Willie Miller
1972-90
Defender
797 apps, 32 goals
Miller spent his entire career with Aberdeen and the central defender was captain of the side that dominated Scottish football in the 1980s. In all he won 3 league titles, 4 Scottish Cups, 3 League Cups, and of course the Cup-Winners Cup and the European Super Cup. In addition to that he won 65 Scotland caps (scoring once) and he also managed Aberdeen for 3 years between 1992-1995.
AUGUST
Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour, Ferguson (Brown), Hedges (Morgan),
Gelabert*, Wilson, Gayle (Hendry)
A decent start to the season. We were missing a couple of players with Lewis being injured and Ramirez away on international duty but we managed to get the win. All 3 scorers were debutants with Harry Wilson scoring from a free-kick.
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UEFA Champions League Champions Path 3rd Qualifying Round 1st Leg
Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour (Brown), Ferguson, Hedges, Gelabert (Albarracin),
Wilson*, Ramirez (Gayle)
A fine result and performance as we easily beat the Finnish side and we can relax in the 2nd leg now. Harry Wilson was superb and struck twice while Dwight Gayle opened his account for the club.
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Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour, Ferguson, Hedges (Morgan), Gelabert (Albarracin), Wilson,
Ramirez*
We came up against newly promoted Kilmarnock here and showed off our qualities as we put 4 past them. Ramirez scored a hat-trick and had one disallowed late on also while Harry Wilson struck again.
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UEFA Champions League Champions Path 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg
Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour (Brown), Ferguson, Hedges, Gelabert,
Wilson*, Ramirez
We cruise into the next round with a comfortable win here. Ross McCrorie finally scored his first goal for us so that was the highlight of the match. We will play Young Boys of Switzerland in the final round of qualifiers.
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Betfred Cup 2nd Round
Lineup - Walton, Ramsay, Machuca, Devlin (Morrison), Kingsley, Brown, Campbell (Mochrie), McLennan (Kennedy), Albarracin, Morgan,
Gayle*
I took a risk and played my backups here and they didnt perform well at all if I am honest but thankfully the finishing prowess of Dwight Gayle was enough to take us through. Livingston didnt deserve to lose in all honesty.
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UEFA Champions League Champions Path 4th Qualifying Round 1st Leg
Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher (Machuca), MacKenzie, Gilmour (Brown), Ferguson, Hedges (Morgan), Gelabert,
Wilson*, Ramirez
An impressive performance as we take a decent advantage into the 2nd leg in Switzerland. Their away goal is a bit of a worry though.
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Lineup - Walton, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour,
Ferguson*, Hedges (Morgan), Gelabert, Wilson, Ramirez
Despite bagging 5 goals here St.Mirren actually proved to be a tough nut to crack and at 3-2 up they missed a penalty to equalise. We got 2 late goals to put the game safe and Lewis Ferguson scored a hat-trick including a superb volley from the edge of the area.
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UEFA Champions League Champions Path 4th Qualifying Round 2nd Leg
Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher, MacKenzie, Gilmour, Ferguson (Brown), Hedges (Morgan), Gelabert (Albarracin), Wilson, Ramirez
WE REACH THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGES!!!!
However we were so lucky. We were terrible in the first half and found ourselves 3-0 down and heading out of the tournament but they had a player sent-off and it was then that we began to have a sense o f control and thankfully Christian Ramirez struck twice to put us through on aggregate.
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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McCrorie, Gallagher (Machuca), MacKenzie, Gilmour, Ferguson (Brown), Wilson, Gelabert, Morgan,
Gayle*
Fantastic!! We put Rangers to the sword here and smashed 5 goals past them. Lewis Morgan gave us an early lead before they promptly levelled but on the stroke of half-time Ronald Hernandez struck his first goal for the club. In the 2nd half we added further goals by Gelabert and McCrorie and although they pulled a goal back Dwight Gayle struck in stoppage time to rub salt on the wounds.
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SUMMARY
We crammed 9 matches this month and we have certainly hit the ground running. Domestically we progressed (somewhat fortuitously) in the Betfred Cup against Livingston but in the league we are beating all and sundry. We put 3 past Motherwell, 4 past Kilmarnock, 5 past St.Mirren and then in the final match of the month we smashed 5 past Rangers. It seems that Celtic will be our rivals this season as they have a 100% record to while Rangers have stumbled twice already.
In the Champions League we managed to reach the group stages - AKA the holy grail! We easily beat HJK Helsinki before facing off against Young Boys. After winning the first leg 3-1 at home we found ourselves 3-0 down in the 2nd leg but we rescued it after they had a man sent-off and 2 Ramirez goals saved us. We wont be progressing in our group however as we have been given a nightmare draw alongside Man City, AC Milan and Lyon!!!!
Despite trebling the bank balance by getting the near £14m for reaching the group stages I didnt get any more transfer funds or wage budget increases so I didnt make any more signings in the transfer market.
Regarding my squad my new players have done pretty well with one exception - Billy Gilmour. I have played him as a deep lying playmaker but he has really struggled so I will try him out as an attacking playmaker next month and see if his ratings improve as he should be cruising it at this level like Harry Wilson has done since his arrival.
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
HARRY WILSON
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PREMIERSHIP