Hugh_Jazz

As if this is going to eradicate the problem. Aberdeen, rightly or wrongly, got the pen and got the 3 points. It does Pat Fenlon no good that Pawlett is in the dock for diving.

If they can retrospectively ban a diver, they can also refer it to a video referee during the game, make sure the pen never happens and then book the player for cheating. Best of all worlds.

Get on it Fifa.

Just seen Dons highlights, which confirmed my suspicions at the game. Never a pen in a million years, and never a red card.

The red card decision is just fucking stupid. Firstly, he was trying to block the clearance, not tackle. Second, he missed the man. Third, there was no "intent" to harm, because he was trying to block. OK, his studs were high, but so fucking what if those studs were intentionally nowhere near the man?! Arguably a bit rash, but no way was it worth more than a yellow.

The refs thought process seems to be something like "well, if Pawlett had made contact, he might have hurt him, therefore it's a red."

That's a bit like saying "well, if that perfectly good tackle wasn't quite so good, it would have been a bad tackle, and might have hurt him, therefore it's a red".

Fucking ridiculous. Decisions should be based on what actually happened, not what might have happened.

PS. I won't have a bad word said against Gervinho. Best combover in football.

This reminds me of earlier in the year when the riots were ongoing and I realised that my girlfriend is essentially just Richard Littlejohn with a massive rack.

This is just crying out for Photoshop.

You must be a pedophile.

Unsurprisingly, I find that totally objectionable.

I don't understand what you mean? I'm just trying to pay a fitting tribute to my beautiful family. My wonderful wife and my two wee girls. If you don't like it, then fine, but don't you dare disrespect them like that though.

He wasn't disrespecting them. Don't be a fanny.

It's one thing to challenge the government's choices and hold them to account, but it's quite another for Miliband to claim that Cameron "failed Britain" at the EU Summit, when his own aides were briefing Labour MPs that he wouldn't have signed it either.

He's a two-faced, opportunistic fud.

EDIT: Public support is strongly in favour of the stance Cameron took.

Ed Balls - smug little cunt, with nothing to be smug about

Neil Lennon - no explanation necessary

Ally McCoist - used to be likeable, now a complete walloper.

The London rioters

Bashar al-Assad, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh - all for being murderous, self-interested scum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQw4ixYFWQI

Mawene is decent enough in the air, but that's about it. His positioning is dodgy, his passing is worse, he's not the quickest and teams are putting through-balls past him and Considine for fun...oh, and he doesn't clear his lines well. Also has a very annoying habit of heading balls that are below waist-height instead of putting his boot through them. Still better than Considine though.

Swapping Ozzy and Jack was one of the only things that worked well last night. Defensively we were an utter shambles again. Big fan of Jack though....he's a good lad.

Darren Fletcher taking an extended break from fitba due to a "chronic inflammatory bowel condition".

Oocha.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16165953.stm

EDIT: Didn't take long: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulcerative_colitis

Totally a penalty......hands were up, fucking stupid, especially when he could have just blocked it with his massive, god awful forehead.

Considine and Mawene are very slow and I think that is a big factor when coming up against teams who can pass the ball to each other and have a nippy striker.

Well thank fuck we're signing a 33 year old, with a fucked knee then.

http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/topic/8096-anderson-leaves-derby/

Hmmm.

Just been on Wikipedia - Russell has only played 53 games since he left Aberdeen in 2007, and is currently recovering from a hamstring injured that has kept him out for 2 months. Another hamstring injury last season kept him out for 3 months. Ruptured ankle ligaments kept him out for 3 months while at Sunderland in 2007, before he suffered a cruciate injury that kept him out for 14 months while on loan at Burnley.

If we were signing the Russell Anderson of 2005-6, I'd be all over this......very doubtful that we'll be getting the same player.

I'm not so sure, I'd say it really hinders us at times. Foster is lightning quick and Milsom and Jack are mobile enough but other than that I'd say we struggle in this aspect of the game. On several occassions yesterday the ball went up to Vernon and Fallon but there was no support coming through from midfield so they tend to get isolated up top. Having that bit more mobility would allow us to break out of defence, support the front men and close down the opposition quicker when they are in possession.

Agreed about the defending mind you. Horribly uncertain about themselves at times and probably need someone to show a bit of leadership. I wouldn't actually say teams get too many chances against us but frustratingly/inevitably we lose concentration and give away daft goals.

Yeah, I agree the midfield weren't always supporting the strikers, but that had nothing to do with lack of pace IMO. They just didn't make the runs. Like I said, our central defensive pair are hopeless at clearing their lines, and finding a red shirt, so the midfield has to drop deep and becomes disconnected from the front two.

The more pressure we came under, the more unwilling the midfield was to gamble and make the supporting runs, preferring just to sit deep and invite more pressure.

AFC are generally a quick side compared with others in the league. They're just not very good.

Don't think our problem is anything to do with lack of pace. Jack, Foster, Milsom, Fyvie are all plenty quick enough down the wings. We looked like a pacey side when we were 2-0 up.

The main issue for me is that we can't clear our lines.....we're just absolutely shite at clearing the ball. Particularly the centre-backs. If you're only clearing the ball 25 or 30yds from your own bye-line, the midfield are always going to get sucked into deep positions, and you end up with your backs to the wall the whole time. Loads of examples of that yesterday.

We're also very poor at penalty-box defending, the shot that Steven Thompson almost scored with near the end summed it up for me.....2 Dons defenders all over him, he had no control of the ball, and then the next thing he's goal-side shooting 6yds from goal. It's just awful. It's the standard of goals that we're conceding that is killing us right now......we're architects of our own downfall in almost every game, and it's got nothing to do with the midfield.

Oh, and keepers......Jason Brown is not good enough. Gonzales is not good enough. On current evidence, we just packed our best keeper off to Forfar.

Sort out the defence, and we stay up....don't, we go down. Simple as that for me.

Andy Considine.

Anything by the Jayhawks. Gary Louris is a fucking genius.

In the absence of video review, this is the best they can do. Although it is utterly stupid to haul the DAFC manager in front of the beaks for complaining about a decision that the SPL have accepted was wrong.

Despite Aluko getting a ban, I very much doubt this make Jim McIntyre feel any better about it. The possibility that Rangers might drop points is of fuck all consequence to Dunfermline.

Change is definitely required, and only one obvious solution presents itself.

We need to play ALL our games on a Friday.

To me, it's an utter no brainer. If I was a player, and had the choice between a club with great ground and great facilities or a club with Pittodrie stadium and Balgownie playing fields, I'm choosing the former.

Sure, Pittodrie is the ancestral home, but let's be honest here....it's a fucking shitehouse, and has been for 20 years. Perhaps we would lose a few fans from north of Aberdeen. But we'll gain a bunch from Cove, Stonehaven, Portlethen, Montrose etc. Swings and roundabouts. Overall, having a stadium on the A90 makes it more accessible, not less.

Personally, it's more of a pain in the arse for me (ie. further away), but frankly, I'll be fucking mad for sitting in a new stadium instead of freezing my nadgers off in the South Stand.

Thats Considine all over, he can be brilliant on his day, but he constantly makes huge mistakes that cost us goals, he is one that could do with moving on i think.

I really dont know the answer for the dons, we have been talking about it all morning here at work, sacking Brown is not the answer, Milne leaving is not the answer, i dont personally see what Miller does for his money, but sacking him probably wont change much. The club needs a big overhal, but there is no money to do that, and no manager will be given the time needed to completely change the club around, we will keep sacking managers and picking up another one to steady the ship for a while yet.

Maybe going down, as disastrous as it may be, would be the best thing for the dons, they would be forced into wholesale changes at the club, but would we survive? What happens to our new expensive stadium if we go down? Will they still waste millions on it when no one will come to watch 1st division football? These are some very important questions they should be thinking about.

No, that's crazy talk. The notion that going down would do us good is a ridiculous myth. Nothing is more certain to lower the standard of the club even further and bring the spectre of administration closer than dropping a division.

If we go down, we continue to be saddled with a delapidated stadium that we can barely afford to maintain. We'll lose anybody in our squad that is even half-decent overnight, we'll lose TV money, we'll lose fans for good. Nothing good can come of it whatsoever.

And by the way, the new stadium is not a "waste" of millions, and it is not Stewart Milne's devious end-game so he can get a hold of Pittodrie's land. It's our best chance of staying in business and remaining a competitive club.

One of our biggest problems is being able to attract players. IMO, getting top class training facilities and a swanky new ground will be a massive boost in that regard. If you were an English/foreign player who knew fuck all about Scottish football and were weighing up your options, I'd wager that you'd favour the club with the first class ground/facilities over Fir Park, Rugby Park, ICT etc.

Stewart Milne's plan - as far as I understand it - is to oversee the delivery of the new stadium, then leave with the club with a new ground AND a far better balance sheet than they currently have. If he can do that, we'll be the envy of a lot of other clubs, and we'll have a great base upon which to build a decent squad.

Relegation means none of that happens.

Oldmeldrum's Reading Champ concurs:

No money.....no would-be successor.....Milne underwriting £8m of debt without which our bank would not want to know us.....millions of past managers who have all failed to some degree.....Darren Mackie etc etc etc etc.

I can't even be fucked making this into a coherent argument because we've done this so many fucking times already, but frankly if anyone still genuinely believe that binning the manager/board is the correct course of action, you can piss up a fucking rope. Seriously, how many more fucking times do AFC have to go through this before some people stop making ludicrous, costly demands of the club and start facing the realities of our situation?

Aye, the oil industry would be fucked if it wasn't for all the Central Belters keeping the standards up.