Kmcalpin

Gillespie was a clear winner for me. I Don't understand what he did wrong.

Sorry don't agree Yorky. Yes players didn't cover themselves in glory but the game was lost at 2.30. Wrong team wrong tactics wrong substitutions. We seemed totally unprepared for how Livvy were going to play and didn't even have a Plan A.

I believe that its a new system being introduced - maybe for the first time today (scanning of tickets). On checking their website, they uploaded an article on Tuesday saying that we could buy tickets from Fir Park. No mention at all about the game being all ticket or being able to buy them at the Almondvale Suite. Instead of queues at the turnstiles there will be queues in the Almondvale Suite. I doubt if solving the queueing problem formed any part of their thinking. You would have thought that if they planned to introduce such a new system they would have given visiting fans plenty of advance warning. That said there won't be a huge crowd today.

Absolutely. Legal agreements will have been signed and leaving all other issues aside, if the Society/club simply told Messrs Hutchison and Boyle to do one and they'd get no more cash, as Covenanter suggests, then expensive legal suits would inevitably follow and the club could go to the wall as a result. It would also be morally wrong to do so.

Fully agree - do both. 5 shares in the club gives you exactly the same benefits as 500 shares. You will be able to attend the AGM and view the accounts in full. You'll also own a little piece of the club. 5 shares might cost you about £50. As for the Society- join as its a no brainer. Pay a little up front if you wish. What has it done? Well its kept our club alive and has allowed us to put a team on the field every week. If it wasn't for the Society and members' donations, the likes of David Turnbull would be plying his trade elsewhere. As Ropy says though only spend what you can afford.

The recently released set of Club Accounts (year ending 31 May) shows that Les Hutchison was owed £994,00 (£1,469,000 last year) and John Boyle £210,00 (£280,000 last year). Since then we've had Kipre's transfer fee and Les will be writing off more of his debt through his Double Your Money offer. Taking everything into account, I'd guess that we will owe them somewhere in the region of £800k by the end of next month. So, progress is being made.

I notice from the Annual Accounts that les Hutchison wrote off £194,000 in the last year, presumably through his "double your money" offer. As you'll all know he extended this initiative to the end of next month. Could the Society up its efforts in the coming weeks to maximise contributions? I know Christmas is coming up. Maybe a bucket collection? Every bit helps as they say.

+1 I see that entry is now by ticket only (they can be purchased at the ground at the Almondvale Suite (whatever and wherever that is). Impractical for me to order online at this stage. Couldn't Livingston have announced this last week allowing us to buy tickets last Saturday? Its not as if the fixture has been hurriedly arranged. Apologies to LFC if this very late change has been foisted on them by Police Scotland.

Agreed. At the time of the internet banking scam (reported £800k loss), Accies Directors were reported as saying they'd need to dip into their own pockets to pay wages and the club was in dire straits. They tried to calim the cash back but were unsuccessful. Their accounts seem like a black box.

Carson now out for the season. Both McHugh and Hartley are suspended so a place for Maguire, Donnelly or maybe Dunne beckons. SurelyJohnson has earned his right to play if only to start? For Livingston one man wrecking squad Menga is suspended.

I wouldn't have thought that naming rights to their stand would net that much annually nor would annual office rent. Surely transfer income from the lieks of McCarthy & MCarthur would have long gone? They also run an expensive youth set up. All very odd.

Overall, the chart sems logical enough but like you Iain I'm puzzled by our relative position to Accies and St Johnstone. Now average salaries can be misleading as Weeyin has pointed out. From annual accounts it isn't possible to isolate playing from non playing staff. Also you can have a small squad on a relatively higher average wage as opposed to a larger squad on a smaller average wage. How did the authors decide to identify the exact composition of the first team squads? St Johnstone are a wee bit smaller than us as a club but have finished higher than us in the league so will have attracted higher sponsorship monies. Also they have no debt to pay off. Its also likely that players like Scougall and Watt are on relatively high salaries compared to the rest of their squad. Accies I just don't understand. They are a far smaller club, have generally finished below us in the league but don't have any debt. That said they are reported to have lost circa £800k in a banking scam and seemingly went almost bankrupt as a consequence but still their average wage increased? It just doesn't make sense.

Good post Andy although I'm not entirely sure about that. Over the piece, we were by far the better side and thoroughly deserved our 3-0 win. I thought we started brightly but defended poorly and the Dons had 2 maybe 3 avoidable chances to score. The midfield looked out of sorts defensively and poor Grimshaw was left totally exposed down our right side. However shortly after our first goal they sorted themselves out, showed more belief in themselves, and worked that bit harder off the ball to close attackers down. Credit to the management and team for bouncing back after a morale sapping hammering at Ibrox. It really was a team effort with no failures, but Grimshaw was my MOTM after a shaky start. Great to see Mbulu come in and do a good job against very physical and streetwise opponents. Turnbull had a quieter game but impressed nonetheless and scored a perfectly struck goal despite what Derek McInnes said about it. Gorrin too didn't look out of place when he came on. Certainly Turnbull and Bigirimana added much needed creativity to the proceedings. If we had a fault it was lack of pace, but we already know about that. Certainly to have so many injuries and still field a strong side was encouraging - could we have done that last year? I wasn't in the least surprised to see Gillespie come in and play well, as he was signed as a first choice keeper. As expected the media has focused on how Aberdeen lost. They have conveniently ignored how physical they were (no doubt to justifably combat our roughhouse style of play). John Beaton let them off with murder and the likes of McKenna, Considine, Ferguson and May took full advantage of a referee who was out of his depth. Campbell's yellow card was ironic considering what had gone on previously. Credit to Campbell though - he battled well against bigger and more powerful adversaries. All in all a great result and an encouraging display.

Good shout on both counts.

What happened near the end in the South Stand/East Stand Corner? There seemed to be a melee with a punch or punches thrown and the East Stand punters going apoplectic. Oddly, or perhaps not given his overall performance, the referee took no action.

If that is the case then Considine, McKenna and Shinnie could all have been red carded several times over. Referee today was horrendously poor. He looked way out of his depth.

Grimmy for me. Still going strong at 93 mins.

County have already given us fuel for Robbo's team talk. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

It has always been very difficult to get penalties at Pittodrie and I'm going back decades. We have to up our game on Saturday to erase memories of our Ibrox thrashing.

Possibly our greatest ever player? He'd make my all time top starting 11.

A good effort by our young lads and a few took the opportunity to promote themselves. Overall a lot of positives. The red card was nothing short of ridiculous. At the most a yellow card was warranted and going by what we see week in week out even that would have been harsh. The referee was not going to take any action until he was badgered by the County players and Cowie's reaction was farcical - a yellow card would have been in order for simulation. I don't condone Mbulu's action but he didn't do it do for no reason. Players such as Cowie should be setting a good example to youngsters but instead he sets a poor exapmple and was no doubt congratulated by his manager when in point of fact he was probably congratulated. A sour end to a fine cup run. Good on our youngsters though.

Yes.

I don't think its right to discuss potential replacements as long as a manager is still in post. However the vast majority of posters and fans in general are not party to information on potential candidates in the same way as potential employers are. How many of us would have known about the likes of Ian Baraclough or Jim Gannon for example or indeed Craig Brown?

Good post. Setting club budgets is not an exact science as we all know. There's no guarantee that if we set the budget at say 10th place we'll finish 10th or above. Outwith the big, city clubs, Kilmarnock and Dundee will be paying bigger wages for sure. However I wouldn't have thought that the likes of Livingston, Partick, Accies, St Mirren and St Johnstone would be paying much higher if at all. If they are then questions need to be asked. Now I'm not suggesting that we up our playing budget hugely as we just can't afford that, with debts to service, but if we are paying say 10th highest then that is cutting things just too neat for my liking. Other things being equal we'd finish in 10th but if a few variables go wrong that leaves no room for error at all. I've seen a few figures being bandied about and quotes being made to the effect that we pay/were paying the second lowest in the league. If that is indeed true then we might well get what we're paying for i.e. 11th or 12th spot. Balance that outlay against the cost of relegation.

Thats exactly it for me Greg. I like Aldred but he's too similar to Hartley. We needed a towering centre back who could "body" attackers but did not sign one despite having months to plan for Kipre's inevitable departure. And yes, you can get them on a budget (maybe not to Kiptre's standard though). As for our strikers, they are too similar with the exception of Johnson and Sammon. Johnson must be our top scorer despite limited gametime and Sammon just hasn't worked out. I could understand these signings to some extent if we had had to sign them in a panic but Robbo had months to plan his recruitment and still got it badly wrong.