Shocking. Cringeworthy. Brutal. Mince. Keech. Humiliating. And perhaps the most unpleasant of all, the three tragic words: To. Be. Expected.
Yes, it was a deeply terrible, terrible result. The inconsistency that has plagued us all season long returned with a vengeance last night to produce a result of such epic badness that I am struggling to find the words to express how I feel this morning, so I'll let the picture above do the talking for me.
I just don’t get it.
Saturday's performance against Celtic was stellar, being easily the best AFC performance I’ve seen for a while. A cracking atmosphere in the ground, our midfield dominated, our defence contained the Celtic front line for most of the game, and every time we went forward we looked dangerous. With the exception of Saluko who was pish on the day, not a single player gave up even after we went behind twice. Every man fought for the ball, every man fought for the result.
In short, for only possibly the second or third time this season (v Hearts and v Rangers) we were a team. And boy, what a difference it made.
You'd think that that game would be a springboard for a good auld panelling of Raith, but no; we put in a performance that showed everything that's been bad about AFC since the start of the season: no shouting, no leadership, no tactics, no skill, no imagination. It was a messy disjointed effort that fills me with dread for not just the remaining games this season, but also for the years ahead as the terminal decline of a once great club continues unchecked.
If there was ever any doubt prior to last nights game that our season was over, I think we can put that doubt to bed. Once again I wake up as a supporter of the laughing stock of (Scottish) football.
As one poster over on the Aberdeen Mad! site put it, we're a club that has a board with no ambition or vision, a Director of Football who has no respect in the business community who in turn won't invest in AFC (and who can't motivate some of the richest oil companies in Britain, all based in Aberdeen, to invest in the club), fans who are now fighting amongst themselves, a rundown stadium and pathetic press releases and mindless soundbites that only serve to anger the SFA (for example that letter posted on the AFC website about the standard of refereeing in a recent game, I forget who it was against...) and the fans (to wit: McGhee giving out to the fans for getting on his back about the shite performances his team have been putting in, even going so far as branding us "the most abusive fans in the world").
There where only 8,000 at the game last night to see Aberdeen play a game in a Cup that - and do bear this in mind - we hold so dear we fired a manager for failing to win us one in five years, despite delivering constantly improving league finishes and European qualification.
McGhee claims he was spat at on his way back to the tunnel following the final whistle. I'm not in any way condoning that kind of behaviour, and those responsible should be banned for life from the club. But if what McGhee alleges is true, that incident, coupled with the ever decreasing attendances and the rising discontent amongst the AFC support should tell the Board something: we're not happy, the club is going the wrong way and perhaps most importantly, you are not doing anything to allay our fears that the debacles of Raith, Queens Park, Sigma Olomouc, Bohemians, Skonto Riga, Barry Town, Dunfermline and Queen of the South won’t happen again.
Mark McGhee needs to regain the faith of the fans. For better or for worse, unless he walks, we're stuck with him. And while I understand that as supporters we sometimes put pressure on the club when we demand more than the club can deliver, that's part of the job. Deal with it, do something about it, or go. It's that simple.
And to anyone out there who reads this and thinks "oh, another whining sheep-shagger thinking it's still 1983" - you're wrong. Dead wrong. I'm willing to bet the farm that 99.9% of the Red Army don't expect to win a European trophy in their lifetime, in much the same way I won't ever see Aberdeen winning the League in my lifetime.
Most of us are fine with that. It may well be lacking ambition and hope, but us non-Old Firm supporters should go take a look back at the winners of the league since 1985 - reality is a bitter pill to swallow, no?
But what we're not fine with is the sort of result we had last night coming around to bite us season after long season. My parting message to all at Aberdeen FC would be this: get a fucking grip and sort it out. Right now that's all we expect.
Other blogs
Reality Check Needed At Pittodrie [The Scottish Football Soapbox]
Crisis? What Crisis? [The Scottish Football Blog]
Strong team but weak attitude knocks Aberdeen out [We Know SFA]
Aberdeen Ousted By Raith [Scotzine]
In all of your posts on the original match and the replay, you've done exactly the same thing that McGhee did - not given Raith Rovers any credit for their performance. This was McGhee's biggest mistake, by not considering that they might actually be a threat to Aberdeen in either game he left himself open to the kind of embarassment that comes with cup defeats to lower league opposition.
ReplyDeleteIf he (or you) had made any effort to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents, you would have realised that they took 28 out of 33 available points at the tail end of last season, conceding only two goals in the run of matches that took them to the second division title. You would also have seen that they spent the first couple of months in the first division in the top four, with their league position only slipping due to a defensive injury crisis - by the time they played you in the first match most of those players were back to fitness and you should have expected them to be more like a top 4 side again.
But no, McGhee looks at it and thinks "seventh in the first division? they'll be mince", and so do you - even after your lucky escape in the first match. If you don't take your opposition seriously you deserve what you get, and Aberdeen seem to be making a habit of it.
Alan, totally agree with you, Raith deserve the respect and credit I and most Aberdeen fans didn't give. You played well, outplayed us on both occasions and deserved your win.
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