El Grew

I’d retain Donnelly and O’Hara. The rest are deadwood. Getting rid would free up some cash.

Interesting fact re-Aberdeen. The word "Pittodrie" literally translates from Gaelic as "Hill of Dung". So the ground can be accurately described as a shit heap.

Sir Alf Ramsay won the World Cup and Jock Stein won the European Cup doing just that.

Here’s the team ready to board the bus at Tannadice with the Summer Cup in after beating Dundee Utd over 2 legs in 1965.

Tom Forsyth and Alan Gilzean from our Texaco Cup win at Fir Park in 1970.

Blood and snotters. As a game of football it was a hard watch. Stop start all afternoon with too many players (on both sides) more intent on having their own personal vendettas. Mind you I did enjoy Donnelly’s crunch on Ferguson - right in the haw maws. We were certainly the better side in the 2nd half and if Shields had scored near the end it would’ve been a deserved win. Aberdeen must have the whingeist (don’t know if that’s a word) players in Scottish football. Like last week, they complained all game to the referee every time our players made a tackle and won the ball - fairly. In his post-match interview, Goodwin said he had asked his players to stand up to Motherwell’s physical style of play. I know I’m biased but I don’t consider us to be an overly physical side. I thought that every time we tried to play football they were happy to commit fouls and stop the game flowing - undoubtedly orchestrated by Goodwin. Incidentally he has a f*cking cheek to talk about teams being physical - when he played for St. Mirren he was one of the dirtiest players around and in his time there had 61 yellow cards and 4 reds!

Apart from a wonderful purple patch under Fergie, Aberdeen were really quite an ordinary football club. Since then, and with no little help from the media, they have become the self-appointed 3rd force in Scottish football and truly believe it’s beneath them to lose to what they see as “diddy” clubs. I’m old enough to have seen our two Scottish Cup wins up there in 1976 and 1991 and I clearly remember the arrogance and disbelief that they should be losing at home to us and that wasn’t just the fans but management and officials. Well, its high time they took a large dose of reality, come back down to earth and disabused themselves of such grandiose notions. Like all the other teams they will need to work hard and earn any success.

Liam Donnelly for me. I thought this was his best performance of the season and that he bossed the midfield for most of the game which gave us a platform to play off. He totally dominated Ferguson and Brown and and he was unlucky not to be on the scoresheet just before Shields put us in front.

After losing the early goal we were really shoogly, particularly our defenders, for about 10 minutes. However after that we settled and grew into the game and from then until half-time we bossed the game and were deservedly in front. And what a great time to go in front just on half-time. I think it took the wind right out of their sails. At the start of the 2nd half we again looked a wee bit shaky for about 10 minutes. However we then picked-up where we’d left off in the 1st half and bossed the game up until the last 10 minutes when our manager decided it was a good idea to remove 2 forwards and drop deep into our own half. He’s really very fortunate it didn’t blow-up in his face. I thought everyone played really well in what were horrendous conditions. I would make special mention of Mugabi, Donnelly and van Veen. My MoM was Donnelly. I thought he had a great game and totally bossed the midfield - Scott Brown seems to bring the best out of him. Only one negative for me, was Jake Carrol. I lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away to an Aberdeen player - he even managed it from a throw-in. Specsavers?

Hoodoo broken at last.

I was at FP in January 1982 when we played Aberdeen in the 1st round. We’d a decent side at that time and were looking forward to maybe causing an upset. There was a big crowd of around 14,000, I think, and we’d only just gotten in for the kick-off. I think Aberdeen kicked-off and almost immediately John Hewitt scored. We couldn’t believe it. The official time for the goal was 9.6 seconds and it was, and still is, the fastest ever goal scored in the Scottish Cup. We regained our composure and had a right good go at them but we just couldn’t get past Leighton, McLeish and Miller that day.

Played them at home in Cup 7 times but only one win in March 1958 - early Ancell Babes team: H. Weir, Holton, McFadyen, Aitken, Martis, McCann, McSeveney, Quinn, St.John, Forrest, A. Weir. Crowd 19,000. We led 1-0 at half-time via o.g. in 34 mins. They levelled in 49 minutes and Ian St. John got the winner in 61 minutes. We then lost 3-2 to Clyde in the semi-final. Team: H. Weir, Holton, McSeveney, Aitken, Martis, McCann, Hunter, Quinn, St. John, Forrest, A. Weir.

That’s what happens when you ask poor quality full backs to spend a lot game time as auxiliary wingers. It leaves massive gaps in the flank areas for teams to exploit. I may be old fashioned but for me the full backs first priority is to be able to defend. Anything else is a bonus. And in that respect Alexander needs to get back to basics and go with a 4-4-2 set-up. Utilise the two banks of four and make it hard for teams to play through us and it beefs up our midfield which far to often gets out-numbered. Stop the rot.

Four of our most recent managers (Gannon, Barraclough, Robinson & Alexander) have concentrated on bringing players to FP from the nether back woods of lower league English football (old 4th division) and from no-account non-league sides. One reason why they’ve done so, is that having plied their football trade in England, these are clearly “fishing grounds” with which they are familiar. Another reason is that we operate on a shoestring playing budget and these are most likely the level of player that we can afford. Whilst the fan-ownership of the club is an idyll, the sad truth is that we simply do not have a big enough fan base for this. I don’t doubt the players are all doing their level best but the fact is, this is as good as they are. Sad to say this means we can probably expect to get much more of what is presently being served-up.

Judging by his performance at Dundee, Shields couldn’t hit a coo on the arse with a banjo.

Far too much white trimming for my liking and we should’ve gone for white shorts. White shorts make our C & A really stand out. But good to see the band all the way round again.

The last (only?) decent player that left FP for Aberdeen was George Murray and that was 43 years ago!!

Gallacher’s a decent defender but he lacks pace, his positional sense is sometimes iffy and he is prone to the odd blunder or two. Similar player in many ways to Mark Reynolds and his career nose-dived when he moved to Aberdeen. Not irreplaceable by any means.

The media are full of bullshit at this time of the season as they try to fill their columns and airtime with the latest “exclusive scoops”. Best to ignore them entirely. One of the major problems we have had this current season has been an inability to score goals from open play. This is down to an utter dearth of creativity, craft, guile and ability to pick passes for the forwards from our midfield. The players we have are simply unable to provide these qualities. This means we are left relying far too much on scoring goals from set pieces. For me this is an area where we really do need to improve on the crud we have been signing as midfielders. Cull the squad to free up some cash to try and raise the quality of players we sign.

Who remembers Netzer?

Very sad news. The last of the Ancell Babes "famous five" forward line. I was too young to have seen them play but I enjoyed hearing about them from my dad and uncles. RIP.

Being pragmatic, when you are under pressure at the wrong end of the league the result is what counts. Alexander has settled on a playing style and formation which the players seem to understand and are comfortable with and, unlike Stephen Robinson, he does not chop and change either the personnel or the formation. That's bound to install self-belief and confidence in the players.

A win worth much gold and very welcome, especially considering the opposition. However, one swallow doesn't make a summer but it's a start.

What would have been the outcome of this whole sorry affair if the two clubs involved weren't Motherwell and Hamilton but Celtic and Rangers! Oh, that's right there wouldn't have been an appeal in the first place!

As I said before, I don't understand how the SFA/SPFL can entertain an appeal from both clubs given that at the first hearing, they both admitted guilt. However, I agree with your point on proportionality and I think they are really more interested in getting their £40K fines dropped.