THE one good thing to come out of Saturday's defeat was that the entire nation saw exactly why Aberdeen fans are disgruntled with Jimmy Calderwood's regime. The only 'mugging' at Pittodrie at the weekend was the punters who shelled £21 or who've sig
ned up for an entire season of such turgid fare.
This negative insipid and one-dimensional mediocrity has been the norm at Pittodrie for the last four years under Calderwood (albeit more successfully). The best analogy is that of a starving man being grateful to the man providing him with even the most basic meal but, after five years of the same fayre every night, not unreasonably turning round and asking "What! Beans on Toast AGAIN?'.
We do appreciate what he's done for the club and he will be given time to bed in his new side but, as the joke in Aberdeen at the moment goes, it's not the club's hawk that's frightened the seagulls from Pittodrie, it's just even the gulls know the Dons are mince just now.
Mark Alexander
www.aberdeen-mad.co.uk
CELTICI SHOULD confine comment to the solid and entertaining performance of the team on Sunday, particularly the early contender for goal of the season by big Sammi, the assured control of Crosas, powerful running of Brown and authoritative play of Caldwell. But I won't!
The headline story about Mike McCurry and his choice of "hymns" in a Sunday newspaper was unquestionably designed to put the pressure on either the ref or the fans. The timing of this story – on the morning of a match when McCurry took charge of a Celtic game – had maximum impact.
Naka was definitely fouled for the second penalty and then assaulted by Wright. The Rev saw no need to produce a card for either a blatant pull or a right-hander to the back of Naka's head.
Funnily enough Caldwell merited a red for throwing himself, eyes closed, at the ball and making contact with his arm. If deliberate, a penalty, and at most a yellow card were sufficient punishment.
Tommy Dornan
www.celticsupportersassoc.co.uk
DUNDEE UNITEDWE'RE a long way off getting a nose-bleed in the SPL but it sure feels good being off the bottom and heading in the right direction again. Winning ugly is still winning and a lot of Arabs had forgotten how good a Saturday night could be with the added bonus of three points in the bag.
Jimmy Calderwood was quoted as claiming Aberdeen were 'mugged' but nobody watching Saturday's frenetic ('frenetic' in this instance being a euphemism for 'not very attractive to watch') encounter at Pittodrie would agree with Captain Sun-bed on that score! For large chunks it seemed as if both sides had signed up to a 'thou shalt not pass to anyone in your own team' charter, yet the game was exciting enough for its end-to-end bluster. Jon Daly missed a slew of gilt-edged chances but, thankfully, Tommy 'the punch' Wright stepped up to the plate with a bizarre handball to allow Francisco Sandaza to slot the resultant penalty. Not pretty but job done and happy (relieved) Arab faces all round.
Hamish Mackintosh
www.dundeeunited-mad.co.uk
FALKIRKIT WAS hardly a classic but Saturday's point at Paisley may prove to be very valuable as the season goes on. Having played with guts and no little style against Hearts a week earlier, the performance against St Mirren was perplexing.
The Bairns seemed to play with little width, the game being very bogged down in midfield, but when we did open up the play the result should have been more than the solitary goal.
The Buddies had their moments as well, mainly via the constant aerial threat of Jim Hamilton and Billy Mehmet but I always had the feeling that if we got our nose in front the points would be there for the taking.
But Kevin McBride, who had helped set up Graham Barrett's goal, went from hero to zero by gifting St Mirren a penalty to equalise.
Falkirk will have to be at the top of their game this week when Hamilton come calling – we cannot afford any more mistakes if we are going to start the climb away from the foot of the table.
Brian Guthrie
www.bairnstrust.com
HAMILTON ACCIESUNFORTUNATELY, it was another close-run defeat for Accies on Saturday, still three defeats by a one-goal margin does suggest we are at the very least proving difficult to beat.
French pair Joel Thomas and Stephen Ettien (signed from Kaiserlauten and Lyon respectively) both came on in the second half of Saturday's match and looked very lively. Expect to hear much more of our Gallic duo in the weeks and months ahead. Home debutant Martin Canning was solid at the back against his former employers. Mark my words, had Sol Bamba (Canning's replacement at Hibs) been playing it would have been a very different game and in Accies favour!
Man of the match was home-grown product Brian Easton who once again performed wonders bombing down the left flank. It may be a bit early for him to be knocking on the door for full Scotland honours but surely the watching George Burley could nudge Billy Stark to include him in his next Under-21 squad.
Mark Falconer
www.setbb.com/acciesworld
HEARTSTHE non-payment of last week's wages certainly excited the media, but the players seemed to be fairly relaxed about it. If it did have any effect on the players, it may have actually motivated them against Inverness, as the team came flying out of the blocks.
However, after Mikoliunas' fine goal, we were unable to kill off the opposition. While never really in any danger, our lack of cutting edge up front will mean other teams will make us suffer in games we otherwise dominate.
Tannadice on Saturday will be a tough task, but I'm actually glad they got their first win last weekend; whenever a team is needing a result to turn the corner, we usually seem to oblige.
Hearts have introduced a new "shop-a-fan" text scheme. There's maybe a good idea in there somewhere, but it seems unworkable in practice as the phoneline may have a busy time when one of the bigger clubs come, bringing with them the unsavoury minority element of their support.
Sandy Leonard
www.jamboskickback.co.uk
HIBERNIANWHILE he took a couple of minutes to make an impact against Dundee United, it was less than a minute after entering the New Douglas Park arena that Derek Riordan showed every Hibs fan just what they had missed over the last couple of years.
Yes, he still looks slow and unfit, but the ability to get himself a yard of space and dispatch a ball into the opposite top corner has never left him and he treated the visiting Hibs fans to a sublime finish that was enough to pick up a worthy three points as we held out comfortably enough in the end. Two wins on the trot should give us the confidence to take into our toughest match of the season to date, when Wally's Rangers visit Easter Road for the weekend's telly match.
Hibs really need to keep it together for 90 minutes to have any real hope of taking something from this game and any Hibs fan will tell you that we have never yet hit any sort of form this season, so what better time to start than this weekend and a win against Rangers.
Eddie Henderson
www.hibs.net
INVERNESS CTWELL, that's our unbeaten run away from home over and all inside the first ten minutes in the capital. Yet again our defence was culpable for this by unforced errors. Despite our efforts to claw ourselves back into the game we were firing blanks and lacked that cutting edge.
We will soon be coming up against teams with more firepower than we've faced so far and the writing is on the wall for a bit of a drubbing.
But it's not just the defence that is the problem. Our strikers have yet to form any kind of partnership and are missing the target at an alarming rate. Personally I don't blame Brewster on his own. He's gone out and done what he can with the money available. Someone, or something, is causing problems in this team. The camaraderie is gone.
During the game players spend more time bitching at each other than actually playing. There are no partnerships and there is no reading and understanding of each other. There simply is no team-work.
Dave 'Gringo' Wilson
www.caleythistleonline.com
KILMARNOCKWHAT can I say apart from that the best team ultimately won on Sunday and that even without the help of a bewildering performance by the referee, Celtic would still have walked away with all three points.
At times it seemed like it was more about the Celtic supporters against Mike McCurry and we were only bystanders, and despite various attempts by the man in black to get in their good books they just were not going to let the recent revelations about him go.
Back to the game, Maloney sees an opportunity and plays for a penalty and gets one, apparently this is acceptable behaviour and the referee duly obliged, only for him to miss it … there is some kind of justice there.
Another bizarre penalty incident was enough to finish us off before we finally were awarded a decision in the dying minutes.
It was a bad Killie performance from a muted team. We need to start off these games without thinking we are going to lose.
Barry Richmond
www.killiefc.com
MOTHERWELLIN NANCY, a couple of fans fed up at being kept behind in the ground for a remarkable 35 minutes allegedly had a rattle at a gate hoping to get out. While the French riot police are not known for their discretion, firing a gas canister into an otherwise peaceful crowd containing women and children seems a gross over-reaction.
It could have produced trouble from nowhere had the fans not ignored the provocation. And before anyone thinks they've picked up a Telegraph by mistake, it's not only foreign police who are out of touch – just ask any away fans who have been to Glasgow recently.
Do police forces need a few incidents per game to justify the ludicrous prices they charge the clubs for the privilege of their presence? It's incredulous to believe such incompetence can be accidental.
The clubs should stand up for their customers and demand we are no longer treated like criminals simply for attending a football game.
Derek Wilson
www.firparkcorner.com
RANGERSA SECOND consecutive home win, this time with a scoreline which flattered the visitors rather than Rangers. Motherwell were malicious in the tackle and toothless going forward, although Mark McGhee's fury about this performance is an interesting contrast to last week's laughing and joking as his side conceded four goals at home to Perpetually Offended FC.
This game was summed up in a four-minute cameo: Bob Malcolm committed two bookable tackles; Pedro Mendes was left writhing on the turf first by Malcolm then Paul Quinn; referee Eddie Smith saw nothing untoward in any of it.
Finally, congratulations to The Blue Order, Club Deck and East Enclosure Loyal for their colourful and positive display of flags, banners and songs in recognition and celebration of the Ulstermen who have graced the blue jersey over the decades, arguably inspiring Steve Davis to score the opener. The fact this went largely unpublicised is a sad but predictable reflection on what is viewed newsworthy.
Stephen Smith
www.theRST.co.uk
ST MIRRENSOMETHING strange happened at Love Street on Saturday. We actually got a penalty.
It was only our second of the year – and our first in the league since May 2007. It's a bit surprising that we've had so few spot-kicks considering how many we've managed to concede over the past few months and you have to wonder why that's the case.
Part of the problem is no doubt because we don't get into the opposition box often enough.
However, it's possible there is a more sinister reason. Our manager has been quite outspoken about referees already this season and you wonder if we are being punished because of this. It's relatively easy to think about some stonewall penalty claims we've had turned down since we last had a penalty in the league.
Hopefully Saturday is a sign that things are beginning to change. Having waited so long for a penalty, it wouldn't have been a surprise to see Billy Mehmet miss it due to lack of practice!
Stuart Gillespie
www.saintmirren-mad.co.ukThe full article contains 2144 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
