Watching our title rivals has become an amusing experience.
Today Aberdeen were uninspiring and I thought shockingly negative. If this is the best our nearest challengers have got, it’s no wonder we’re so far in front of them in the title race already. They let Sevco dominate possession, stood off the ball, made them look like a football team. Over on SevcoMedia they are characterising this as a good performance; in fact, Aberdeen failed to press them, failed to make them work.
In short, the home side was abysmal. Yet they’ve got the three points.
Believe it or not, I try to look at these things objectively and I watched the Dons today to see if there was the slightest chance that they could give us a fright in the season ahead. I saw nothing whatsoever to make me believe it. Regular readers might recall that I’ve long been a critic of Derek McInnes; I thought the avalanche of media pressure which came down on Ronny Deila last season would have been easier to stomach if McInnes had been getting some of his own.
He won’t be able to hide from it this year, unless media scrutiny of the man with the magic hat becomes all consuming. It very well might after today.
Nevertheless, Aberdeen were lucky to emerge with the three points. A better team than Sevco would have deprived them of even one. When you give any team the space and room to run that they were given today you’re gambling. McInnes is a lucky man. It paid off, mostly because of the dreadful poor quality of the opposition.
At some point, and I am at a total loss to understand why it hasn’t happened already, Sevco fans will stop deluding themselves about Martyn Waghorn’s ability as a player. They ought to wise up to the complete lack of any talent in Joe Garner even quicker. I watched his performance especially closely today; he is the £1.8 million signing, after all, and I saw no sign that one penny of that money has been wisely spent. He throws himself into challenges, barges his way to the ball, yet his close control is nearly non-existent. His work rate is close to zero when his team doesn’t have possession and is only marginally better when they do.
The decision to give Kenny Miller a contract extension looks like genius on the basis of these two, because he has more talent in one toe than these guys do between them. I’d take one of him over three Waghorn’s and six Garner’s any day of the week.
Before the match, Aberdeen fans are alleged to have vandalised the Sevco team bus, although it was parked in a hotel area where there must surely have been CCTV. The low-order mind that would reference the deaths of ordinary football fans in the way the cretins responsible for this did … there’s no word for them. They aren’t ordinary human beings, but some twisted sub-species that doesn’t belong out with the rest of us.
During the match there were a number of flare-ups including one reported incident where supporters were chucking objects at each other, and when I say objects I don’t mean invites to one another’s birthday parties. There was clearly an undercurrent of what we’ll call “serious dislike” at this game, but don’t let anyone kid you it was all one way. The feeling was very much mutual, and you can tell that even at this, the first meeting between the two sides.
These were supposed to be two of our biggest challengers this season, and watching it today I saw not only two sides we’ve already beaten but two I’d fancy us to beat again, at any ground, in any competition. Of the two, Aberdeen undoubtedly gave us the harder game – although not as hard as the one Hearts gave us – and on their day are capable of being a very decent team. Today they suffered due to a playing style that was relentlessly negative.
But right now they are second place in the table.
After the match Warburton was incandescent over the decision that led to the Don’s winning goal. I don’t know why he was so incensed. Had his own team not squandered its cash on second tier junk they might have had the firepower to win the game five times over. But as it turns out, the Aberdeen keeper barely had a save to make and we were treated to some genuine comedy club moments as Garner attempted to look like a footballer.
This guy has “lower league player” written all over him, and the temperament of a pit-bull spiked with acid. We’re going to have months of fun watching this guy, months in which to repeat that reputed transfer fee over and over and over again; £1.8 million for him?
Warburton is now under serious pressure, and his ranting and raving at the full-time whistle was the response of a guy who really now knows the clock’s running down on him.
Tonight they are not simply outside the European places, they are outside the top six, sitting at seventh, echoing what many of us predicted before a ball was kicked. They have squandered major amounts of money on lower-league players and guys who’s reputations are far greater than their actual talent. Barton is only one problem amongst many.
This is going to be a season of enormous mirth and amusement for Celtic fans. These were two of our biggest challengers today. On the strength of it, the league might as well put the ribbons on the trophy and drop it off for us right now.
The last point about today’s game was the studio panel. If they were hoping to make it look neutral they failed. At the full-time whistle it was a grave looking place with Neil McCann and Alex McLeish grim-faced and glum, focussing more on a single controversial incident instead of on the poor performances of both teams.
But they know Sevco is in big, big trouble.
We all do.