Aberdeen artwork Archives - The Dandy Dons

A cold cynical look at Aberdeen v St Johnstone on social media

The phrase ‘bite us in the arse’ will get repeated, repeatedly, about Stevie May. If it goes well for Stevie May, it will be a mistake to have sold him by McInnes. If it doesn’t go well for May, it will have been a mistake by McInnes to have signed him.

Stevie May will get a warm welcome from a large section of the Aberdeen support. He may get a warm round of applause when substituted. Some supporters will go ballistic at this, and will happily attack the ‘happy clappers’. This will be ‘everything that’s wrong with our club’, and will also be the fault of McInnes.

‘Connor McLennan must start’. As must Bruce Anderson and James Wilson, and Big Sam but not Curtis Main.

On the back of a superb TWELVE MINUTE cameo, McLennan must start. Connor McLennan is magnificent and his 12 minute contribution to Scotland’s result was superb.

A brilliant achievement from him, but when fit, doesn’t he pretty much always start… He’s a work in progress. They watch him in training, every day. Every day.

Also, logically, on the back of that performance, and bearing in mind he has flown to and from Croatia this week, wouldn’t the smart thing to do be, BRING HIM ON WITH 12 MINUTES TO GO against St Johnstone.

If he plays well, it’s McInnes’s fault for not playing him enough, if he doesn’t it’s McInnes’s fault for not using him properly.

Win, lose or draw, ‘McInnes bad’.
*Post match up-date. We drew, it was shite. They need to improve quick or it’s gonna be a tough old season.
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Free Book. Gothenburg 83 the fans’ stories here.
The t-shirt shop here.

September 12, 2019

Aberdeen FC

Adam Rooney, Aberdeen legend

So Adam has gone. Very sad, but it’s football, everything changes, everything stays the same. As an Aberdeen player his position in Aberdeen history is that of a footballing legend. Never to be forgotten.

No other player had their own illustration page on the dandy dons website, seriously, after the Balon d’Or, that’s the honour.

His significance to the McInnes era is enormous. The goalscorer, the poacher, the top of the Xmas tree. The penalty taker, you never doubted. The goal at the cup final. Rooney was the symbol, the point of action, the end result, the hero, Rooney was the man. And with all that, an incredible humility. His Twitter bio ‘Tap ins / headers / pens – thats my thing!’.

Anyone listening to him on Red TV doing commentary while he was injured, got a further insight into who the man was. A smart, articulate, funny man, deserving of a career in the media, when he is ready to hang up those goal scoring boots.

A team player with an extraordinary nose for goal. We will miss our number nine. We will miss that open mouthed, slightly horsey smile of joy, he did for literally every goal. We’ll miss it forever. And never forget it.

Adam Rooney, it’s been a pleasure.

All the illustrations.

July 19, 2018

Aberdeen FC

How to get more people to Pittodrie?

With the team playing great and winning regularly, the home crowds haven’t quite reached what most people would have expected. Times are hard for quite a few in the North East and that has to be a factor, but there may be other contributing factors.

Based purely on a couple of people I know, a few long term season ticket holders got ‘broken’ during the Craig Brown years. Not specifically the fault of Brown or the Brown era, it was the cumulative eras of sheer awfulness from late Calderwood to McGhee to Brown. It was also the first time I’ve ever seen crowds down to 5000. Perhaps there are more that just had enough. While Hearts support is very solid, they had years of financial doping with a relatively successful team most of the last decade. While Hibs are proving the Glasgow media myth of Scottish football needing the Old Firm to be bullshit, by showing how a support behaves when it’s top of the league. Any league.

So what possible things could be done to entice supporters along?

I can’t help thinking the club would benefit from having the ticket office and shop on Union Street. Which would be even more important if the club moves to Westhill. Having a presence on Union Street would be good for the club and city. Effectively a giant advertisement in the centre of the city with an enormous amount of people in close proximity. No cash gates has destroyed the impulse element of football, and there are quite a few people that are not happy paying online. A shop on Union Street (please not that fucking awful building in front of Marischal College) would add the possibility of supporters impulse buying in advance. I can’t possibly know but it might be enough to get a thousand on the gate, and presumably double what they sell in merchandise. Location, location, location. At the very least it would pay for itself. If they get a big enough retail space, their relationship with Adidas could make it a combined Afc/Adidas retail outlet and ticket office.

They could also use Angus the Bull far more from within the shop. Angus the Bull is a brilliantly created character. Those mascots just work or they don’t. Sorry kids, spoiler alert, whoever designed him did a sensational job. (Whoever came up with the seagull needs to stop smoking that shit!)

So what else could be done? How do we get 5000 more to every home game?

March 22, 2017

Pittodrie

Game day at Pittodrie

A 3pm kick off on a Saturday at Pittodrie.

August 13, 2016

Aberdeen FC

The new away strip extended hoody

You know you want one!

August 6, 2016

Aberdeen FC

Exclusive Aberdeen Renaissance poster download

To celebrate the renaissance of Aberdeen under Derek McInnes, The Dandy Dons presents this ‘timeless’ print of that magical moment when Fergie retired and everything at Man Utd. went tits up, and our man Derek was fingered by Sir Alex. This exclusive print is… Download link is under the image.