Alan Pattullo: Empty seats may tip McGhee from his one

Published on Sunday 28 November 2010 13:50

Fifteen years ago last Friday it was not a referees' strike which was causing consternation, but a postal one. Those Aberdeen fans whose tickets for the Coca Cola Cup final against Dundee did not turn up in time - and there were a few - have greater cause to bitterly regret this fate with every passing year.

It was, of course, the last time the club lifted silverware. However, even by then, the decline had begun. Stenhousemuir, a defeat which still haunts the Aberdeen pysche, was endured just months earlier. Roy Aitken desperately required something to dull the voices of those who wanted change at Pittodrie and got it with a 2-0 victory over the Dens Park side - then, as now, a First Division team.

The cup win handed Aitken some time, but not so much; he was sacked in November 1997, after a 5-0 drubbing at Dundee United.

That was another result which provided those looking on with a jolt. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the club's continued struggles is the inevitability with which they are racking up defeats.

Now, when Aberdeen travel for a league appointment, they are pursued by the thunderous hoof sounds of seemingly assured disappointment. Few results in this weekend's entire British fixture card can have sprung such little surprise as Kilmarnock's victory over the now disillusioned sounding Mark McGhee's side at Rugby Park, by a comfortable-sounding 2-0. More worrying is that travel sickeness is not the only malaise affecting the club. They are wretched at home too, and host Celtic, their recent nine-goal tormentors, this weekend. In Aberdeen, they are talking not only of sub-zero temperatures, but also the likelihood of a sub-10,000 crowd for the visit of an Old Firm side. This alarming prospect could tip McGhee from his seat even if defeats have come to be treated as the depressing norm.