Result: Scorers: Dodds; Kanchelskis, Watson, Irvine (og)
Aberdeen: Watt, Dodds, Woodthorp, (Quinna), Inglis, Booth, Buchan, Kiryakov, Irvine #N/A
| Everton: Southall (45 Speare); Hinchcliffe, Unsworth (45 Short), Watson, Barratt; Kanchelskis, Ebbrell, Limpar (45 Branch), Speed; Ferguson, Stuart?. Booked: #N/A Subs Not Used: #N/A |
| Ref: #N/A | - | Att: 9,000 |
Kev the Pip: No report at present.
Ian Maher: Warm, breezy day in Northeast Scotland for the Brian Grant Testimonial. We had a near full Everton squad in attendance with only Parkinson, Rideout, Grantona, and Gerrard absent.
The away support was greater than I expected with between 2,000 - 2,500 in the South Stand. Pitodrie is a small ground with stands built in complete isolation. The Beech End stand is a modern two-tier eddifice which dwarfs the rest of the ground. Unfortunately, the sun shines directly in the eyes of the fans all game..
We were the better team in the first half, the back four played well with the one real problem of coping with passes played over Watson into space, where Unsworth judgement remains a bit unsure.
On the positive side was the play of Barratt (cheered by the away section), Kanchelskis and Ebbrell. Kan intercepted a short back pass for his goal, had the beating of their left back and let fly with two good efforts. Ebbrell did what he is good at; stopping the other team playing and giving the ball to the more creative players. His talent is in closing space and winning possession.
Aberdeen were dire. Kiryakov, the small blond Bulgarian fella, went off at half time, they will stuggle next season and they haven't won a pre-season game yet.
Branch is a real prospect; we know he has pace and can score at reserve level -- in this game, you could see his confidence on the pitch. His running off the ball up front is a big plus for us as he knows where and when to go. He isn't afraid to miss and at Age 18 this is really good news for us..
Second goal from a corner to the back of the box where Watson volleys in. Aberdeen score from right-wing cross where Dodds gets in front of Short and Speare to head in.
Third for Everton is an own-goal, a cross from Branch being swept in from 5 yards by Irvine.
The game then settled down into a slagging off by the fat lads in the Aberdeen section. Crowd of 9,000, 10 Quid to get in, loads of away shirts on display. Two big flags -- one a collection of about 9 small flags, the other The Sandbaggers pub (I think).
Sunday Mail: FIRED-UP Duncan Ferguson led an Everton blitz of the desperate Dons but still left his manager moaning: "That's his WORST performance for us." Goodison Park boss Joe Royle said: "Fergie's been playing very well for us. He's been looking particularly potent and grabbed a couple of goals already but that was probably his worst showing of the lot."
Royle insisted the player was struggling because of a hectic four-games-in-seven-days schedule. And he reckons the big Scot can inspire his side to a Premiership title challenge. "We've played a lot of games this week and there were a lot of tired legs out there with Duncan suffering more than most," he said.
And Royle reckons no-one should write off Fergie just because of his Pittodrie performance. He said: "Fergie is still not the finished article. Mind you, I've never seen such potential in a player." The former Rangers and Dundee United star did have one header cleared off the line by Inglis early on and squandered a good second half chance to score.
Scotland boss Craig Brown was at the game to cast an eye over the big striker's prospects for a World Cup comeback later this month. The national side desperately needs an in-form Fergie to get the road to France off to a flying start in Austria. Aberdeen's Euro build-up is in TATTERS after the comprehensive gubbing.
And it's landed manager Roy Aitken with an injury crisis to add to the rest of his problems. Stuart McKimmie and Paul Bernard failed to make it into the starting line-up while Scott Booth, John Inglis and Jamie Buchan all limped out of the action. All five now face a race against the clock to get fit for Tuesday's UEFA cup tie against Lithuanians Zalgaris Vilnev.
Aitken warned: " I won't be taking any chances with them over there if they are not ready for the game. We've got two matches against them and we are looking for a result that will set us up for the second game at Pittodrie." We ought to have the boys in tomorrow to assess the situation but I'm hopeful I will get at least a couple of them fit for the game."
This latest blow is all Aitken needs after a disastrous build-up that has seen them win just once in seven matches. They've also lost 19 goals in the process. And there was the players' well-documented off-field antics earlier this week. How they must have been looking for a confidence boost prior to flying out.
More than 9000 fans turned out to pay tribute to Dons midfielder Brian Grant in this testimonial match. But he and his Pittodrie pals had little else to celebrate. It was Andrei Kanchelskis who caught the eye early on with some lightning raids.
And he'll never get a simpler goal than his 15th minute opener. It was another Dons defensive blunder - Colin Woodthorp was criminally short with a header back to his keeper - that let the Russian international winger slip the ball past Michael Watt. Booth limped off shortly afterwards and a fair bit of Aberdeen's cutting edge went with him.
It was slack marking that allowed Dave Watson to side-foot in the second just after the interval. Aitken had introduced several substitutes by then - including Portuguese international trialist Samual Quinna - but they took time to settle into a pattern.
Watson and Fergie should have increased Everton's lead before Billy Dodds brought some respectability back for Dons with a glancing header past Everton substitute keeper James Speare on the hour mark. Then, to round things off, Brian Irvine could only deflect a Kanchelskis cross into the net to complete the scoring.
Report Copyright The Daily Record and Sunday Mail