Falkirk 0-1 Aberdeen: Jittery Dons lay ghost of losing run

Published on Saturday 18 October 2008 20:15

Falkirk 0 Aberdeen 1 Miller 48

SO STRAIGHTFORWARD was Aberdeen's win, Jimmy Calderwood and his men must now be wondering how on earth they had found winning games such a black art. Yesterday, they ended a run of five straight defeats by playing poorly, making no attacking impression outside of Lee Miller's decisive goal and, er, that's it.

Otherwise, Falkirk proved accommodating, with Michael Higdon having one of those days when a barn door would probably have seemed the size of stamp in being guilty of two crucial misses. To add to the home side's frustrations over their own deficiencies, referee Willie Collum betrayed a spectacular failing of his own in the 90th minute. Home defender Lee Bullen tussled with Aberdeen's Scott Severin as the latter attempted to drive in on goal and the Falkirk man seemed to take a nudge from Severin, who dropped to the ground in the process. Collum, however, saw Bullen as the transgressor who had denied a goalscoring opportunity and dismissed him to send the home crowd and John Hughes berserk.

The contrast with the start of the afternoon could not have been more acute. The home supporters rose as one to applaud supporter Sandy Alexander, the man behind fashion footwear chain Schuh, for his astonishing 2.5m gift to Falkirk that will allow the club to build a third stand. The entire crowd then rose again for a minute's applause in honour of the late Eddie Thompson. Football benefactors in the most admirable sense, their investments were made full in the knowledge their financial support would only bring security, not glory, to their clubs.

And feeling a little more secure about themselves was the motivation for both teams in this bottom-of-the-table encounter. Yet though each side had only harvested seven points from their first eight games, Falkirk would feel better about that meagre total since they recovered from a losing run to start gathering points across the past month. Aberdeen, on the other hand, have gone the opposite way before yesterday.

In the early stages, the Dons looked for all the world a team that had forgotten how to go about winning a football match. Their play was tentative to the point of being resigned. Instead of a midfield, they had a twilight zone. Shadowy figures, particularly Stuart Duff and Mark Kerr, seemed to go into areas and tackles only to disappear as opponents in dark blue came away with the ball.

The scene was repeated time and again across a first period, but though scooting the ball around and switching play in commanding fashion, Falkirk didn't exactly put the frighteners on their opponents often, as is also their wont. Calderwood came into the confrontation with the frighteners on. He seemed to tempt fate by expressing the fear that Steve Lovell and Jackie McNamara, who traded Pittodrie for Westfield after unhappy spells under his charge, would "come back to haunt" him.

Lovell would certainly have spooked him when he flashed a header across goal in the early minutes after Neil McCann had set him up with a curling, hanging cross but thereafter players from neither side did much to hurt the other or stop their respective supporters shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. That would have been the only means by which they could have kept themselves entertained.

Calderwood said a lot of things in the build-up to last week. And maybe he was hoping for the reverse of tempting fate – encouraging fate? – when he stated he needed goals from his frontline pairing of Lee Miller and Darren Mackie double-quick, with the three rustled up between the pair insufficient. His say-something-enough-and-it-might-just-happen approach paid off when a rare moment of quality, and an even rarer moment of frontline accuracy, proved the combination allow Aberdeen to conjure up a goal from nowhere. The second half was only four minutes in when Considine sprinted down the right and sent over the sort of pacy, pinpoint ball into the box that strikers dream about. In turn, Miller hurled himself towards it with the conviction of a man who had no intentions of wasting such a precious gift, and powered in a header from six yards.

Almost immediately afterwards, Falkirk resumed their role as the team doing the pressing, but it was pointless pressing with Higdon scooping a shot across goal when McCann had cleverly played him into the box after 54 minutes and blasting an effort over with the goal gaping after McCann had again released him 20 minutes later. His head was still in his hands when the board went up to signal his withdrawal in favour of Graham Barrett. But as soon as he was alerted to the switch, he was off in a flash. The warning signs, meanwhile, are now flashing for his team.

MAN OF THE MATCH

In engineering Falkirk's three best opportunities with energy, drive and intelligent play, former Dundee, Hearts, Rangers and Southampton man Neil McCann demonstrated that, when fit, the 33-year-old can still make a considerable contribution at this level.

QUICK FACT

The last nine goals Aberdeen have scored have come from players whose second names begin with the letter 'M'. Spooky.

TALKING POINT

Collum's decision to send off Lee Bullen was inexplicable. Cue another round of referee-baiting in the press.

Oh, wait a minute, the decision did not involve a Glasgow club, so scrub that.