That was as good a semi-final as any in the past, a magnificent display from start to finish, and not a failure in the team. Our Japanese Bhoy’s made a significant contribution, and I personally thought Reo Hatate was outstanding, and Daizen had his best game of the season, Kyogo’s workrate was brilliant, he never stopped running until he went off. Nicolas Kuhn has been wonderful all season, he took a few hefty digs on Saturday evening, but he never gave up. I was pretty confident before the game that we would win by two or three goals, I never imagined it would be six nil, so take a bow Brendan and the players, and don’t fall over Brendan.
I never bought into the Jimmy Thelin and Aberdeen meteoric rise to the top, well second top really. I do hope that they maintain their League form, except against us obviously, but it would be nice to see them finish runners up in the League this season. I don’t think Thelin re-invented the wheel, I think he’s returned to Fergie’s Aberdeen tactics, which was usually to boot you off the park. Everyone used to talk about how good Jim Leighton was in goal, but you had to get past Simpson & Cooper, then Miller & Mc Leish before you got near Leighton, Thelin’s team played the same way on Saturday, although without much success. I think they were lucky to end the game with a full team on the pitch, and reason for that was down to the worst referee in professional football anywhere. Kevin Clancy is “Totally Incompetent” there is no other way to describe him, if he is not the worst referee in Scotland, then he must have a brother who is a referee.
Nilsen and Shinnie were the worst offenders, they were both the same at Celtic Park a couple of weeks ago, you could probably add their entire back four to that, well except for Nicky Devlin, he couldn’t catch Daizen to kick him. Aberdeen had five players yellow carded, probably all deserved, but Clancy booked Callum for winning a tackle, he even booked Brendan for falling on his backside, so Brendan ended up with the same amount of touches as Nicky Devlin did. I have to say this, Saturday was a great day out, but as I’ve said before, we need to re-think the use of pyro, for the game to be delayed for about fourteen minutes, that effects a lot more people, I’m pretty sure the broadcasters were not happy, they would have a strict schedule to work to, so they will complain to the Football Authorities, and the Police, and if it was continuing to have long delays, there will be repercussions for the Club whose supporters caused the delay.
The next two games are very important for different reasons. Tuesday night versus RB Leipzig is another opportunity get points, we are more than capable of winning the game, but let’s not forget, although they haven’t started this season as well as they would have hoped, they are still a very good team, but if we can replicate Saturdays performance we should be fine. Kilmarnock is different proposition, the plastic pitch gives us problems sometimes, and it may be Brendan won’t play CCV for that reason, but hopefully we will do enough to get maximum points. The other problem it may throw up is, it’s Remembrance Sunday, and the “Poppy Police” will be out in force as is usual. I don’t know what Kilmarnock will have planned, will they have a minute’s silence? When the Queen died they had a minute’s applause at St Mirren, we know that was a disaster for them, so who knows what will happen this weekend.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.
