This will be the fifth meeting between the teams this season. In both of our previous trips to Pittodrie we managed to concede late goals from winning positions and had to settle for draws. Aberdeen have work to do if they are to avoid fourth successive season ending in the bottom half. They are currently ninth and have recorded only one win from their last nine games.
Craig Brown has been apologising to Aberdeen fans for weeks about the poor and “insipid” performances from his charges. On other occasions they were “unfortunate” or on the receiving end of an “inexplicable” decision (not that he would ever criticise a referee!). He is now pleading with the Aberdeen board for an extension to his contract so he can finish the job. If ever there was an instance of a jaicket on a shoogly nail then this is it.
The Pittodrie pitch has been the subject of much unfavourable comment in recent weeks. We struggled on the poor surface in Dingwall a fortnight ago, let’s hope that the groundsman has worked some wonders. The Dons have dished out 1500 tickets to youngsters and are labelling the match as a family fun day.
Hutchinson will have to sit this one out as he serves a one match suspension so we’ll have to hope that Ramsden has recovered, although both Saunders and Kerr were on the Tynecastle bench last week. Faddy contributed 80 minutes against Hearts, Higdon scored goal number twenty and Ojamaa and Law have been causing defences lots of problems; our confidence should be high.
Our record in the granite city has been superb in the last few years but the players will know that they need to do more than turn up to win the game. If we set about the task with the right attitude there's every reason to expect a happy homeward trek following a 2-1 win.
Remember our last trip to Aberdeen?