Year's End, And Looking Ahead

The Pittodrie faithful will enter the new year with considerably more optimism about the club than would have been the case if the calendar were two weeks shorter. The new management team of Craig Brown and Archie Knox have guided the Dons to two critical wins and avoided starting 2011 in the drop zone, but are aware of the continued challenge ahead.

I'm not usually in favor of quoting from the pages, but RedWeb's summary of the papers this week seems particularly appropriate. All seem to have focussed on Zander Diamond, or perhaps were just too lazy to get independent quotes for themselves, but that said the 25-year-old midfielder has provided a few choice items that warrant the copy/paste:

With injury, it's been a hard couple of years. I was thrown into the deep end when I came back in January last season as we were struggling then, too... But, hopefully, everything injury-wise is forgotten and I hope the experience of the boss and Archie can add a couple of things to my game. [They] tell me to go out and enjoy my game and, when you are doing your job right, the confidence comes from that.

As I've argued, I believed throughout that this squad was not lacking on talent, just on execution and consistency... and confidence can go a long long road in this funny sport of fitba.

Diamond went on to summarize the pain, both Twitter- and pub-side-induced, of being a Dons fan recently:

"It's not great seeing your team bottom of the league. You watch Sky Sports and the other sports channels and see your team is bottom of the table. Your pals are annoying you and that's hard to take. But, hopefully, this is the start of something and we can keep winning games. The new management has come in and got the response they wanted - and we wanted too.

We've had a great number of fans following us in the past couple of games. We've sent them up the road happy with six points out of six, but that means nothing if we get beaten by Dundee United; we know these two wins don't end the talk of relegation, they're two great results on the road, but we've got a long road to go before we're out of this situation.

It's not good enough for us to turn up and say 'We're Aberdeen' and expect to roll teams over. We need to put in a lot of hard work and we've done that in the last two games. But we need to do that in every game and eventually we'll be out of the mire we're in.

Swing the fire and first-foot a good one, Happy Hogmanay & a guid New Year tae ane an aw.

Match Summary: Hamilton 0 - 1 Aberdeen

I've always wished the best for the Accies, but sadly at this point the Dons absolutely needed those three points.

That said, all credit to new boss Craig Brown for having taken 6 from 6 to start his term. Scott Vernon was again at the center of things, finishing from close range in injury time for the only tally of the match. On the whole it was not a terribly inspired performance for the Dons, the visitors were well-organized and strong in the midfield for the majority of the afternoon. While Vernon's goal was left a bit late, it was not an ugly thing, with credit to both Jack and Aluko for setting the table.

I hate that I have to celebrate moving 6 points clear of relegation, but pride doesn't save a man from the drop zone. Hamilton have two matches in hand, which from an objective point of view sets up an interesting four-team relegation battle:

Welcome Craig Brown! Hibs 1 - 2 Dons

Now this is a result the Dons absolutely needed, not only when looking at the SPL table but also in terms of the squad's confidence in their new boss. And, while this is not the post for a discussion of McGhee's faults, I do not think that this positive result is completely a coincidence.

This time Scott Vernon decided he'd like to get to watch a Dons goal from the third-person perspective, assisting on Folley's opener ten minutes from the break, before returning to regular form by securing the points by chesting in Hardley's skidding strike from distance. Subsequent opportunities were missed by both clubs, with Wotherspoon wasting an open chance directly to Langfield, and Magennis similarly directing a header from McArdle straight on to Brown's waiting arms. The Dons were admittedly fortunate to avoid a crushing penalty with just a few minutes remaining, and goal-line clearances by Ian Murray were required not once but twice to secure the full points.