The Scotsman continues its weekly Fanzone feature, where supporters of all 12 SPL teams give their views on the state of their clubs.
ABERDEENAFTER the magic of taking three points from our final visit to Love Street, and the 'Sone Delight' of transfer deadline day, it is a bit of an anticlimax to have an international break.
Still, it gives us time to refle
ct on the team's recovery from the worst start to a position three points off the top of the SPL. This is thanks to a 100 per cent away record that is a huge turnaround from last season, when we had worse form on the road than Richard Hammond.
And Willie Miller and Jimmy Calderwood proved again that they are the sorcerers of deadline day. While our message-board was distracted with thoughts of potential car-crash signings Gow or Riordan, the crafty gaffers conspired to pull Aluko from the hat.
This even trumps the previous transfer window trickery that brought in Stevie Crawford and Lee Miller, and if Sone finds top form he could be the first box-office player Pittodrie has seen since Moroccan magician Hicham Zerouali.
Craig Stewart
www.aberdeen-mad.co.ukCELTICSUNDAY saw a few surprising and some not-so-surprising incidents.
The surprise was Artur Boruc uncharacteristically miss-kicking and throwing the ball away. At least three of those goals were preventable and even Mendes' strike should have been closed down if we hadn't persisted in backing away from our opponents.
The not-so-surprising was the battering ram technique and flying elbows of Cousin, the guy who previously hospitalised McManus. While the referee apparently called most incidents fairly, why did it take so long to spot the elbows? He sent Caldwell to the sidelines for treatment after one incident so must have been aware of what happened.
Other unsurprising categories were the persistent and disgusting songs of the visiting support, who then had the audacity to be offended by Artur waving a digit in their direction, poor souls. It was a hard lesson but if we learn from it, we will still go on and clinch four in a row.
Tommy Dornan
www.celticsupporterassoc.co.uk DUNDEE UNITEDMOST Arabs were left with a distinct feeling of 'deja blue' after Saturday's home defeat to Kilmarnock. Having proved to be something of a bogey team for United over the past few seasons, Killie once again came to Tannadice and performed a smash and grab raid to take the points.
After an early volley from Garry Kenneth rattled the crossbar, we dominated the first half of a fairly dour encounter but Kilmarnock took their only real chance of the half clinically – something they repeated in the second half to go two up. For a season that promised so much, we now find ourselves with a disappointing two points from a possible 12 with a tricky visit to Easter Road next up. It's time for the players to start living up to pre-season expectations and start putting points on the board.
Finally, United fans were deeply saddened by the tragic death this week of former Tannadice and Motherwell stalwart Jamie Dolan. Condolences to his family and friends.
Hamish Mackintosh
www.dundeeunited-mad.co.uk
FALKIRKLOSING a fourth league game on the trot was not what Bairns fans were expecting, and a general air of gloom has descended. However, as many of our injury ravaged-side return to fitness I refuse to give up on the hope that we are still more than capable of turning things around.
Saturday saw us once again lose the type of goals that we just did not concede in the past two seasons despite a great display from our Under 21 Austrian keeper Robert Olejnik who is growing in stature week by week.
Up front young Mark Stewart again proved he could be our next great find with an exquisite and deft finish to put the Bairns ahead. Elsewhere Kevin McBride is beginning to show the kind of grit and enterprise he lacked when he joined last season, and Jackie McNamara is oozing class, while John Stewart is working his butt off to prove worthy of his place.
It'll be tough next time out visiting an ever-improving Jambos side, but remember what they say about Falkirk – expect the unexpected!
Brian Guthrie
www.bairnstrust.com
HAMILTON ACCIESTRANSFER activity saw the signing of French midfielder Stephen Ettien from Lyon, American midfielder Mike Vidiera from Duke University, and young Ipswich defender Chris Casement on loan.
Accies' best bit of business was conducted on deadline day itself with the capture of former Ross County defender Martin Canning from Hibs, a player we almost signed last season when he left Gretna.
It beggars belief that Hibs have let a solid and reliable defender like Canning go, to then replace him with Sol Bamba, who should have been given a league winners' medal from Accies last season such was his contribution to our campaign every time we played Dunfermline!
Less positively, Accies have dismissed assistant manager John McCormack after only a couple of months in the job, leaving Billy Reid searching for his fifth assistant manager in just over three years at the club.
Hopefully the rumours are true and ex Accies favourite Andy Millen is on his way to New Douglas Park.
Mark Falconer
www.setbb.com/acciesworld
HEARTSEVEN the most optimistic of Hearts fans could have struggled at the beginning of the season to envisage the impressive start we have made under Csaba Laszlo.
Apart from the League Cup exit at the hands of Airdrie, the first month of the campaign has come as a breath of fresh air for a support who had become accustomed over the past three years or so to our club being in a state of turmoil.
To be just a point off the top of the table after four games is incredible, and while not quite as heady as the George Burley days, this is easily the most buoyant period we have had since May 2006.
The only negative is that we didn't manage to bring in a couple of strikers before the transfer deadline, as the lack of firepower is clearly undermining the impressive style of football Laszlo is trying to encourage.
For now we will have to pin our hopes on Mike Tullberg solving our attacking woes, but any such concerns will soon subside if Laszlo can keep us on the victory trail.
Frank Walker
www.jamboskickback.co.uk
HIBERNIANFORGET the defeat to Motherwell, forget the fact we only have four points from 12, and forget all the doom and gloom hanging over the message-boards like a dark cloud for the past week.
Yes, the speculation is finally over, Derek Riordan landed back at Easter Road this week, ending the Parkhead prison sentence imposed on him by the very irritating Gordon Strachan.
The joy which greeted the arrival of Deeks has certainly lifted the spirits of Hibs fans everywhere, and when added to the laughter generated by Hearts' pathetic attempt to sign him, it's almost made us forget last week's defeat. Throw in a raw but promising Sol Bamba along with the departure of Zibbi, Kerr and Canning, and it looks like Mixu now has his desired squad, so it's over to him to settle on a team capable of stringing some results together.
It would be churlish not to credit the board for backing Mixu with the cash for these signings, so hopefully Hibs can now concentrate and get the job done on the park.
Eddie Henderson
www.hibs.net
INVERNESS CTWELL, what a group of youngsters we have coming through at ICT now. Jamie Duff, Iain Vigurs and Gary Wood have been the stars of the week in the Highlands. All helped to dump Arbroath from the CIS Cup in midweek (Vigurs scoring the decisive penalty), and they performed brilliantly, along with the rest of the team, to secure three points at Falkirk.
Club captain Grant Munro is still missing with injury, and may find it hard to regain his place in the team, as will Russell Duncan. The back four including Duff held firm, Vigurs linked well in the midfield, while Adam Rooney is starting to show just what he is capable of by creating chances for Wood – and vice versa.
Craig Brewster is finally showing his tactical acumen, bringing on experience in the latter stages with some key substitutions that, without question, won us the match.
A job well done this week by the management and players. If we continue like this, we could well be top six come season close. Superb!
Rob 'Gringo Jnr' Wilson
www.caleythistleonline.com
KILMARNOCKWELL, for 24 hours we got to rib the Old Firm fans in Ayrshire about us being top of the league. While the Killie foot soldiers travelled to Dundee with no small amount of trepidation, the players had no such worries and put in another fine shift.
We are now officially the only team in the UK yet to concede a goal… and that's with a makeshift defence!
Kudos to big Fright (Frazer Wright] who was once again not to be beaten in the air.
We really seem to be gelling as a team now and the players are growing with confidence in every game. It was great to see even the players on the bench celebrating the win at Tannadice, which just goes to show how strong the team spirit is.
The strength and guile of our new midfield has been the difference as they support the front line and help out in defence and the league table shows that it is paying dividends already.
I know there will be tough times ahead, but our next game against Rangers can't come soon enough!
Barry Richmond
www.killiefc.com
MOTHERWELLMOTHERWELL have now made a public response to the charge imposed by Rangers and Celtic.
Last season the Glasgow pair made five visits to Fir Park. Assuming they sold 8,000 tickets for each game and then withheld a five per cent administration fee to cover their costs, they could have taken around £40,000 from our income. If they pulled off the same trick with the rest of the provincial teams then they could easily collect £400,000.
It's a great money-making scheme, for sure. Their greed and self righteous pomposity knows no bounds. The response from Fir Park is to add £1 to the gate price for visiting fans of the Old Firm. What else could they do? We can only hope that the anger of their fans is directed at the financial directors at Parkhead and Ibrox.
The correct long-term reply from the other ten should be taken at the next SPL annual general meeting when they should propose a motion which would outlaw such a charge.
John Wilson
www.firparkcorner.com
RANGERSMOST of us needed surgery to remove the smiles after Rangers battered their generous hosts on Sunday, and struggled to recall the last time we'd scored four times at Celtic Park.
Credit to Walter Smith for having the courage to play 4-4-2 and pairing Cousin up front alongside Miller, a gamble which paid off hugely.
In Pedro Mendes we have a new hero, a fulcrum oozing class and composure, and special mention to Steve Davis for his best showing yet in a blue jersey. That result should provide the springboard for the players and management to repay the Rangers support in the best possible way after letting us down with the Kaunas fiasco. The Rangers support out-sang seven times their number and backed their team magnificently.
A final thank you to Artur Boruc for his passable impression of a polo mint. Boruc proved once again by his infantile gestures that both he and his club are poor losers as well as ungracious winners.
Stephen Smith
www.theRST.co.uk
ST MIRRENIT SEEMS our goal spree against Dumbarton in the League Cup was a false dawn. Against Aberdeen on Saturday it was back to normal with no goals and no points for our efforts.
Quite how we managed to come away with nothing is anyone's guess. We dominated the first half and should have scored twice, only for Billy Mehmet to miss two golden chances. With his confidence high after his cup hat-trick you'd have expected him to bury them – instead we paid the penalty for his wastefulness. Aside from the cup win it's been a poor start to the season. One goal and one point is not a good return after four games and is even worse than our start when we were relegated back in 2000/01.
Things have to change. We need to be more clinical and stop making costly mistakes at the back. We have a decent squad, but the way things are going at the moment there's a real danger we could find ourselves playing First Division football in our first season at our new ground.
Stuart Gillespie
www.saintmirren-mad.co.uk
The full article contains 2192 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
