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ABERDEEN
Season highlight
There were actually some memorable occasions in the cups this season – last-minute goals against Falkirk in the Co-operative Insurance Cup and Dunfermline and St Mirren in the Scottish Cup were particular highs, and Jamie Langfield’s penalty save in the Scottish Cup semi gave us our only happy Hampden moment even if it was fleeting.
Season lowlight
Celtic 9 Aberdeen 0. The cup semi-final defeats were extremely painful, but this catastrophe almost prepared us for them. Never again, AFC – never again.
Managers' report cards
Mark McGhee – a great start to the season followed some shrewd signings last summer, but performances tailed off as he seemed unable to motivate the players, couldn’t organise them defensively and was over-keen on strange tactics and formations. The utter collapse in form and morale after the 0-9 meant his position was untenable. 3/10
Craig Brown – saved us from relegation with a ‘new manager syndrome’ set of results, but he showed few signs of a miracle transformation over the remainder of the season – plus he was at the helm for two more cup semi-finals where we shipped four goals in each – so overall the jury’s out. 6/10
Both bosses had to deal with an incredible injury list which surely cannot befall Broon next term... Can it?
Player of the season
Scott Vernon is our first proper penalty-box ‘sniffer’ in a decade, and if not for a late-season injury he surely could have hit 20 goals for us.
Expectations for next season
Entirely dependent on summer ins and outs, but for a club of Aberdeen’s stature the fans’ expectations will be fairly low. Top Six is a must, as is competing with the Old Firm, Hearts and United in games against them.
What needs to be on the club's summer shopping list?
Where do I start? An entire ‘spine’ – a dominating centre-back, a powerful midfielder, probably a playmaker to replace Chris Maguire if he goes, plus a couple of full-backs.
What was the worst moment of the 2010/11 season?
Celtic Football Club, and in particular their manager Neil Lennon, bringing the game into disrepute on repeated occasions and getting away with it.
And what was the best?
Tricky - there was very little to please Scottish fitba fans in 2010/11. The Old Firm starting to be taken to task over sectarianism, I suppose. Remains to be seen if anything actually is done about it though.
See the published version of this article plus fans of other SPL clubs' Reviews of the Year at: sport.scotsman.com
