Aberdeen FC fans are still confident the club can split Celtic and Rangers in the league, despite the team’s recent slip in form.
The Dons play league leaders Celtic at Pittodrie tonight at 8pm – and a win for the Glasgow side would put them seven points clear of Aberdeen with a game in hand.
However, a victory for the home side would cut the gap to one point and leave the title race wide open as Christmas fast approaches.
Under the leadership of Swedish manager Jimmy Thelin, who only took charge at Pittodrie in June, Aberdeen has had their best ever start to a season winning 13 matches in a row, including a 2-1 home win against Rangers in October.
Despite this, the Dons were thrashed 6-0 by Celtic at Hampden in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup at the start of November and have now dropped seven points from their last three league matches.
On November 23, they were defeated 2-1 by St Mirren in Paisley for their first league defeat of the season, before surrendering two leads against Hibernian to draw 3-3 in the capital last Wednesday.
The slip in form continued on Sunday, as the Dons threw away a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 against bottom of the league side Hearts at Tynecastle.
Despite this, fans still believe they can still split the Old Firm of Celtic and Rangers for the first time since 2017 this season, with AFC currently seven points ahead of the latter, who have a game in hand.
The Press and Journal spoke to fans prior to the match against the green half of Glasgow, who they have failed to beat since May, 2018.
They were in a buoyant mood, even if tonight’s game does not go their side’s way.
Travelling around 3,000 miles to the table topper clash, was Jay Lewis and his daughters Jolie and Juniper.
They live in Maine in the USA.
He “fell in love” with the Dons after getting a ticket to a game on a previous visit and he believes Aberdeen can split the Old Firm.
“It’s been amazing. It’s unexpected for sure, especially after losing Miovski,” he says of Aberdeen so far this season.
“I believe they can finish second.”
Also attending the match was vlogger Aaron Jones, who was recently in London after being nominated at the annual Football Content Awards.
Acknowledging that the Dons have “recently not been great”, he believes they “have a chance to split open the Old Firm”. However, due to conceding “slack goals”, he thinks a third place finish is more realistic.
Ollie Blakey, a Newcastle United fan who now lives in Braemar, thinks Aberdeen can finish second due to playing “really, really good football”.
He believes such a scenario would benefit and “open up” Scottish football in a “completely diverse way”.
“Aberdeen had a poor season last year, but look at how they’ve turned it around now under the new management. It opens up Scottish football to say, it’s not just a two horse race and anyone else can go ahead and get to it,” he said.
Alan Murray is another who thinks the club could “possibly” split Scotland’s traditional top two and believe this season is a “good opportunity” to do just that.
“We’ve been playing well this year, so whether we can keep going is the big question,” he said.
Another Aberdeen fan who thinks they will finish second is eight-year-old Taylor, who has a season ticket in the South Stand and counts Slobodan “Ruby” Rubezic as his favourite player.
When asked where the Dons will finish, he confidently states “2nd”.
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