals, Rob Milsom and Fraser Fyvie in particular each having their best game of the season.

Milsom was everywhere, buzzing about making passes and penetrating runs, and he was denied the goal his performance deserved by another fine Gallacher save.

The foundation for the win was in the midfield – Kari Arnason and Isaac Osbourne ran Dunfermline ragged, winning every ball in the air and on the deck, giving Milsom and Fyvie more freedom to push forward and create. Dunfermline actually started the game with a five-man midfield, but were so beleaguered from the outset that holding midfielder Andy Dowie was substituted in the first half.

On the rare occasion that the ball made it past the midfield, Andy Considine and Youl Mawene dealt with the threat easily. Considine has really come into his own this season, perhaps thanks to having the composed, experienced head of Mawene next to him.

Mawene and Considine for the most part managed the defence on their own, allowing full-backs Ryan Jack and Ricky Foster to go forward almost constantly on the overlap. Their pace and drive added much-needed width to the side, in support of the central midfielders, Milsom and Fyvie, deployed on the wings.

Foster had an excellent game. Hopefully this performance – combined with the defeats against East Fife and Motherwell – will have convinced Craig Brown that he needs to use his captain at the left full-back position rather than further up the field. Foster is so quick he can be an attacking player even while covering the defence at full-back, and he plays by far his best football from there.

In fact, the same could go for the entire line-up. At last, players were deployed roughly in their proper positions, and it showed. The Dons looked far more comfortable than they have in any game this season, and it seems like after weeks of chopping and changing, Brown has found his best eleven.

One swallow does might make a summer, but this could be the turning point Aberdeen’s season has been waiting for. A free-scoring, morale-boosting win – the only downside is that it has come right before an international break, leaving the team with no chance to build momentum.

By contrast, Dunfermline enjoyed a good start to the season, but reality is starting to set in for the Fifers. Jim McIntyre has built a solid team of experienced pros, with very little reliance on youth or unknown quantities, which should be able compete in a fairly even SPL. As it stands, there are only two points between the sides in the bottom six, and only seven between fourth place and last.

As it is Aberdeen sit ninth, but will take a massive confidence boost from this win and are only one win away from the top six. At times this season they haven’t got the results their performances have merited, but against Dunfermline everything finally came together. The Red Army will be wondering if their side can’t play on a Friday night every week.

Motherwell 1 Aberdeen 0 – Fir Park 24/9/11

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Sep 262011

Aberdeen are yet to win a game or even score a goal away from home in all competitions this season, and visiting third placed Motherwell was unlikely to yield any joy on this front regardless of the Dons midweek woes. Philip Sim reports.

The game itself came close to rivalling Aberdeen’s last away trip at Easter Road for sheer lack of entertainment. In truth both teams were fairly insipid in a game which was always looked like it would be decided by an individual error, and over the last few years those have been the Dons’ speciality.

Craig Brown named what might be his strongest starting eleven, the poor form of many of those players notwithstanding. Despite picking the right players – with the possible exception of perennially overlooked impact sub Peter Pawlett – Brown again insisted on deploying them in almost arbitrary positions.

Kari Arnason, the best midfielder at the club, started at centre half. Chris Clark and Richard Foster, the only full-backs in the team, featured in midfield. Although midfielder Ryan Jack filled in at admirably at right-back, it further emphasised the makeshift nature of the team.

Moving Foster into midfield again resulted in centre-half Andrew Considine playing left-back – a particularly odd decision given the fearsome pace of Motherwell’s Chris Humphrey. This was underlined when the speedy winger – albeit probably fouling Considine in the process – sped away to round David Gonzalez and somehow send his shot up and away off the crossbar. That said, Banchory-born defender Considine – one of Aberdeen’s better performers this term – seemed to have the beating of his man thereafter

It is difficult of course to argue whether playing Foster at the back would have been effective, as it was his blunder while filling in at left-back allowing Bob McHugh in for the only goal of the game. The Steelmen scored their goal pretty much straight from an Aberdeen corner kick – underlining the visitors propensity for getting into a promising position before finding a bizarre way to mess it up.

The Dons’ attack appeared as toothless as ever, despite trying out yet another front pairing in Scott Vernon and Rory Fallon. The theory behind this partnership is sound – Fallon can operate as a target man allowing Vernon to play his preferred role of penalty box striker, playing facing the goal. Whilst the two combined reasonably well on occasion there was precious little creativity in getting the ball up to the strikers, with the Dons often just looking for the agricultural long ball towards Fallon.

The failure of Vernon and Fallon to click is a microcosm of almost everything about the Dons this season. It deceives to look good on paper, and in many ways it should work, but it doesn’t.

Motherwell have not been on a good run of form of late – they were beaten 3-0 at home by St Johnstone and knocked out of the cup by Hibs last week – but for one reason or another Aberdeen cant buy a win right now.

The Dons’ next two matches, home ties against Dunfermline and Dundee United, will complete the first set of fixtures against all of the other SPL sides. So far, Aberdeen have scored against two, and beaten only one. If Craig Brown can not improve this run of form, his side are going to look increasingly like relegation candidates, albeit in a crowded field of struggling sides.

Brown insists that luck has been against his side so far, and he had better hope it turns before long or he may find his coat on a shoogly peg. His players often appear to be just on the cusp of getting it together, so it might not be time to start questioning the manager’s position just yet . That time nonetheless creeps closer with every poor result.

Dons Go Out On Penalties Following Extra Time Stalemate.

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Sep 202011

Aberdeen 3 – East Fife 3 – East Fife win 4-3 on penalties – 20/9/11

This latest embarrassment will not be altogether unfamiliar to those who sat through similar capitulations against Queen of the South, Queens Park, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers, or even the European humblings against Bohemians and Sigma Olomouc. Philip Sim reports.

It’s got to the point where it’s not even surprising any more. On each occasion Aberdeen appear poised to take a step forward, they take two backward.

No matter how many times it happens, it still hurts. So what went wrong? There was a lot more to this result than East Fife’s goalkeeper saving more penalties than Gonzalez for Aberdeen.

One attempt at an excuse is that it was a weakened Aberdeen team. Craig Brown has apologised for making wholesale changes to a side that played relatively well at the weekend – but many of them actually made sense.

David Gonzalez returned to the side after missing the weekend encounter with Kilmarnock due to his wife going into labour, and the return of the first-choice goalkeeper can hardly be said to have weakened the team.

That said, he looked distinctly flat footed at East Fife’s second goal although some would argue that Jason Brown would not have been tall enough to reach Matthew Park’s lob in any case.

Scott Vernon and Darren Mackie were partnered in attack – Brown’s tried and tested front duo – and while it’s debatable whether they have passed that test at least both of them have scored this season. By contrast, Mohamed Chalali has not scored at club level.

Indeed, after Vernon and Mackie were withdrawn for Chalali and Rory Fallon, the Dons seemed to struggle even more to find the way to goal. Only Josh Magennis looked lively – if not particularly dangerous. He found shooting space quite often but invariably shot straight at Mark Ridgers in the visitors goal.

Of the other changes, only Youl Mawene and Isaac Osbourne were missed as Rob Milsom’s recent form, Saturday’s game against Kilmarnock in particular, scarcely merited him a place in the side.

In any case, shouldn’t any eleven players on the first team books at Pittodrie be able to dispatch a side bottom of the second division?

Does this mean that Aberdeen’s second string players are not even second division standard?

To be fair, the Dons did fairly batter the Fifers’ goal. The home side recorded 25 shots on goal. However, too many were driven straight into Ridgers’ arms or sent tamely wide or over the bar. The Dons showed a complete inability to break their opponents down, often shooting from outside the box or even further afield.

Fair play to East Fife. They capitalised on the only three chances they had in the match. That Aberdeen scored the same number of goals from more than eight times the chances is testament to how poor the Dons’ finishing is at the moment.

Almost as much of a worry is the defence, a supposedly SPL standard defence which shipped three goals to a second division side. Oddly enough, Andrew Considine actually had a pretty good game at centre half, and while Rory McArdle didn’t look quite as composed, especially with the ball at his feet, he at least popped up with a goal. Aberdeen’s problems were at full-back.

Strangely this was the first game of the season that Aberdeen have started with two recognised full-backs in that position, rather than having midfielders or centre-backs fill in at one or both. Chris Clark played the majority of his games at Plymouth as a right-back, while left back is Ricky Foster’s strongest position – although Foster himself might argue otherwise. Despite this, the two looked completely and utterly clueless in defence.

Perhaps they were too focussed on going forward – both spent much of the game in the opposition half, swinging in crosses which never quite reached anyone. Whatever the reason, they provided absolutely no defensive cover. Foster usually bails out the centre-backs with his pace – against East Fife, Considine actually had to come to his captain’s rescue on several occasions. Clark looked weak. He dithered pathetically while the Fifers scored their third, and while he thumped into one or two tackles impressively he wimped out of far more.

After a similarly hopeless displays against Hibs and Kilmarnock, the Red Army will be beginning to wonder what happened to Clark while he was in England – and precisely why he’s been signed to a three year contract. It was no surprise to anyone in the stadium when it was he who missed the final fatal penalty.

The biggest failure was one of belief. As the second half wore on it became increasingly clear that the heads had gone down, and that the Aberdeen players simply did not believe they could win the game back. They were out fought and out thought by a team which lost 6-0 at home to Dumbarton a few weeks previously.

Maybe sometimes there has to be a shock result – a giant-killing – as these things simply happen in football. But why do they always seem to happen to Aberdeen?
Another year, another humiliation, and once again the Red Army are left with more questions than answers about just where their club is headed.

Aberdeen 2 Kilmarnock 2 – Pittodrie Stadium 17/9/11

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Sep 182011

Last week’s debacle at Easter Road raised the question of whether Aberdeen and Hibs were bottom of the league because they were playing badly, or if they were playing badly because they were bottom of the league. The question might be answered in that this weekend, against teams in the top six, both sides played out highly entertaining 2-2 draws. Philip Sim reports from Pittodrie.

The Dons might justifiably feel they should have won their match with Kilmarnock, but the fact they trailed 2-0 after half an hour will leave the Red Army more positive about the result.

Aberdeen dictated much of the proceedings, winning a string of corners and creating chances early on, but despite the home side’s dominance it was the visitors who took an advantage into the interval by scoring with their only two attempts of the half.
The Dons showed resilience to come back from two goals down, and pressed hard to find a winner in the closing stages.

At the outset, many of last week’s questionable tactics remained in place – Kari Arnason, the most composed player in Aberdeen’s overstaffed central midfield, was again deployed needlessly at centre back, pushing Andrew Considine out to left back. Another midfielder, Ryan Jack, featured at right-back, while full-back Ricky Foster was played on the left wing. The other wide position was filled by central midfielder Fraser Fyvie.

Jack and Arnason are convincing near enough wherever they play, but Fyvie is not a winger, nor is Considine a full-back. And what is there to gain by pushing Foster forward into midfield? He looks fine bombing forward to the byline to get a cross in, but when he cuts inside he looks rather lost and confused. All of the good things he does from left midfield he was doing anyway from left-back, as well as using his pace to cover the defence. Moving him into midfield only serves to shuffle other players around to compensate.

Despite being played out of position, big Andrew Considine played out of his skin. While he still displays all the characteristics of a centre half – strong physically on or off the ball, good in the air – he also showed great attacking intent, thundering forward at every opportunity and whipping in some excellent crosses.

His goal was brilliantly taken, especially given it was with his weaker right foot, a finish that few of the Dons front line could have conjured in the current drought.

That said, the Dons featured an all-new strike pairing against Killie, with Rory Fallon and Mohamed Chalali both handed their first start in a red shirt.

Chalali showed good intent with some direct running at the visitor’s defence, and while Fallon won everything in the air the pair didn’t quite click as a partnership. Too often the Algerian directed his runs the wrong way to meet the Kiwi’s flicks, and after being moved out to the wing it was little surprise when Chalali was hooked at half time for the ultimately equally ineffective Peter Pawlett.

Fallon looked the part as a traditional target man, something the Dons have lacked this season, and almost gave his side the lead with a second-half header which rebounded back off the crossbar. This came after he was ludicrously booked in the first half by referee Iain Brines, supposedly for simulation – while the challenge in question may not have merited a penalty award, it certainly wasn’t a dive.

Brines gave Fallon absolutely nothing all afternoon, leading some to speculate that the whistler’s wife may have run off with a Kiwi.

In a way Craig Brown should thank Brines for his blunder, as that was the turning point in the match – after the second Killie goal, the heads had gone down, and it was only after the penalty controversy that the Dons looked fired up and hungry for vengeance.

Aside from the defensive lapses for the goals – one a missed header by Youl Mawene, who made amends by heading the equaliser, the other an instance of the entire midfield going to sleep at once – the main disappointment for Aberdeen was the attendance, a paltry seven and a half thousand. Although perhaps thanks to the quality of the match and the questionable officiating, the crowd produced one of the best atmospheres Pittodrie has seen this season.

The dwindling gates might have more to do with the accumulated horrors of the last couple of seasons than Aberdeen’s performances this term, but Brown‘s side could get the numbers heading in the right direction with a couple of wins.

Hopefully a good performance against lowly East Fife in the cup next week will generate some interest in the next home match, an experimental Friday night encounter with Dunfermline, and get the faithful flocking back to Pittodrie.

Aberdeen 0 Hibs 0 – Easter Road Stadium 11/9/11

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Sep 122011

Sometimes nil-nil can be a deceptive scoreline, masking an exciting encounter between two evenly-matched sides. Sometimes, though, there are simply no goals because neither team is good enough to score any. This was a match almost completely devoid of incident, a scrappy bottom of the table snooze-fest from which neither team even deserved a point. Philip Sim reports from Easter Road.

The grim performance on the pitch induced a funereal atmosphere in the stands, as it slowly dawned on supporters of both sides that they’d just paid in excess of twenty pounds to be bored and depressed.

You could be forgiven for initially assuming that at this stage of the season, Aberdeen and Hibs are in false positions at the bottom of the SPL.

However on Sunday’s evidence the position is more than deserved – few teams in the league could conspire to serve up such dire, uninspiring fare.

At times the game was a comedy of errors – an Aberdeen player would walk the ball straight out of play, only for his Hibernian counterpart to send the throw-in straight back to a red shirt, inevitably ending in another aimless long-ball to no-one in particular. An actual football team could have run riot against either side.

The Dons lined up in a less than ambitious 4-5-1 formation. Really, such a formation should see a team dominate the midfield, but Aberdeen rarely managed to string three passes together in the middle of the park, let alone control it. Isaac Osbourne was effective as usual in spoiling opposition play, but Fraser Fyvie and Rob Milsom appeared completely incapable of retaining possession. Ricky Foster’s pace and drive down the left provided a few meagre highlights, but on the other flank Chris Clark put in an absolutely dreadful performance, with the Dons looking characteristically short on width or creativity.

The failings of the five were compounded by those of the one, with lone striker Scott Vernon looking increasingly isolated and starved of service. In a functional 4-5-1 the midfield is supposed to push forward to support the striker, maybe turn into a 4-3-3 when attacking, but the Dons showed little offensive invention or ambition save the occasional foray forward from Fyvie.

Vernon is a penalty-box striker, not a target man. He is not the man to win flick-ons or hold the ball up for his team-mates – he’s a finisher, not a creator.

He prefers to play facing the goal, rather than with his back to it, so in short he could not be less suited to the lone striker role. This does not however explain why he spent two thirds of the game at Easter Road offside.

At the other end of the park, Hibs had more of the ball but offered few real threats, mostly being restricted to long-range efforts. Garry O’Connor conspired to make Youll Mawene look quick, and what the Hibs front line conjured up was easily dealt with by David Gonzalez.

The home side’s toothless attack is one of the reasons they’re bottom of the league, so really there was no need to move Kari Arnason back into defence. He strolled through the game as usual, and his composure and presence could have made a huge difference to the Dons midfield, which was relatively transparent throughout. Moving the Icelander to centre back meant shuffling Considine out to left-back, and with Rory McArdle in the other full-back position there was never a hope of any attacking ambition from the full-back position.

By contrast when Hibs came forward down the flanks they often outnumbered the visitors’ defence, because their full-backs were willing to overlap and leave their own half.

To be fair to Considine and McArdle, neither of them are full-backs, and neither can be blamed for their manager’s decision to play them there. Meanwhile, the players in the Aberdeen squad who have looked reasonably exciting in recent weeks – Josh Magennis and Peter Pawlett – were left on the bench, and only introduced after the game had settled into a coma.

Seven games of the season gone, then, and Aberdeen have still only scored in one of them. The complaints remain the same, of width, creativity and attacking ambition, while the excuses grow thinner by the game – the return to the bench of Yoann Folly heralds the last of the team’s injury worries, and the squad has had ample time to gel.

Other teams who have undergone similarly large rebuilding jobs over the summer have settled much more quickly – fourth placed Kilmarnock and SPL new boys Dunfermline for example. With former Plymouth striker Rory Fallon reportedly offered a contract, Brown obviously recognises the shortcomings of his side, but patience in the stands is beginning to run thin – the Dons need to start producing results soon.

St Mirren 1 Aberdeen 0 – Philip Sim Comments

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Aug 012011

The curse of Paisley strikes again. Saint Mirren have won just twelve games at their new stadium; a third of them have been against Aberdeen. Clearly this is not a happy hunting ground for the Dons, but it was the manner of Saturday’s defeat that was particularly disappointing. Philip Sim comments.

Last week’s stalemate with St Johnstone painted Aberdeen as a reasonably strong and well organised side which simply lacked a cutting edge in attack, and while they looked similarly toothless going forward here, the problems seemed much more deep-seated.

Josh Magennis and Scott Vernon both drew saves from Craig Sampson in the Buddies goal, but the Dons generally lacked imagination and indeed often struggled to get out of their own half.

St Mirren by contrast actually played some very good football.

They seem a much improved side this season, with Danny Lennon having recruited quality players in Paul McGowan, Gary Teale and strikers Steven Thompson and Nigel Hasselbaink. All four threatened in the first half without actually bringing a save from David Gonzalez, and while Hasselbaink scored the only goal of the game his side missed a host of chances to ram home their advantage.

Other than some flair and creativity going forward, what became painfully clear on Saturday is that Aberdeen still seriously lack squad depth. Fair enough the Dons were missing five potential starters in Fyvie, Mawene, Clark, Jack and Folly, but looking at the bench in Paisley the Dons lacked anyone who could come on and change the game. We’re only two games into the season, and already the squad seems to be down to bare bones, with unproven youngsters making up the bulk of the subs.

Injuries and suspensions are something that all teams need to be prepared to deal with, and on this weekend’s evidence Craig Brown needs to make several more signings before the Dons will be ready to really compete in the SPL.

The absence of Youl Mawene in particular was a blow against St Mirren, and while Kari Arnason filled in reasonably well, looking assured in all of his play, Brown would surely rather utilise his talents in midfield. The French defender has been dogged by injuries for most of his career, and it remains to be seen if he can last the rigours of the SPL.

If he’s missing games at this early stage of the season, how will he stand up to the new year schedule after the traditional call-offs which tends to cram six or seven games into a month?

The addition of Mawene, Arnason and Osbourne was meant to bring a bit of steel to the Dons, make them a tougher unit and a hard team to break down, but while only one goal separated the sides in this tie that was mainly down to the profligacy of the St Mirren front line. They created a host of chances, and Aberdeen seemed to lack any real fighting spirit – it just looked like St Mirren wanted the three points more than they did. Craig Brown and Archie Knox will strive to make sure that kind of performance is not repeated – if anyone can be trusted to put across that message, it’s Knox – but if the Dons are looking to bounce right back, the fixture list has not been kind.

In their next four games, Aberdeen will face last season’s top three in the Old Firm and Hearts, with the only consolation being a home tie against Inverness, currently goal-less and pointless and rooted firmly to the bottom of the SPL. That perhaps represents Aberdeen’s best chance of picking up a win, but Craig Brown will need to work on some new signings and more importantly the attitude of his current crop of players before three points or even a goal will become a reality.

But it is still very early doors, and the panic button shouldn’t be pushed just yet. There is the makings of a good team at Pittodrie, and with a couple of signings in key positions – up front, out wide and at full-back, in that order – we could yet see a successful season for the Dons. Get your little black book out, Craig.

SPL Preview 2011/12

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Jul 212011

With the SPL’s big kick-off looming, what kind of shape are Aberdeen in, compared to the other top six challengers? Philip Sim takes a hard look at how next season is shaping up.

Aberdeen, Hearts, Dundee United, Hibs and Motherwell are the traditional and some might say obvious candidates to join Rangers and Celtic in the top six by next May.

Kilmarnock were a surprise inclusion last season, but have lost their manager and star player over the summer and have recruited relatively little proven quality, save perhaps Gary Harkins, who is yet to prove himself at SPL level.

Hearts have made some good signings and generally seem to have strengthened across the board, despite their ongoing off-the-field difficulties. Many of their signings are more squad players than stars, but they have retained the core of last year’s team, and if they can hang on to the likes of Rudi Skacel and Marian Kello then realistically third place is theirs to throw away.

Dundee United meanwhile has lost an entire midfield in Buaben, Gomis, Conway and Robertson, as well as defensive cover in Darren Dods. Their only quality recruitment has been Willo Flood – how much of the budget has he taken up? – and the less said about Hibs reject John Rankin the better. They have young players coming through, but they desperately need to make some signings before the window ‘slams shut’ or their top six position is far from assured.

Hibs have spent most of the summer in a weird state of limbo, with manager Colin Calderwood openly pondering a move back to Nottingham Forest. They have made two very good signings in Ivan Sproule and Garry O’Conner, both proven players who know the club well. However they have lost eleven players over the summer, including Liam Miller, Derek Riordan and Colin Nish, so their squad is pretty thin on the ground. Their traditionally excellent conveyor belt of youth talent can’t prop up the team forever, but how many quality players are going to be attracted to a club whose manager might jump ship to be an assistant in the Championship?

Motherwell is in a similar position to Dundee United in that they haven’t recruited nearly enough players. They have made one good signing in Michael Higdon, but he will act as a direct replacement for Hearts-bound John Sutton. They’re currently sitting at eight out and just two in. Retaining Steven Jennings is a plus, but it would be very difficult to claim the Steelmen have strengthened.

So now to the Dandy Dons…how does their summer match up? At first glance, the picture appears slightly gloomy – it seems like eight out and five in. Nine out really, with Jamie Langfield incapacitated for the foreseeable future. However on closer inspection, Craig Brown has paid attention to where Aberdeen were found lacking last season and has strengthened the core of the team.

This does not look like a team which will be over-run in midfield or indeed a team which will give up cricket scores at Celtic Park

The starting back four this term could be completely different to that which was bested so regularly last term. The team has two players with experience of playing full-back in Foster and Chris Clark, and two players with strength, presence and experience at centre-half in Youl Mawene and Kari Arnason.

The addition of Arnason and Osbourne will bring a bit of steel to the team, a bit of fight that was crucially missing last season.

Although this remains in the realm of speculation, this does not look like a team which will be over-run in midfield, or indeed a team which will give up cricket scores at Celtic Park. There are also a number of very adaptable players in the squad, including Clark, Osbourne, Foster and Arnason, who can play both defence and midfield, which will come in handy when the team suffers its traditional mid-season injury crisis.

The only thing the Dons are missing right now is a replacement for Sone Aluko and Chris Maguire, a bit of creativity and flair going forward. A signing needs to be made here, as the entire burden cannot be placed on youngsters like Peter Pawlett, Fraser Fyvie and Nicky Low.

Craig Brown has publicly made a flair striker his priority, and if he secures this – probably through a loan from England – then Aberdeen will be in excellent shape to take the fight to the other top six challengers for those precious European qualification spots.

Aberdeen 0 St Johnstone 0 – Pittodrie Stadium 23/6/11

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Jul 212011

The simple fact of the scoreline goes a long way to summing up this match. Aberdeen will perhaps feel themselves a little unlucky not to have capitalised more on their strong performance in the first half in particular, despite finishing the game with ten men. Philip Sim writes.

Over what must have been one of the shortest close seasons in memory, Craig Brown set out to strengthen the core of his team and build a reliable defence, and on first impressions he has done a good job of this.

New signing Youl Mawene brings an air of composure to the centre of defence, perhaps too much so on the several occasions when he had the Red Army’s hearts in their throats by choosing to skin a striker rather than hoof the ball clear.

The Dons marked their first home game of the season with a defensively assured performance which ultimately lacked any cutting edge in the final third. Indeed, if anything they seemed even more in control after Ryan Jack’s dismissal on 65 minutes, and debutant goalkeeper David Gonzalez spent much of the game a spectator.

Isaac Osbourne looks another solid addition who will bring some steel to the midfield, and he showed his adaptability when filling in at right-back in the chaos following Jack’s sending off. Kari Arnason made a similarly strong impression when he made a belated début as a substitute for Peter Pawlett, demonstrating his determination by winning a game of head-tennis with himself as if the Saints midfield wasn’t there.

St Johnstone contributed to the scoreline in no small way by setting up with an extremely defensive style; Derek McInnes has built a team which is undoubtedly hard to beat, but which offers very little going forward. The Pittodrie faithful will be hoping that Craig Brown adds to his front line with some creative attackers quickly before the Dons find themselves in a similar position.

Fraser Fyvie was one of the few bright sparks forging forward for the home side.

His second half cross which came back off the post after evading the perennially hapless Peter Enckelman was the closest the Dons came to scoring. Darren Mackie and Josh Magennis both threatened on bursts forward without seriously troubling the ageing Finn, who spent most of the game flapping badly at crosses made unpredictable by the swirling winds.

One of the biggest disappointments of the day was the performance of referee Steve Conroy. It’s often said that when a match is officiated well, you don’t even notice the referee’s presence.

The fundamental complaint with officials in recent years has been consistency

It was not so with Mr Conroy; he embarked on a series of increasingly pedantic calls which were technically to the letter of the law, but which threatened to smother what life the gale force winds hadn’t already choked out of the match.

For 90 minutes, his whistle barely left his lips. Repeatedly he called back free-kicks so that the ball could be moved back two feet to the exact blade of grass where the original foul was committed. While he probably judged the big calls of the game correctly, he endeared himself to neither set of supporters, and did little to justify the inexplicable pay rise that referees secured over the summer.

The fundamental complaint with officials in recent years has been consistency; while it’s technically correct that Fyvie’s first half lunge which caught man and ball merited a yellow card, Saints defender Steven Anderson will be wondering himself how he avoided a caution or even a talking to for several extremely similar challenges.

There are many positives for Aberdeen to take from the season opener, though.

For one, they are clearly going to be a more difficult team to break down and score against this season; nobody actually knows yet how good David Gonzalez might be. Ricky Foster had an excellent game on his return to Pittodrie after a year on loan at Rangers, and indeed looked every inch the captain, while Darren Mackie showed no ill effects of last season’s long injury lay-off, running his heart out for the full 90 minutes.

It is worth remembering at the end of the day that Aberdeen collected zero points from both visits of St Johnstone to Pittodrie last season, so Saturday’s result and performance have to go down as a sign of progress.

Craig Brown will know better than anyone how badly his side need a cutting edge up front and a bit of creativity in the final third, and this is something which needs to be addressed as soon as possible, but in the manager’s own words the picture is one of “cautious optimism.”