Pittodrie, Friendly, 25/7/25
Me still 352, Wee Man still 212
Aberdeen Football Club
Founded – 1903
Nickname – The Dons
Honours – European Cup Winners Cup – 1982/83. European Super Cup – 1983. Scottish League – 1954/55, 1979/80, 1983/84 and 1984/85. Scottish Cup – 1946/47, 1969/70, 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86, 1989/90 and 2024/25. Scottish League Cup – 1955/56, 1976/77, 1985/86, 1989/90, 1995/96 and 2013/14. Drybrough Cup – 1980
A rare occurrence where Wee Man asks if we can go to Pittodrie. The season tickets may be still a million miles away but it was on him tonight so its a glimmer of hope I suppose. Of all the games he could pick, I knew absolutely nothing of the Tractor Boys given my almost full on aversion to English football. I only found out they were a top flight team last season when I read a preview of tonight’s match. I had nothing to gauge how the match would go as I haven’t payed attention for long enough. Did they have a Marcus Stewart type striker these days, or a totally random Champions League winner in their ranks a la Finidi George? One thing that is for sure, if somewhere in England, Mick Mills noticed this match taking place, his Peter Weir PTSD would have returned that I do know. Another thing learned was they have an ex-Dons loanee man in their ranks, Wes Burns, a man who certainly did not set the heather alight in his stint in Scotland. This is not me having a dig at the Tractor Boys in any way. I just don’t pay attention enough to know these days. Probably a great club and the fans we saw around the beach area earlier in the day were all sound.
Given my lack of knowledge on the opposition, it gave me a bit of excitement and added some intrigue. I was soon to learn that the Dons with a week until kick off in the league have serious issues to iron out. At risk of being piled on as you cannot slag off Aberdeen even if it is legitimate without one, they were shite. Funnily they started off in decent fashion and played the ball around well keeping it away from the English side while playing some very bonnie fitba. There were even two big chances early on. The first when Alexander Jensen struck well from a handful of yards but Town keeper Alex Palmer made himself big and saved brilliantly with his foot. This giving me the first experience of the reaction to the new fancy Dan screen in the Y where we were situated. Every time there is something happening the heads turn in unison to see the board. It’s amusing and if you don’t look, there are hundreds of heads facing you which is a bit strange. The next chance was for Adil Aouchiche who cut in from the left and narrowly missed the target after trying to send one across goal into the the top corner. The Dons were looking decent on the attack but there were some ropey moments at the back. Balls were getting in behind too easily and there was also the issue of Jaden Philogene finding himself in acres of space at numerous points on the right, this being caused by Jensen being stuck with two men. I would have thought Morris should have been tracking back which he wasnt? It wasn’t rocket science but it wasn’t happening. This led to Mitov being called into solid one handed save early doors and another later. The Dons good spells were all to come to a halt and they eventually shot themselves in the foot and let Ipswich score the first of the game when after one of those stupid short goal kicks was finally played out instead of lumped like the five or six prior but the Dons lost the ball up the park, this lead to a less than half arsed attempt at winning the ball from Shinnie at left back (not the last of the night either) and failing to manage to play football leaving Ipswich a simple string of passes culminating in Philogene having a tap in. This visibly rocked Aberdeen and Ipswich were now the better team and they doubled their lead when Sam Szmodics struck from outside the box, Mitov got down but he seemed to just stop the ball dead with a flat hand instead of trying to push the ball out wide. This left Scotland international George Hirst(one I did know played for Ipswich but it slipped my mind) a tap in. It has to go down as a clanger from Hampden hero Mitov. On him he seems to have forgotten how to command his box. I don’t know how many crosses he dropped or got caught under, but one thing for sure it was far too many. He was another having a mare along with his captain and surely nobody could say otherwise. But there were other issues, slack passing (Palversa’s unforced errors were surprisingly high), flat footed defending, but more worryingly not learning from mistakes was clear.
HT 0 v 2
Joined by my brother for the second half we were both in agreement even though this was just a friendly it was not good enough. Folk will argue but it wasn’t and it didn’t get much better either. Incredibly the left back berth was still Shinnie’s after the break and there were only two changes made to the team with Jensen and Morris disappeared for Milanovic and Devlin. To be fair to the former looked lively initially and set up one for Clarkson and also had his own opportunity but neither were to be. That was about it from the dangerous looking Australian and for Aberdeen though for a long swathe of the half. Ipswich made it three on the hour and it was the thorn in the Dons right hand side again when you guessed it, Philogene was a thorn in the Dons right hand side once again. The pass through to him looked good but Devlin seemed to be asleep to allow the number 29 in behind to race into the box and finish well past Mitov. It was far too easy. Luckily for Wee Man he had gone for a piss at this point and missed it. I wish I did too. Not long after this I saw something I have never seen in the pro game. I have seen it at half time but I have never seen it during a half. A full XI change out and that is exactly what the visitors did. For a brief second there was no blue shirt left on the park. Very odd to see. The Dons made a two burst of subs as the game game aged and during the second Peter Ambrose was one who made his way onto the park and no sooner had he done so he was on the score sheet. Not even a minute had elapsed when he was on hand to tap in for six yards out. This was after what felt like a rare good move down the right saw the ball cleared off the line but Ambrose made no mistake off the clearance. There was another chance for the Dons when Walton palmed a Polvara effort off target. The Dons finished the game as they started it. On the front foot but unfortunately the big bit in between was far from good enough. Friendly or not, that was not fucking good enough when the first game of the season is next weekend. Very dire stuff. No doubt people will disagree though and get all het up about it.
Entrance – Me £15, Wee Man £5
Attendance – 12694 (Official)
Pie – £7.15, Pie and coffee
Pint – £6 Alpacalypse, Sunset Boulevard
Score Predictions – Me 2 v 2 , Wee Man 1 v 2
Season Score Predictions Total – Me 0 v 0 Wee Man
FITBAWBAG 