What a McCurry-On

Right, from now on, all Aberdeen fans should be forced to follow the boring age-old managerial cliché and ‘take one game at a time'. For I'm sure, just like me, you fell into that familiar trap a couple of weeks back of looking ahead to 4 home games and imagining, even allowing for a blip, a haul of 9 or 10 points from these games. It seemed logical, after the healthy points total harvested from the opening 6 games, yet surely we should all know by how that football does not work that way.

So to Saturday, and we'd convinced ourselves that Hibs was the blip, and we'd get back on track. In fairness to the team, bad luck and Mike McCurry contributed in equal measure to poor play in the attempt to gain 3 points. The first result of this was in the opening minutes when, after three failed attempts at a clearance, Dundee forced the ball into the net. However, just as heads sank into hands, Mr McCurry, standing 5 yards from the incident, blew for a free-kick to Aberdeen. However, he then chose to consult with his linesman, 50 yards from the incident, and came to the conclusion that his own eyesight was far inferior and reversed the decision and gave a goal. For the following 20 minutes, Dundee dominated, more through our own nervousness than any good play of their own, with Kev McNaughton almost adding a spectacular o.g. to the scoreline!

Gradually though, Aberdeen took a grip and were twice denied by woodwork before the interval, through Anderson and Heikkinen, before Heikkinen bundled home an equaliser to sent the teams level at the interval.

After the break, it seemed as though the Jimmy's had had a fair bit to say over the half time cuppa and Aberdeen dominated the 2^nd half, particularly in the last 20 minutes when Dundee's shocking indiscipline finally reduced them to 10 men (Foster and Adams amongst many surely nursing bruises by now). However, those last 20 minutes gave a good insight into how Aberdeen will fare this season; they had loads of possession, and plenty bodies forward in the Calderwood way, yet it proved to be a case of quantity over quality as far as the forwards go, best summed up by substitute Pasquinelli's shocking miss near the end, when he headed wide from close range when it seemed easier to score. Without the long term sick Clark and Whelan, it's hard to see where creativity and goals will come from. Tosh, Severin, and Heikkinen may give their all but 1 of them (presumably Tosh) must surely give way to attacking flair. Similarly, Craig and Adams show some nice touches but neither is a penalty box predator.

Never the less, progress has been made from last season, and that should be all we ask at the moment. The players give their all, the management are not afraid to go on all out attack and we are really hard to beat. However, Rome wasn't built in a day, and we were never going to leap from 11^th to 3^rd in one season, but we do look as though we should make the top 6. Just don't dare tell anyone that we should take 6 points from the next 2 games!!

Contributed by Red Line Red