|
ABERDEEN
Four days is a lifetime in football, as Mark McGhee has found out. It was hardly crest of a wave stuff, but a free-flowing win against Hibs and a last-minute cup quarter final victory had the positive juices flowing again, but defeat to the SPL's bottom club on Saturday threw misgivings about McGhee's tenure and the shortcomings of his squad into sharp relief once more.
'Judge me when the injuries have subsided!' has been the gaffer's cry, but the complete lack of full-backs and a pair of error-prone keepers are nought to do with the queue for the treatment room and everything to do with an imbalanced squad. We will always concede soft goals this term, and if we don't score more we'll lose. So when a team ties up supply from the dangerous Aluko on the left, we are left attempting to create chances from the right - where you'll find Jerel Ifil (a hoof-it centre-back) and Darren Mackie (an uncomplicated striker). This is pretty simple stuff for any SPL team to deal with - most of the time they don't have to deal with it at all; a misplaced pass or dreadful first-touch gifting possession easily.
With our next three games against the SPL's form clubs Celtic, Inverness and Rangers, prospects of bouncing back from Saturday's defeat are not good – but there is still a long way to go in this increasingly tight division.
See the published version of this article plus fans of other SPL clubs' responses to their team's performance at: http://sport.scotsman.com/newsfront.aspx?SectionID=14223, and in the Scotsman newspaper every Wednesday.
