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Gordon Reid's Cartoon Album (updated 11th Nov. 2001)	Welcome to the home page of The Red Final, fanzine of Aberdeen Football Club. We publish a paper edition every few weeks during the season (number 85 will be in the works presently). Contributions for future issue to: PO Box 368, Aboyne AB34 5LZ We have a circulation that reaches and refreshes all corners of the Earth by snail mail and this frustrating virus haunted electronic medium. Updated 27th August 2008 Every one of our contributors is proud to be a Sheepshagger. Fixtures 2007-2008 (updated 6th August 2007) Fixtures Archive The bibliography of Aberdeen FC - listing all relevant publications known to TRF. (updated 19th May 2007) TRF's statistical review of AFC   Site Archive pages - See what's gone before
TRF's Bad Joke Zone (updated 2nd August 2003)	This site is sponsored by:  Every comic book sold via this link will bring a 5p donation to AFC Youth Development, just mention TRF when ordering.
	27th August 2008 - Your mission, Aberdeen, should you choose to accept it, is a simple one. Get down the road to Ayr and give the Honest Men a spanking, thus launching the Red Army onto the trail for the first of two visits to Hampden Park that you owe them. Red might well be out favourite colour, but we don't want to see this season's performance balance sheet showing a downside. Up, up and away, that's what we're looking for so keep focussed, get stuck in and make us as proud of you as we all desperately want to be. Nuff said!
	20th August 2008 - Two games gone and the Dandies have blown more cold than hot, something that needs to change pronto with the game against the creaking huns coming up. After last season, the Redz owe their supporters big time and it looks like there might not be a better time to get their act together and do something with both sides of the old farm looking decidedly vulnerable. The big summer clear-out was necessary and even though people will have differing views on the qualities of the players who went and of those who have come in, the overall change, on paper at least, should have strengthened the squad. Its particularly pleasing to see that JC's hand is being forced with the introduction of a big group of younger players into the under-21 part of the squad and if he has any sense he'll get those lads in about the SPL to add their youthful enthusiasm to the mix. If the Motherwell match is anything to go by, the Dons are planning to be a much stuffier side away from home this season which means they'll be more likely to pick up point. Other teams and the west coast press will likely slag them off for that kind of approach, but those same teams do exactly the same thing when they come to Pittodrie. It may be a bit of a cliché, but visiting teams don't come to entertain - claiming that it is up to the home team to worry about that part of the game. This attitude stinks and isn't making Scottish football the spectacle that it could and should be, but since they are all at it why should the Dandies be any different?. The fear of the sack makes managers do these things, maybe the sack should come through failure to entertain as well as failure to win games. Where would that leave some of our great footballing thinkers?
	21st July 2008 - Well, the new season's nearly on us and not intending to be caught with its breeks round its ankles, TRF is already preparing a massive first edition for the opening day. Hold onto your sun tan Jimmy, its going to be a bumpy ride!
	1st July 2008 - Crikey! Another season almost upom us and the TRF website is sitting here saying bugger all! Come on contributors (you know who you are) - Finger Out!
	13th May 2008
	9th January 2008 -Lest we forget...
	9th January 2008 - Aye, okay, we aren't too productive on this site these days - the editor's too busy keeping warm in the fold with his sheep.
	6th August 2007 - Reading through assorted reports and summaries of Saturday's defeat highlighted a theme that runs through all our defeats under the management of Jimmy Calderwood. It was all the players fault, nobody but the players. Its a bit sickening to read the manager sloping shoulders when things go wrong. Sure, some of our players lived up to the tag of slow starters, but the manager surely has to take some responsibility for the team he puts on the park? They were lining up according to his plan and playing his tactics after all. How many out of the 5,600 Dons' fans in the crowd thought that it was a good idea to play Scott Severin at the back? Not a lot, that's for sure, we've yet to see him used in defence to any worthwhile effect whereas if he is in the midfield he'll make a big impact. There are plenty of other defenders at Pittodrie who could do as well, if not better in the back four (or was it three, or five?). This defeat was a warning that we need to do better and organise wiser, but it wasn't the end of the world. Just sort it out and we'll do better than okay.
	24th July 2007 - Fox Ache! A punch-up last night and Derek Young signed today, what next in the barmy world of AFC? Some of the reaction from fans on the net to the signing of Young is to say the least OTT. Okay, he's hardly top drawer, but Calderwood must have some sort of reason for it and now that the guy's back in the Sheep Pen he has to be given a chance to prove himself - even if it is only as a squad player. Nobody seemed to loathe him too much when he was at Pittodrie before and he wasn't a shrinking violet when it came to getting stuck in, but he did miss a lot of games through injury. Watch and wait folks, watch and wait (probably the reserves).
	23rd July 2007 - In a tour where the west coast media have given more attention to the minor car accident suffered by two important Dons' players than they did to any of the matches or general preparations for the new season and where they took more interest in the minutiae of the manager's contract negotiations than they did in the purpose of the tour, the Dandies have weathered the blistering heat and picked up a few handy pointers in possession football. Never mind about the weegie press though, they only deliver what we have come to expect over the years. You'd think that with the amount that the manager talks to them they'd have a bit more on the Dons than they might have done in the past, but no, only the manager. From the sketchy reporting it seems pretty clear that Aberdeen have suffered from some carelessness in defence so far, but we've seen that quite a bit in the recent past. Up front though, they have been creating plenty of chances and have found the net a few times. Let's just hope that when the minds are more concentrated for the opener against the Dundonian Arabs the errors will fade away but the chances are still there with finishing to match. As usual there have been some knocks picked up on the tour but thankfully Jamie and Michael came through their car bash experience pretty much unscathed. It sounds like the Redz have had to put up with some dodgy local refereeing and quite a few bookings and latterly sendings' off have been accumulated but its hard to know whether these were merited or just sour grapes from the locals. Their press certainly got stuck into us so we can take it that we somehow managed to show the right image for their tastes. Over all though this has been a good experience for Aberdeen's players so far and let's hope it will set them in good stead for their European campaign in a few weeks time. Enjoy the last couple of days lads, then hurry home safe, we're just about ready for another season and we want you back on home soil to share the joys of our glorious Scottish summer - cold, driech and lovely.
	18th July 2007 - Rumours are reaching TRF Towers that after tucking into a huge portion of sticky toffee pudding followed on by an unaccustomed smoke of a popular local Alexandria brand of cigarette, Zander Diamond has been whisked off to a secret hideaway by a dazzling dusky houri. They were last seen riding on a camel in the dessert. Zander had earlier caused some excitement with the locals at the training ground when they were heard shouting "give him a yashmak he's frightening the donkeys".
	12th July 2007 - Hooray - the Dandies are back in action! Okay it was only a testimonial at Cove but they had to start somewhere. It was a good result at a tight little ground and while you can't read much into such victories it can't do the early confidence any harm. Now where's that bus timetable for Buckie?
	9th July 2007 - Don't'cha just hate this spell of waiting for the first game? You can only go and watch so much training - roll on the competetive stuff - even the Cove Ra****rs game.
	29th June 2007 - One of the TRF spies took a turn up to Balgownie yesterday to have a close up look at the Dons as they returned to training after a summer of sin, debauchery and excess. Unfortunately, what he found was a bunch of fit, sun-bronzed, healthy looking professionals who had obviously listened to their boss and kept to the fitness regime on their holidays. Gone are the days when certain players would notoriously turn up for the training camp in a worse condition than downtown Baghdad, disappearing into the bushes for a quiet puke after the first few sprints, or just disappearing into the bushes to avoid getting back into trim for the season ahead. Entertaining though that sloppy behaviour might have been, it is a hell of a lot better to see players who look like they take their work seriously and mean to be as fit as possible for the campaign. We'll keep a continuing aye on preparations and report back if anybody is spotted slacking.
	29th June 2007 - Talk about good timing. Clive Leatherdale has just re-released "Aberdeen: The European Era 1966-1996" and it was done before he or any of us knew for sure that the Dons would be back in Europe this season. For any right thinking Rudolph who wants to keep the facts at his fingertips this is a great reference work, packed with not only all the match facts such as players, substitutions, crowds, scores and so on but also a good account of each of the thirty seasons that the Dons battled their way through Europe. Priced at £16.99 you can get more details about this and other football books at www.desertislandbooks.com or hunt it down at any good book shop. Of course we're all hoping that the Redz will put it way out of date with a dazzling run in this season's UEFA Cup, and that would create an excuse for yet another book about AFC.
	28th June 2007 - Why so much moaning and whining from certain quarters about Russell Anderson moving on to Sunderland? To read some people's comments you'd think the earth had opened up and swallowed all the food shops in the country. We are NOT doomed, we have NOT gone out of existence, we will NOT face a total collapse of the mighty Redz just because one player has changed club. Russell has been a great captain for us but at 28 years old he was bound to be aiming for a bigger pay-day somewhere or other. He chose to go whilst the Dons could still get some cash for him and at a time when our team is on the rise. There couldn't really have been better timing for him or for us. Of course it would be a nice fantasy scenario to keep all of our great players around Pittodrie for their entire playing career, but it just doesn't happen. Arsenal can't do it, Manchester United can't do it, Real Madrid can't do it - why should Aberdeen be any different. Best of luck to Russell, he'll always be a Dandy really, no matter where he may be earning his corn. He did us proud through difficult times and it would be unfathomably unfair to grudge him the chance to pit wits against some of the best players around. Go for it loon, with all our blessing - we'll look for your results right after we've checked on the Dandies, the reserves and the youth team.
	17th June 2007 - Robert Fik may not have handled his ultimate rejection of the Dons' contract offer too well, but isn't Jimmy Calderwood going off the deep end a bit too much? We all know that JC likes to publicly slate players if things don't go as he wishes them to, but this time he's got it wrong. Fik made every sign that he'd like to move but eventually chose not to because he didn't want to move his young family for the sake of a one year contract. How many people would up sticks and move to another country with youngsters if after twelve months they might have to head home again? Think of the children Jimmy, think of the impact on them at the outset of their schooling if they were to be pulled hither and then yon. Why didn't you tempt the guy with a two year contract? After all if you though he was good enough for a year then why not make sure of his services for longer? If you weren't too sure if he was good enough then why were you offering him a deal at all? To spend some of your limited budget on a player that you had doubts about would be a bit foolhardy, eh? How about trying to be a bit understanding of a young man who thinks more about his family than whatever sum of money you were offering him. Sometimes long term security and a stable family life is worth more than the candle.
	15th June 2007 - Well that's the fixtures list out for another season and as usual the SPL bureaucrats have screwed up. Maybe not, actually, because to screw up implies that there was some sort of effort being made in the first place. Year after year the SPL slap out a list that buggers about clubs and fans alike - Aberdeen more than most. We're all aware that we are victims of geography (aye, we are not in the Central Belt) but you can be sure that some clubs will be a good deal less disadvantaged than others - especially a couple not a million miles away from SPL central. By the time Ian Blair panders to the SFA for international "windows" and to Strathclyde police so they don't miss out on the maximum possible overtime and by the time the season gets shortened a bit for the European Championships (like we'll be going..) there isn't too much room to maneuver so that the old farm get dates that suit them. Then of course they have to build in a "let's screw those sheepshaggers a bit" factor and we haven't even got to the stage of looking at games for televising yet. Strangely, despite the annual excuse that the police don't want two home games in town at the same time, Dundee and Dundee United (albeit in different leagues) are going to be playing in Dundee on the same dates three times during the season. Good eh? And much as it'll inconvenience the Red Army come the festive season, it'll be Gretna and St. Mirren who'll suffer most as they won't get the traveling support that they'd get at other times in the season. Why don't they just close down over Christmas and maybe even New Year? It isn't like people respond to these holiday games in the numbers they once did. "No, no, we can't set up a fixtures list with home and away about - it simply doesn't work." But they can manage two homes then two aways - there doesn't seem to be any difficulty about that. Makes you think, eh? Well someone has to.
	They begged us not to do it but we have gone ahead and done it anyhow. Yes - The Worst of The Red Final - a collection of low points in the ten year history of the creaking rag has been hastily thrown together and churned out in book form - just in time for Christmas.... It's an A4 sized, 104 page bodice buster folks. You can pick it up right now, for only a tenner post free from TRF at P.O. Box 368, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire AB34 5LZ (just send your address plus a cheque for £7 and we'll do the rest). Go on, disgust yourself!
	Don't worry folks, the scroll stops lengthening periodically because we transfer the older pearls of wisdom to an archive page - good eh?
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