Aberdeen are the 3rd biggest club in Scottish football who have won trophies both at home and in Europe. Their greatest period came under the stewardship of Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1980's and their greatest moment came when they won the Cup-Winners Cup against Real Madrid in 1983.
Last season, under Derek McInnes, they had one of their best seasons in a while as they finished 3rd in the league and lifted the League Cup - their first trophy in 18 years.
Aberdeen have had many famous names that have played for them. The likes of Mark McGhee, Willie Miller, Zoltan Varga, Gordon Strachan and Martin Buchan all appeared for the Dons while as manager they have had Billy McNeill, Ally MacLeod, Eddie Turnbull and of course Fergie. They also invented the dugout and had the first all-covered, all-seated stadium in the UK.
The club has been burdened with a $15m debt over the past 2 decades but just recently a local couple wiped out the debt and got 2 seats on the board so it is exciting times at the club.
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Stadium - Pittodrie (20,897 capacity) Nickname - The Dons Most Appearances - 797 by Willie Miller Most Goals Scored - 199 by Joe Harper Record Transfer Fee Paid - $1m to Oldham Athletic for Paul Bernard Record Transfer Fee Received - $1.75m from Coventry City for Eoin Jess Biggest Win - 13-0 v Peterhead, 1923 Biggest Defeat - 0-9 v Celtic, 2010
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Scottish League Champions - 1954-55, 1979-80, 1983-84, 1984-85 Scottish Cup Winners - 1946-47, 1969-70, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1985-86, 1989-90 Scottish League Cup Winners - 1955-56, 1976-77, 1985-86, 1989-90, 1995-96, 2013-14 European Cup-Winners Cup Winners - 1982-83 European Super Cup Winners - 1983
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THE FUTURE............
This is where I come in. Now that the club is finally debt free I aim to continue the progress both on and off the field. Also I hope to manage the Scotland national team as in all my years of playing football manager I have never been them in a save!!!
I will be using an up-to-date custom database with transfers, staff changes etc. Regarding Aberdeen, I have wiped out the debt and added Neil Simpson as the Head of Youth Development.
Due to our season starting after only 1 week in the job I had to cram a lot of jobs in that space of time from setting up a tactic, re-organising the backroom staff and searching for players.
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THE SQUAD AND TACTIC
Aberdeen have quite a strong squad with a good blend of experience (Jamie Langfield, Russell Anderson, Barry Robson) and youth (Cammy Smith, Scott Wright and Lawrence Shankland) and I reckon have the strongest squad in the SPL outside Celtic although Dundee United are also strong.
Regarding my tactic I am starting off with a 4-2-4 formation as that is the only tactic that allows me to get my 4 main attacking threats on the field.
My first move was to make Eoin Jess join the club as a coach. Jess had 2 spells at the club as a player and is 10th on the list of appearance makers and narrowly misses out on being on the list of top 10 scorers. I will endeavour to bring back former Dons heroes to join the staff in the future.
Donald Park is my new director of football and Alan Mahood comes in as my U20s assistant manager. There were other newcomers but nobody noteworthy lol
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PLAYERS IN
My first signing was Steven Smith from Alloa Athletic. The 17y/o came in from Alloa Athletic for $75,000 and he looks as though he could develop into a decent right back. View attachment 314867
Next up I was delighted when my director of football managed to get in Rolando Aarons in on loan from Newcastle. He is a top prospect (and one of my favourite Newcastle players) and with his pace and trickery should be a stand out player in the SPL. View attachment 314865
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PLAYER OUT
Jamie Masson was sold to Queen of the South for $23,000. Interestingly he rejected Hearts, Hibs and Rangers to join them. Adam Rooney wasnt too happy that I sold him but I promised to sign a better replacement and that seemed to placate him. View attachment 314863
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OTHER NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
George Burley has been appointed as the new manager of St.Mirren. Ross County have pulled off a great bit of business buy signing Kiko Femenia on a free transfer. I would have went in for him in an instant if I knew he was available!!!!
I am from Inverurie. I used to go to the Aberdeen games home and away in the 90s but stopped in the noughties and have only went sporadically since. Newcastle are my main team!!
UEFA Europa League 1st Qualifying Round 1st Leg College Europa 0 Aberdeen 8 (Rooney 1, 50, 52, 76pen, Considine 12, De La Rosa og66, Wright 69, Goodwillie 71)
An easy first game in charge as we thumped the part timers from Gibraltar. Adam Rooney bagged 4 goals and 16y/o Scott Wright came off the bench to score on his debut.
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UEFA Europa League 1st Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Aberdeen 4 (Rooney 45, Goodwillie 67, 73, C.Smith 90) College Europa 0
(Aberdeen win 12-0 on aggregate)
Another simple win but after scoring 8 away from home I am kinda disappointed to only score 4 at home.
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UEFA Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round 1st Leg Aberdeen 4 (Taylor 7, Rooney 13, 27, 54pen) Esbjerg fB 2 (Tomasson 48, Tvede 62)
This was a strange game as Esbjerg were dominant and had more chances and more shots on goal yet we managed to score 4 thanks to a hat-trick of assists from Peter Pawlett and a hat-trick of goals from Adam Rooney.
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UEFA Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Esbjerg fB 1 (Munk 60) Aberdeen 2 (Flood 26, Rooney 39) (Aberdeen win 6-3 on aggregate)
A decent victory. They had an early goal disallowed which proved to bey key. Unfortunately Peter Pawlett got injured and is out for 3 months.
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UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round 1st Leg AIK 1 (Lindgren 45) Aberdeen 2 (Goodwillie 11, 35)
Another hard fought victory as we managed to beat one of the top sides in Sweden. David Goodwillie was the star of the show as he scored both of our goals.
I am delighted with how the first month has gone as we won all 5 games with an aggregate score of 20-4. Adam Rooney and David Goodwillie have struck up a formidable partnership up front as they netted a combined total of 14 goals.
There was plenty of other goings on in and around the club. Firstly I rejected the opportunity to have either Saint-Etienne or Galatasaray as a parent club but I did accept Inverurie Loco Works as an affiliate where I can send players out on loan.
Secondly I managed to get David Goodwillie to sign a new long term contract as well as Clark Robertson and Joe Shaughnessy.
I stole 2 members of staff off of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and one of them was the former Aberdeen striker Duncan Shearer. He made 151 league appearances for the club and scored 53 league goals.
Michael Rose has been loaned out to Turriff United while Scott McKenna has joined Fraserburgh on loan.
Celtic sold Virgil Van Dijk to Southampton for $4.7m but they have signed Bernard Parker and Mike Jensen for a combined fee of $1m.
Rangers have appointed Gary McAllister as their new manager!!!
UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Aberdeen 4 (Rooney 1, 45, 63, 83)
AIK 2 (Goitom 9, Bangura 16) (Aberdeen win 6-3 on aggregate)
We go through into the next round thanks to a fantastic performance from Adam Rooney as he struck 4 times for the 2nd time this season to take his tally of goals up to 13.
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Aberdeen 3 (Monakana 2, Rooney 14, 90) Dundee United 2 (Ciftci 66, Bilate 77)
What a game!!! This new firm derby was a thriller as we were 2up and cruising and then decided to throw it away until Adam Rooney struck the winner in injury time.
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Kilmarnock 0 Aberdeen 5 (Rooney 16, Goodwillie 38, 65, 85, McGinn 64)
What a win!!! We had a few injuries and a virus had swept through the youth team so to win 5-0 is a magnificent achievement. Goodwillie was amazing as he scored 3 and setup 1.
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Aberdeen 3 (McGinn 17, 84, Shankland 85)
St.Mirren 2 (Atajic 23, Reilly 48)
This was a strange game. We absolutely battered St.Mirren and somehow went behind with their only 2 shots on goal but Niall McGinn equalised and Lawrence Shankland came off the bench to score the winner.
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UEFA Europa League Playoff Round 1st Leg Bursaspor 1 (Belluschi 39pen) Aberdeen 5 (Rooney 28, 58, 64, McGinn 29, Goodwillie 41)
Another incredible result and performance here. Rooney now has 16 goals in this seasons competition and 19 in 10 matches in all competitions.
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St.Johnstone 1 (MacLean 63) Aberdeen 2 (Rooney 21, Fyvie 32)
I had to reshuffle my side here after our exploits in Europe but we came through with the win. Fraser Fyvie was brought in on loan on the day before the game and he got the winning goal and collected the man of the match award too!
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UEFA Europa League Playoff 2nd Round Aberdeen 3 (McGinn 2, 60, Goodwillie 33) Bursaspor 0 (Aberdeen win 8-1 on aggregate)
Another comfortable win as we continue our 100% start to the season. Niall McGinn was the star man but something strange happened - Adam Rooney didnt score!!!
This month couldnt have gone any better as we won every single match. My 2 strikers have been on top form and Niall McGinn also hit top form and chipped in with a load of goals. What is quite scary is that after 5 games we are already 8pts clear of Celtic.
We will start our defence of the Scottish Communities League Cup by playing Livingston at home and we should progress from there but I fear that we are not going to progress past the group stage of the Europa League as we have been drawn alongside Inter Milan, Everton and Lokomotiv Moscow.
I brought in 2 more players before the transfer window shut. Firstly I brought Fraser Fyvie back to the club on loan from Wigan to add some strength and depth to my midfield. View attachment 314653
On deadline day I spent $91,000 to bring in Domagoj Antolic from GNK Dinamo. He is a versatile player and should be a star in the SPL methinks. View attachment 314652
I had tried to sign the Hajduk Split keeper but he joined Hull City instead. I fell out with Barry Robson as he wanted first team football and then he went to reject a move to Blackpool. Then on deadline day I fell out with Ryan Jack after he was linked with a move to Burnley.
Celtic 3 (Wakaso 8, Scepovic 27, Commons 38pen) Aberdeen 2 (Lustig og14, C.Smith 70)
Our long winning run is over as Celtic defeated us here. I gave Antolic his debut but he was the one who gave away the penalty.
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UEFA Europa League Group E Aberdeen 2 (Goodwillie 10, Aarons 84) Inter Milan 5 (Hernanes 17, 80, Osvaldo 20, 58, 60)
Nothing to be ashamed of here. We started off well and amazingly took the lead but then things went downhill and Ash Taylor was at fault for a couple of the goals as he had a shocker.
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Aberdeen 5 (Goodwillie 1, McGinn 36, 45, 52, Considine 63) Ross County 1 (Boyce 89)
We destroyed Ross County here and Niall McGinn did the most damage with a hat-trick to take his tally of goals for the season up to 9.
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Scottish Communities League Cup 3rd Round Aberdeen 4 (Antolic 23, Monakana 55, C.Smith 58, Anderson 74) Livingston 2 (O'Brien 39, Russell 45) Our defence of the tournament got off to a winning start here. I rested a load of first teamers but the backups came in and did well.
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Aberdeen 4 (Aarons 4, Reynolds 22, Goodwillie 50, C.Smith 65) Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4 (McKay 2, Tansey 39pen, Polworth 56, Warren 83)
The top two went head to head here and I am pretty annoyed that we threw the lead away 4 times.
We tasted defeat for the first time this month as we lost out to Celtic and Inter Milan and also drew with Inverness Caley. There were plenty of goals as in the 5 games the aggregate score was 17-15 in our favour which makes me think that the defence needs to improve but maybe due to our attacking tactic that is a knock-on effect.
After beating Livingston in the League Cup we have been rewarded with a home tie against Dundee United in the quarter finals.
Adam Rooney got his first cap for Eire at the start of the month and responded by not scoring for us during the month. Cem Felek from my U20 squad won his first cap for Azerbaijan.
Another decent away victory this. McGinn also had a goal disallowed while Peter Pawlett made his comeback from injury.
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UEFA Europa League Group E Lokomotiv Moscow 3 (Niasse 17, Boussoufa 45, Tarasov 48) Aberdeen 3 (Rooney 14, 52, Goodwillie 22)
Another brave performance as we were under pressure continually but we held on for a point. That said Goodwillie had a 4th goal disallowed for us. Rooney now has 19 goals in the competition.
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Scottish Communities League Cup Quarter-Final Aberdeen 3 (Rooney 8, Reynolds 60, Taylor 116) Dundee United 3 (Bilate 85, Paton 89, Rankin 120) (AET Aberdeen win 5-3 on penalties)
I would have been livid had we lost this. We were 2up and cruising, then Rooney had a goal disallowed and they came back to take it to extra-time. Taylor struck late on to win it but Rankin levelled for them with the last kick. Thankfully I have decent penalty takers and we converted all 5 to go through.
Another month where we score plenty and concede plenty but overall I am happy as we are in 2nd place with a game in hand in the league, got our 1st point in the Europa League and have qualified for the semis of the league cup where we will play Celtic.
I just noticed my board expectations and apparently we have to reach the final of both of the domestic cup competitions!!!!
I won the manager of the month award for the 2nd time this season after I won it in August too.
this is a photo of the club mascot, Angus the Bull, standing beside a monument in the village I live in - Alford (where our chairman Stewart Milne is from as well as Emily Sande and er the Aberdeen Angus Cow lol)
NOVEMBER
Ross County 3 (Femenia 9, Boyce 54, 84) Aberdeen 5 (Shankland 25, Aarons 26, Monakana 46, Goodwillie 61, 77)
Another good away win with plenty of goals both for and against. I was missing a few players but the lads that came in did well.
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UEFA Europa League Group E Aberdeen 4 (Rooney 23, 26, Goodwillie 57, Aarons 86)
Lokomotiv Moscow 2 (Pavlyuchenko 19, N'Doye 33)
We get our first win of the group stage but it should have been more comfortable as we got given a penalty early on which Rooney missed but they had a man sent-off too.
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Aberdeen 5 (Aarons 28, 51, 79, Goodwillie 60, Rooney 90pen) Celtic 3 (Brown 7, Matthews 50, Guidetti 63)
WOW!!!! We didnt start off well as we went a goal down early on and they had already had one disallowed however we kept on going at them and Rolando Aarons was immense as he scored 3 and assisted 1.
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Partick Thistle 1 (Elliott 31) Aberdeen 2 (Goodwillie 30, McGinn 39)
A decent result but the most interesting thing here is that Partick missed a penalty and the culprit was their $7m on loan rated midfielder - Ryan Mason.
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UEFA Europa League Group E Inter Milan 3 (Palacio 53, Icardi 89, Yarmolenko 90) Aberdeen 1 (Goodwillie 54)
We were 1 minute away from an infamous draw here but we just couldnt hold on to the draw. Never mind.
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William Hill Scottish Cup 4th Round Airdrieonians 1 (Kirwan 73) Aberdeen 5 (Robertson 15, Shankland 35, 42, Wright 68, 89)
My backups came in and did a fine job here with Scott Wright coming off the bench to strike twice.
The fact that I got another manager of the month gong says it all here as we performed extremely well as we got impressive victories over both Celtic and Lokomotiv Moscow. Having said that despite those wins my favourite performance was in our defeat against Inter as we did so well.
As we progressed in the Scottish Cup we were given a draw against Queen of the South so I would expect us to progress there.
This was our game in hand and we just sneaked it thanks to Scott Wright's injury time goal. We are now 7pts clear!!!
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Aberdeen 3 (Hayes 20, Rooney 41, Jack 43)
Hamilton Academical 0
Jonny Hayes scored his 1st goal of the season here and had a 2nd later disallowed. It is a shame I have to play him at left back but needs must.
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UEFA Europa League Group E Aberdeen 3 (Goodwillie 2, Reynolds 20, McGinn 51) Everton 2 (Kone 31, 59)
This was one of Pittodrie's special nights as we defeated a strong Everton side who are 6th in the Premiership and this was their first defeat of the group. View attachment 314471
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Dundee United 4 (Souttar 7, Ciftci 45, Mackay-Steven 83, Rankin 86) Aberdeen 3 (Flood 53, Taylor 73, Monakana 85)
This was a thrilling New Firm derby but in the end we were defeated as we conceded 2 late goals. This is our 2nd defeat of the campaign.
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Aberdeen 2 (McGinn 2, Goodwillie 44) Kilmarnock 1 (Clingan 84)
Killie are rock bottom with a paltry 5pts so I kinda expected a bigger winning margin.
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 Aberdeen 2 (McGinn 45, Aarons 68)
This was a battle between the top 2 and we won despite finishing with 9 men as Logan got sent-off and McGinn got injured (he is out for 3 months).
This month was excellent as we beat Everton in the Europa League and also won all of our other games bar one to end the calendar year top of the tree by a whopping 10pts.
Obviously I didnt expect us to be 10pts clear so soon but I thought a title challenge was possible. Hopefully we can continue our momentum and avoid further serious injuries after McGinn got crocked in our last game.
There was a small amount of transfer business made as I extended the loan of Jeffrey Monakana and loaned out Craig Murray to Brechin City and Michael Kelly to Peterhead.
Aberdeen 5 (Rooney 20, Goodwillie 37, Pawlett 76, C.Smith 84, Flood 85) St.Johnstone 2 (Anderson 12, MacLean 47)
Another game with goals going in left, right and centre. Would be nice to get a 1-0 win every now and again lol
This game saw us win comfortably. Rooney scored twice, Pawlett got three assists and David Goodwillie scored one and had one disallowed.
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St.Mirren 3 (Claudio Pitbull 5, Ball 51, Thompson 59) Aberdeen 2 (Reynolds 25, Aarons 63)
AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!! Never ever before in 20 years of playing this game have I been put in this situation. My goalie, Langfield got injured 2 games ago so my backup came in. Then before this game Scott Brown got injured so 3rd choice keeper Danny Rogers played here but then he got injured so 16y/o Robbie Mutch played - surely that is the reason for our defeat?
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Aberdeen 2 (Taylor 6, Aarons 75) Dundee 1 (Stewart 48)
They were close to getting an undeserved point as they scored with their only attempt on target while we had nearly 30 attempts.
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Aberdeen 3 (Rooney 19, Goodwillie 52, Antolic 76) Ross County 2 (Irvine 16, Maatsen 47)
This was much tougher than I thought it would be as we came from behind twice to win. Rolando Aarons got 3 assists.
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St.Johnstone 1 (Graham 28) Aberdeen 4 (Rooney 19, Goodwillie 39, Aarons 45, Considine 86)
St.Johnstone were no match for us here. They had Chris Millar sent-off in the 2nd half due to a tackle on Peter Pawlett, who went off injured as a result.
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Scottish Communities League Cup Semi-Final Celtic 3 (Biton 53, Jensen 58, Guidetti 70) Aberdeen 2 (Reynolds 34, Aarons 39)
Our hold on the League Cup is over and I am fuming that we threw away a 2 goal lead.
This month proved to be very tough as we lost in the league to St.Mirren (due to our goalkeeper situation methinks) and threw away a 2 goal lead to lose in the semis of the League Cup. Overall though I am happy with our 9pt lead.
It was a case of one in and one out in the transfer window. Jeffrey Monakana had his loan terminated on request so I had to draft in a replacement and I did that by bringing another ex-Don back to the club in the shape and form of Ryan Fraser on loan from Bournemouth. View attachment 314369
I also rejected a few bids for Adam Rooney and Mark Reynolds while Shay Logan and Andrew Considine attracted attention from Dundee United on a loan deal, both of which were rejected.
Aberdeen 3 (C.Smith 71, Aarons 83, Rooney 90pen) Dundee United 1 (Bilate 17)
This was a wierd game. We dominated throughout but found ourselves a goal down with 20min to go when they had a 2nd goal disallowed. Then we levelled, they had Paul Paton sent-off and we scored a minute later!!! Rooney wrapped things up in stoppage time.
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William Hill Scottish Cup 5th Round Aberdeen 2 (Considine 8, Hayes 41) Queen of the South 1 (Kennedy 14)
4 games played and 4 wins means I was happy with how the month went and I was rewarded with the manager of the month award. We just seem to be so consistant with a high level of performance in every game. The poor defences in this league just cant seem to handle my front 4.
There are several players that are available on pre-contract agreements that I am interested in but I am going to see how the land lies budget wise to see what I can do.
MARCH
Celtic 3 (Wakaso 17, Jensen 45, Scepovic 86) Aberdeen 2 (Goodwillie 33, Hayes 77)
Celtic cut our lead at the top down to 8pts with victory here. They deserved it to tell the truth.
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William Hill Scottish Cup Quarter-Final Aberdeen 4 (Goodwillie 6, 55, 76, Pawlett 49) Celtic 0
REVENGE!!!!! What a result and performance this was. Goodwillie was superb as he scored 3 and set up the other.
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Aberdeen 4 (Aarons 36, 38, Rooney 40, Goodwillie 41) Motherwell 1 (Erwin 14)
A crazy spell in the first half where we scored 4 goals in almost as many minutes won us the match here. Ryan Fraser finally made his 2nd debut for the club here.
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Dundee 2 (Roberts 68, 85) Aberdeen 5 (Rooney 16, 50, Reynolds 32, Pawlett 45, Flood 60)
We were on fire for the first hour here as we scored 5 and had 1 disallowed. We were without the injured Goodwillie but Niall McGinn made his return from injury in his place.
This month saw our lead at the top get trimmed by 3pts to 8 but we are still in a healthy position and shoudl claim the title. We did lose to Celtic in the league but we quickly got revenge and dumped them out of the Scottish Cup by beating them 4-0.
We followed that up by putting 4 past Motherwell and 5 past Dundee to round off the month well.
The youth intake was pretty poor as I only kept on 2 players but I dont think either of them will have a long term future with us.
Scotland lose 2-1 to Poland - Mark Reynolds scored for the Scots - and draw with Macedonia
Rangers appoint Darren Ferguson as their new manager
Motherwell sack Baraclough and appoint Meulensteen as caretaker boss
