The referee at yesterday's match, along with his linesmen, has to carry the can for an appalling display of rule dodging. He allowed himself to be duped by the histrionics and swan diving and gave an incredible number of unfair decisions against the Dons. How he failed to take action when Derek Young was stretchered off after Gatti crocked him right in front of the linesman is a complete mystery and he should be disciplined by the SFA for his uneven mishandling of the match. Bonetti's fury with the referee for failing to notice an alleged off the ball incident is laughable when weighed against the number of unjustifiable decisions given in Dundee's favour. Still, the outrage of their manager might well divert the ire of the Dundee fans from the fact that Bonetti seems incapable of organising his side well enough to prevent them from taking a drubbing from a team that was the laughing stock of the SPL for the past few years.
Just because Celtic only spent £20,000,000 on players compared to Juventus splashing £90,000,000 did Martin O'Neill tell everybody that the Tims had no chance in Italy last week? Of course not! So why do cheapskate Aberdeen need to spout out bilge about their inability to take on the Glasgow teams? The answer is that they don't and they shouldn't. You have to wonder where this kind of talk is really emanating from at Pittodrie, because it will do nothing to encourage fans to turn out and support the team. Fans need positive talk or at worst some stony silence. The message to the doomspeakers at Pittodrie has got to be: There is always a chance of winning any game. You don't have to claim you'll turn over the champions on their own doorstep, but never, ever, tell us that we have no chance whatsoever.
| "You are my Solberg, my Thomas Solberg; You make me happy when you don't play; And Amaruso, he is a wanker; But someone please take Solberg away." |
This seems rather unkind to a player who would really like to do well for the Dons and is an all round nice guy, but on the other hand he has made some expensive mistakes in the first team over his Pittodrie career and not everybody is as forgiving as The Red Final.
23rd September 2001
Dear Ebbe,
You have been one lucky Dons' manager in your career at Pittodrie. The fans have stuck by you through the leanest of times and given you and your team unprecedented backing. That loyalty seemed to be beginning to reap some rewards this season and after the longest honeymoon that any Aberdeen manager has enjoyed, you looked to be beginning to deliver an improved team and the likelihood of better performances to come. Even after yesterday, the majority of fans will probably be willing to stick with you, even the ones who had to put up with such a negative approach to the game in Glasgow. The only positives seem to have been the return to first team action of Russell Anderson and the fine ninety minutes from Fergus Teirnan, considering his inexperience. That's not enough.
Why you chose to go there and simply try to keep the goals against down, instead of having a go at the champions as the majority of fans wanted and as the traveling support deserved, is a mystery to everybody but you. Don't forget, that your job is not simply to try and keep the Dons in the SPL, it is to try and win things and to put out a team that will start to attract the missing thousands back to Pittodrie. Nobody expected you to work miracles considering the place where you started and especially because we know that you have been denied the kind of funds that you need to bring in the players that you really need. Even so, we do expect that after more than two years of reshaping the team you will give us a team worth following away from home. At Pittodrie we seem to be positive enough, although there are still times when it looks as if the players feel like there's nothing to play for, or maybe they are still having trouble keeping their concentration over ninety minute, but beyond our own doorstep we are just not seeing the goods with only one point and one goal from four games.
The time has come to say that the honeymoon is over, the fans have given you their patience and backing but they will not wait forever. You have a decent squad at your disposal now and even allowing the fact that there is lots of room for improvement, we have every right to expect that you will take our team south of Stonehaven and try to win games. Andy Roxburgh once said that nice boys don't win anything. Well, it's time for the Dons to say "No more Mr. Nice Guy" and to start grinding out victories away from home. Do that and you'll find that you can't enjoy a better backing anywhere than from the Red Army. We all want you to succeed, but you won't do it by playing damage limitation football.
All the best,
Old Beach Ender
You'd think that the tims of all people would appreciate the significance of head injuries, given their history, but no; all they could see in their green eyed, drunken haze was a referee giving something against them and out came the giant chips to burden their shoulders once more. Thankfully McAllister is okay, but at the time there was a fear that he might have broken his neck, would the tims have been so quick to howl their derision had they known that? Hard to say, the arrogance of both halves of the gruesome twosome is so great that they probably believe that any price is worth the points and that any opposition should just take the consequences of having the gall to take the field against them.
Full Leather Jacket
Recent issues of TRF have been littered with veiled and overt attacks, mainly by one Pissed-off-Merkie, on my unsullied reputation. Up till now I have stood quietly by and let the swaddling editor of the paper edition of this website just get on with it. Now though, enough is enough and it is time for me - OBE's faithful leather jacket - to have my own say. My master has been wearing me for more years than I care to remember and I can safely claim that I am a campaign hardened member of the Red Army. In fact, I was probably still a calf when the Merkster was born but whilst he was still learning to fill nappies, I was off on my travels with OBE to all points of the footballing compass; home and away and round and about Europe.
There were a lot of good times, especially through the eighties and into the early nineties, but of course, like the rest of the red Army, I have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous management when the Dandies slumped to an unaccustomed lowly position. I bear the scars of a few interesting away trips that I hardly want to remember now, but I have to say I took a bit of a pounding at Iprix in 1991 when we had to play there to win the title. What a shower of shitheads the home fans were and why celtic should want people to stop calling the DOBs huns I just can't understand. They are without any shadow of a doubt the worst fitba fans in the world and deserve nothing from the great game. Mind you, I think that there are still a few coins left over in the remnants of my lining from that 11th of May bombardment - ta very much.
Over the years I've been known to rub shoulders with another legendary Rudolph - L. S. Pringle from Echt. What an interesting character and completely different than you'd expect after reading the offended correspondence in TRF. The size of the feet alone is enough to make most people do a double take and that battered old oilskin must have a few stories to tell. Mind you, the dingy netherworld of football fanzines is crowded to bursting with weird and eccentric characters and if I was allowed near the keyboard more often I'd love to write a book about them to expose the lot of them (before they expose themselves). Take Merkie's kapok filled anorak, rumour has it that it came to him from a deprived Methlic farmer who sold it along with a dozen boiler suits and a silage clamp at a roup near Clatt. It certainly looks like it could do with restuffing, but then it's had to endure the embarrassing experience of student life for the past few years. Never mind, some of those self adhesive patches on the elbows and it could look like second hand.
I have to say that even though I get worn mostly to home games these days, I am still managing to get a good bit of enjoyment from my football. There's a streak of panache about our current team that can set games alight. We're maybe not seeing enough of it yet, but they are surely getting there. That and Redz & Co. can still make Saturday afternoons range from bearable to exciting. If only someone would repair my pockets, sew a new lining into me and get rid of Angus the Bull, then following the Dons could start to return to the days when Dons fans could really stand free. As for Merkie, well he just needs to show a little bit of respect as should be done by somebody who wears an anorak six sizes too big for him.
OBE's Leather Jacket
12th September - Hello fellow fans. Isn't it nice to be once again
following a team that's showing a bit of resolve in their football? The Dandies win over the michty Kilmarnock
on Saturday last was a shot in the arm and despite the conditions it was completely deserved. Now all we need to
do is look forward to taking on the old enemies - the Arabs - at the weekend. We need to win again to maintain
the reconstruction of the 'Fortress Pittodrie' image and to take another bound up the SPL table and nowadays there's
no reason to think that we can't do it. let's not be complacent though, the Redz are improving but there's a long
road to travel yet.
By the way, TRF 46 will be out on Saturday so don't forget to have a nice shiny pound coin ready to drop in Merkie's
capacious anorak pocket as you pick up your copy - don't confuse him with a Guy though - November 5th is still
a bit far away for anybody to pull that scam yet.
Living out in the sticks these days, I missed Monday night's U21 match and the cafuffle of the loon Rachid getting
sent off. It seems he's got a bit of a temper on him, but who hasn't? Let's not forget that he's a wholehearted
player with bags of ability and if he was to get his act together he could still be a success at Pittodrie. Ebbe
kens that and is the type of patient manager who might yet find a way of getting the best out of Belabed the Belgian.
let's hope so, it's great having a player whose name lends itself to a bit of a chant: Raaaaaaachiiiiiiiddddd!
I was relieved that the SPL have decided to keep the fixtures going on Saturday, terrible though the New York and
Washington attacks were, it would be the absolute wrong thing to stop the normal flow of life's activities. To
do that would be like an admission of defeat to the terrorists, to keep on going with everything we do sends out
a different message. No doubt the minute's silence at all Scottish grounds will be stunning and respect will have
been paid, then on with life and on with the fitba and hopefully an inspirational display from the Dons.
Did I tell you TRF 46 will be out? Oh, yeah. Fair enough.
See ya Saturday - OBE
Let's be realistic, a defeat today could stop any potential improvement in its tracks and leave us ready to be cast adrift (oops, more watery analogies) at the foot of the table and ill set up for facing our old enemies the Sand Dancers next week. A nice victory today will give us the kind of momentum we need to send Smiffy's Ragheads into a tailspin next Saturday which is a must in our quest to restore some self respect.
Come on you Redzzzzz.....!