absent friend

It would appear that Brew has made a number of errors due to his management style. He has lost the players. How can this be reversed? Change Brew or change the team! The latter is already happening and I only hope it is not too late to salvage something from the remaining players - FOR A NEW MANAGER - as Brew will not change and has to go! We are still an SPL team and managers will come begging for the post.

If this is a pride thing with Brew, he only has to look at the other dugout on Saturday to see what infantile management can do! If we win, Aberdeen are going to lose out big time by not making the top six. The reason?? JC took the huff with his keeper in the close season and dropped him, only accepted his mistake when his team was at the bottom(ish) of the league. When he reinstated him, his keeper was now a Scottish cap prospect in his opinion!! EH!! If they do not make the top six it will be a big management mistake. BREW BE AWARE - BE VERY AWARE!!! We will not make the top six but if we are humilated by a team as crap as Aberdeen, due to mis-management, it will do none of us any favours.

Getting back to the original question and leaving the poor Poles alone - The Answer is PRIDE!! Or lack of it. Be proud of the family name and don't tarnish it! This was a huge motivating factor in the past. The threat of a police car coming to the family door was a huge deterrant. Be proud of your area,school, town etc - of course we were. Being proud to be Scottish - of course it works - look at the Tartan Army and how they have changed and tell me you are not proud to be one of them. The pride I am discussing is the one that makes you cringe, when abroad, at some daft person with a Scottish accent behaving incorrectly. I am sure that this is also the case for any other nationality just in case someone comes on and calls me racist. There will always be a problem as the 20% who do not know better, cannot change and that is the reason we have the LAW. As long as the other 80% are 'proud' of who they are, etc, the other 20% don't matter!

A Rangers bus is at the roadside at the Slochd with the fans having a comfort break. One man is cupping his hand to scoop water from a Highland burn. The local Gamekeeper shouts, 'Dinnae drink thon waater! It's foo ae coo's keech an' pish!' The man replies, 'Hey Man, am frae Glesga man, can you repeat that so ae can understand it, man.' The game keeper replies, 'I said, use both hands - you get more that way!!!'

Tug, it is refreshing to read your concern without all the normal malice against one person, be it Brews selection or any other person at the club. I do feel that, excluding Gretna, the teams around us are well coached and fit, an area we excelled in under Brew last time round, so we are therefore just one of the other teams who are good on their day but can be awful on other days. We do seem to rise to the challenge of bigger teams but, as fans, we dread facing the teams we should be beating. Alex has answered the Duncan situation very well and, as you say, he has to do the best for his family but it still leaves a bad feeling! I employ staff here in Aberdeen - train them and very often, due to this training, lose them to the oil industry as I can not compete with the oil incomes. Am I surprised - a bit, am I hurt at their lack of loyalty -a bit, would I do it if I were them - of course I would. Are some of them left with egg on their faces- of course, they are found out to have less ability than they thought they had and perhaps would have been better staying. Likewise ICT can not compete with some other teams on income structure but, hey... it is not the end of the world if Russell leaves! If we had 7000 through our gates every home game then our pay structure would be more flexible, I'm sure.

I am bringing up this thread again as, following my only opportunity to see him (Mondays review of Saturdays match), I am surprised that I am the only one to comment. I am sure other people, like me, have yet to see him play a match so I waited for some comments. I would rename the review, all two minutes of it, the Imrie show! He was so involved in the game(edited highlights, I accept) that it would appear Brew will have a job hanging on to him - ?50k! I bet we will get a big reward for unearthing him and giving him his chance in the big time. Time will tell, but he is looking a super prospect.

I was watching the match on TV and all the first half the match was ''dead...flat...poor Rangers team....devoid of ideas...etc'' according to the pundits and in no way was Rossco allowing Burks freedom to do anything. It was when Burke was switched that he created his runs down the right. If the other players offered the same commitment to ICT each game, that Rossco does, we would be a few points better off, in my opinion!! I am also of the opinion that if someone 'misses a sitter' if there is such a thing, it does not nulify the previous 90 mins work that went before and therefore it is still possible to be man of the match and be the one that put the ball over the bar.

My post did indeed start off with lots of praise and it was well merited!! Super, super support! That, however, perhaps makes me that wee bit more disappointed when I hear the F.. word being sung loudly, from our choir and ...No .. I did not hear it from the opposition support. No Clacher, the families did not tell me that they moved because the swear words were being shouted but, assuming you were there, you will appreciate that we all had a great view of the park and moving did not offer a better view or a warmer seat etc. - the timing of the move and the direction, was a dead giveaway. However, to finish on the same note as I started, to be part of this support is a privilege, in my opinion.

Rather like Alex's first post, I also enjoyed the support on Saturday and felt we were a lesson to most clubs on how to support your team! The noise coming from the choir and especially the ''****** home support'' directed at the Hibs fans was excellent. The black mark and yes, the mark was rather big - was the use of the F.. word in a chorus. 'Reduce the kids ticket price and have parents take their kids to the game and increase the attendance' - what a super idea - and then we can all sing the F... word to them and everyone will go home happy, and come back for the next game!! Aye Right!! The two families that moved away from the choir TOWARDS THE HIBS FANS did not indicate, to me, that they went home happy and will return next week!

Do bench-warmers get the same win bonus as the team out on the park?? If not - is it not possible that Brew was rewarding his more experienced players by sending them on for more reward, even if it was only for a short time!

I can not believe the poor commentry on this game. ''Black gets a free kick outside the box'' ...''Gretna attacking....'' Sorry but what happened between times, apart from the gritter on the bridge!!

If the other players in ICT shirts, especially Niculae, had put as much into the game as Rossco I doubt if we would be lamenting the loss but crowing over our first win over the Dons!!

Well, I suppose this thread just proves we all have opinions - so here is mine. Bayne I felt was as good as could be expected trying to head flick high balls, in a gale, to non existent team mates! Niculae, someone I feel is often the butt of political criticism, was anything but an international player, leaving Bayne so far up the park with no back up from him, to assist. On the subject of running, he(Niculae) was like a cart horse at times and seemed to offer his wonderful flicks to non-existent team mates and then standing glowering at this non-mind reading teammate, as if it was his fault! He also fed the opposition on occasions as well. Our defence was well in control until that stupid challenge. My son, a Dons supporter( I know, it hurts) was in the Merkland stand and thought we had a 'stone wall' penalty with Langfield in deep dooda BUT it was away at the far end from us so maybe we will see it on the box and find out if we were robbed. Our manager although very involved in the game, seemed to be at odds with the supporters in his vision of the match and again showed reluctance to make the substitutions that we expected. All in all the wind was the winner but well done to the travelling and local, ICT support!!

I, for one, hope he is right as well and we win by a bucketfull. Please be careful on the drive down here today, we need all the noise we can get inside Pittodrie, so take extra care! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!

I think it was the great Gary Player who remarked - ''It is strange, the more I practise the luckier I become'' Maybe we have found the reason for our new 'good-luck' - Brews work ethic!!

Three men In America Y'know" said the Scotsman, "I still prefer the pubs back home. In Glasgow there's a little bar called McTavish's. Now the landlord there goes out of his way for the locals so much that when you buy four drinks he will buy the fifth drink for you." "Well," said the Englishman, "at my local, The Red Lion, the barman there will buy you your third drink after you buy the first two." "Ahhhhh, that's nothing," said the Irishman. "Back home in Dublin there's The Harper's Bar. Now the moment you set foot in the place they'll buy you a drink, then another, all the drinks you like. Then when you've had enough drinks they'll take you upstairs and see that you get laid. All on the house." The Englishman and Scotsman immediately scorn the Irishman's claims. But he swears every word is true. "Well," asked the Englishman, "did this actually happen to you?" "Not me meself, personally, no," said the Irishman . "But it did happen to me sister."

BUT - C1C3 - the diddy men have done it before as your name shows. Have faith, I am all excited and can't wait till Sunday - just in case!! I think you have a typical ICT supporters reserve, we are wee, we don't deserve to be in with the big boys, what if we are humiliated - I share then all but over 90 mins we can do it!!

Well the Falkirk match is over, Celtic did not 'scrape' though but appeared to win at a canter- however - they will experience the fall from a loftier height when the stuff hits the fan on Saturday! I believe... on Saturday, ICT will indeed have another headline highlighting their win over Celtic and the only downside will be that Rangers will, no doubt, surge forward in the league. Brewster will be put forward, by the Record, as the man for the Scotland job. ICT fans will still have doubts regarding his managerial ability and call for CC to be returned as we have difficulty in this 'four in a row' nonsense!

Re the title I bought a car in the garage on the right on Telford Street, just towards the canal from the new roundabout, for circa ?100!! I averaged 886 miles per week in it for the next 2 years!! 2 distributor caps 7/6 each and 2 top hoses 1/0 each, was my total outlay over that period. Wonderful. Travelling towards the canal you came to a garden centre and then the Bumbers Lane - this lane was where you 'walked' the Dalneigh ladies home from the Strathpeffer/ Dingwall/ Beauly dance bus on a Friday night/Saturday morning. Next to that was a grassed area with a wall round it to hold the 'ne'er do wells' in, I think. Coming from 'up the hill' we were not encouraged to frequent this particular park, a bit rough for us! It is nice to now recognise that, with the amalgamation, there is evidence of improvement in some of the previous occupants of that park. It will take some time but I have high hopes for their conversion to our superior support level.

Could it not also be a case of Malky being an excellent trainer/asst manager BUT maybe a wee bit short on the PR side of things. We all get excited over some changes, for the better, in our working lives and maybe Malky displayed that by going to press early!

Damned if they do and damned if they don't!! If the club had put out a statement prior to the issue being cut and dried, as it would appear journalists and Malky did, and things went wrong so that Malky was not then employed, by them, wouldn't the posters have had a field day!! HOWEVER If they do it correctly - they are still criticised!! You can please some people some of the time......................!!

I must admit that I was in the Mee camp re Brewsters return - could not imagine a worse managerial selection for the club and the morale of the supporters! I have in the past two games shifted my view somewhat and now feel that given a supportive assistant manager, we may be OK this season after all. However, I find that should we now surge ahead and people do not support the club as they are then having to eat a bit of humble pie, so disappointing. Humble pie does taste rather nice if one is proved wrong in a positive way!

Is this not all a matter of degrees or perhaps, more realistically, spur of the moment reaction? Scenerio one - Bayne misses an open goal in the first few minutes of a game. Scenerio two - Bayne misses an open goal against Rangers in the 90th minute, for us to win the game. In the first scenario I accept that Scotty will remain silent, perhaps. In the second scenario I do NOT accept Scotty will remain silent as he will be all charged up, as will we all be and Graham will get pelters AND expect it!! The McAllister situation is totally different - the type of 'supporter' (not) that behaves in this way to our own player, before he even takes the field of play, has been identified and this part of the old thread should be put to bed.

Could she be copying her partners answers?? Or, maybe a touch of BTF guidance!

Simply win two games on the trot and the atmosphere will be changed!! Success breeds happiness and happiness is infectious and soon the supporters will infect the non - supporters, the takings will rise - we will sign one of the top players queuing at the door for a game and this new signing, smiling Mr Ronaldo, will make a difference to the results!! MAGIC!!