ICT -V- ABERDEEN - matchday thread

[caley100]

Is it me being petty or did we end a 4 game unbeaten run with a stupid loss after the return of Hastings?

He did well going forward yesterday, but was a headless chicken in defence.

Why did Brew not keep the team as last week? seems strange.

Rossco had the worst first half for a long time, again like Hastings he did well going forward but lacked awareness in defence, all in all very dissapointing with the cheap goals we gave away, thought Brew might have sorted it out by now.

Cant believe nobody mentioned the ref, every 50-50 decision went to the Dons, Russel evetually booked for complaining.

[Kingsmills]

The first half hour was terrible, thereafter we had the balance of play but seldom looked to really trouble their defence.

Really disappointing to lose against a less than impressive Dons team badly depleted by injury and then further weakened by the loss of two more of their best players by half time.

We need a reliable goalkeeper and a solid central defender as a matter of the utmost priority.

Well done though to Denzil for writing his name in the history books.

[RiG]

Just a cut and paste from P & B:

Our defending was poor for the Aberdeen goals. Malkowski was utterly dreadful in the first 10 - 15 minutes. Fraser should request a transfer if he doesn't get his place back.

Don't really need to say anything about the first Aberdeen goal other than how Calderwood thinks it was a good strike is beyond me. I bet he had a good chuckle when he saw Zibis name in the starting XI for us  :015:

We were dreadful for the first 20 minutes as I've already said. I thought Nicholson and Severin looked good for Aberdeen but they weren't creating much really to build on their lead. We seemed reduced to pinging long balls (shock) up to Wyness and Niculae who weren't really winning them. Some long range efforts but nowt really to get excited about though I felt we threatened more than Aberdeen were doing for the rest of the first half.

McGuire should have been sent off for an elbow on Mackie.

We seemed to improve a lot after the break and deservedly drew level when Wyness cored a peach of a header. Nice flighted ball in by Hastings and Wyness glanced the ball past a despairing Langfield to drew us level. No idea how Aberdeen went on to win the game as aside from the odd own goal they didn't create much again. No idea what happened really. Cross from a free kick and the ball seemed to end up in the net  :017:

After that Aberdeen went back to keeping 11 men behind the ball and held out for the win despite a reasonable penalty claim when Tounzani appeared to handle in the box. Hastings saw a fierce drive well saved by Langfield as well and further chances in the box for Niculae went abegging.

After Sverin had gone off Aberdeen seemed to lose their shape and they were there for the taking which makes it disappointing, given some of the chances we created, that we came away pointless.

Eddie Smith continues to keep up the fine tradition of being shite at refereeing as he annoyed both sets of fans with some comical decisions.

Next week is a big one. A huge chance to put some daylight between ourselves and Gretna. I think we can do it but we need to be more clinical and drop Zibi as well  :015:

Big drop in the crowd number for this game incidentally. Games against Aberdeen in Sneck usually sell out but some 1,500 less people there today  :007:

[Kingsmills]

Is 6000ish not about par for an Aberdeen game ?

[RiG]

Is 6000ish not about par for an Aberdeen game ?

I don't think so. We would normally sell these games out. The Aberdeen support was down yesterday and the wings of the Main Stand were empty and gaps were evident in the North Stand.

[absent friend]

Well, for what it is worth, my thoughts are that we should have easily won this game!

It was a tactical error to have small(ish) players up front and play high balls into them - Aberdeen's defence, as has been confirmed above, were mopping up all of them and there were some superb balls played in from wide.

We should have had Bayne on to knock the ball down to an incoming forword OR play on the deck with the team we had.

From the half hour mark up to the final whistle I felt we were the better team.

The goal was poor defending and poor goalkeeping - the keeper did look very nervous at the start with his initial non-pressured kicks so embarrassing he must have wished he was still on the bench.  Under pressure he was no problem and as the game went on he handled the kicking part of his game as well.  The defence must have a lot of confidence in him considering the amount of pass backs, under pressure, they gave him.

[Naelifts]

With you on that one Richard. Ref did seem to favour Dons. However russell should learn from the rugby players that the ref is always right, won't change his mind and will eventually book you if you whinge too much.

Also agree that the rampaging Roscoe looked out of control in the first half.........................inj fact there is a lot of consensus on this thread.....................nuff said

On to next week

[tm4tj]

It's probably just you Richard :015:

Roy was also playing but didn't offer much as an attacking threat.  The whole team were poor the first half hour, starting from the keeper right up to the strikers, ten headless chickens and a butterfingered keeper, and them on the telly too, what a poor advert for anyones CV. Denzil raised our hopes with a typical curling drifter from the edge of the box, trademark Denzil, unfortunately curling round the defender, rooting the keeper to the spot but just over the junction of the framework. Russeldinho hit a tremendous volley on the run but it was close enough to Langfield for him to make a great reaction save.  Rossco scored with a powerful downward header, he must be getting close to Wyness now, again unfortunately across Zibi for the OG, how much more benevolence can this defence show the SPL teams.  Mike Fraser must be chortling smuggly after witnessing Zibi start badly then get worse. He was not called The Clown at Easter Rd for nothing, some of his tricks are astounding, only a top clown could perform these.  However he should probably keep his place as it's not good to keep changing the keeper every week, that will just erode any confidence they have.  Give him until his next blunder, then that should see Mike return.  Aberdeen were dire after Seve limped off.  Marius produced another technically gifted display, unselfishly setting up others around him, but the mystery still goes on, where is this prolific Romanian striker that we are offering a decent wage to. There is more to footie than just scoring goals, but if it says striker on the tin, then that is what you expect to find inside it.  Brewster injured or just sitting back?  Only he will know, but maybe next week he should consider getting stripped.  Proctor starting? another possibility.  What has happened to Rankin and Morgan?  However it's the defence that need their erse felt, they are the real culprits.  We need a leader, a leader of men, someone who says my ball and never fails, at this moment, we seem to be lacking in that department.  None of the players we have on the books are leaders in that role, Dods has never been replaced and therein lies the root of all our problems.  We would have been sitting in the top six had Dods still been with us. Get your cash out in January, or maybe even save some cash by offloading those that are underachieving or not fulfilling their potential.  It's a cut throat business we are in, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, maybe we should be more ruthless and ditch the driftwood now.  We are throwing games away, games mean points, points mean survival. The longer this goes on the closer we get to the nightmare, despite all our good neat tidy play, if we bleed goals at the back it makes it more difficult to stay afloat.

Sort it now.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

 None of the players we have on the books are leaders in that role, Dods has never been replaced and therein lies the root of all our problems.  We would have been sitting in the top six had Dods still been with us. Get your cash out in January,

Absolutely right, couldn't have put it better myself

[Kingsmills]

Hear hear and the same goes for the goalkeeping position.

[gordyfromsneck]

As above. Malkowski must never again be allowed to play in ICT goals. $th choice at best. Fraser may have had the required boot up the arse, though not a very hard one. Top of the shopping list for January.

We were well worth at least the draw save for the lack of penetration in attack. I am no fan, but Bayne should have been on with Wilson a lot sooner. These 5 min substitutions are pointless - do you heard me Craig? -pointless! Even the change would have been enough to shock.

I am glad to see Hastings back, as he has in the past produced at this level and seemed to improve as the game wore on. And yes, if Rosco wants to go forwards then someone(s) should learn to cover for him. This happened sometimes but not always. Proctor was good when he came on and I would gve him a run for McGuire. Marius and Denzil did the business, but I cant help thinking that they are too similar types of players.

I certainly saw a handball in the first half, but it was at the edge of the box and may have been a "ball played him" type one which the ref let off. However, in the second the defender definitely used his elbow to control, inside the box. We jumped, we shouted, we sat back down again.

Calderwood is an old (red) fox and knew what it took to win this game. We will beat the Dons this season, and I wll be at Pittodrie to see the first of them.

[CaleyD]

Is it me being petty or did we end a 4 game unbeaten run with a stupid loss after the return of Hastings?

He did well going forward yesterday, but was a headless chicken in defence.

Earlier in the season many of the goals we were losing were coming down that side of the pitch, but yesterday all our troubles were coming on the other side.  Time and again Rossco was being drawn forward and in to the middle opening up the gap which Aberdeen used to great effect.

It's one thing for a Defender to push forward with the ball and have someone else slot in behind, but when the oposition are on the attack and nobody has time to get back and cover for him it is suicide.  Aberdeen got their first goal as a result of doing that, McGuire having to go wide to cover for Rossco led to the foul which resulted in the second and I can only recall one shot for Aberdeen coming from the other side of the goal.

Cant believe nobody mentioned the ref, every 50-50 decision went to the Dons, Russel evetually booked for complaining.

Constantly giving 50/50's against a team is one thing, but their were a couple of blatant decisions which should have gone for us that he gave the other way.  One decision I recall was when we played a long ball forward, one of the aberdeen layers came right over the top of Blackie and flattened him and he gave Aberdeen the decision.  Then an almost identical event happened in reverse at the other end and he gave the decision against us as well!!!

Not to mention missing the penalty when he was standing about 5 yards from it  :029:

[caley100]

Eddie Smith = total feckin 

Anyway, the ref didnt make Zibi let the ball through his arms, after looking at the highlights it looked like there could have been a push on Rossco as he jumped forward?

If Smith had seen it he wouldnt have blown for a foul anyway.

[beachcomber]

Eddie Smith = total feckin  :******:

Had to laugh when he was flattened by one of the ICT players (Black ?) in the centre circle :015:

Is 6000ish not about par for an Aberdeen game ?

Atmosphere from ICT end was pretty flat yesterday though, but fair play to the lone voice from the main stand who was determined to try and get things going.