Aberdeen’s resurrection has been the Scottish Premiership footballing tale of 2023.
At 4.45pm on Saturday, January 28, Jim Goodwin was preparing to make his lone walk across the Easter Road pitch for the final time after being relieved of his duties as Aberdeen manager.
A 6-0 hammering by Hibs was icing on the most unpalatable cake of Aberdeen’s 120-year history.
The heavy loss came on the back of a shock Scottish Cup exit at sixth-tier Darvel just a few days earlier.
That one had followed a 5-0 mauling on the other side of Edinburgh by Hearts.
Forget rolling with the punches, this was akin to being pummelled to the canvas time and time again.
Even Rocky would have considered throwing the towel in.
Reds’ powers of recovery under Robson have been remarkable
Enter Barry Robson – who like the Italian Stallion’s wise old sage Mickey – has helped to not only haul the Dons back to their feet, but also regain a sense of fighting spirit.
The Dons had dropped to seventh in the Premiership by the time Robson took charge.
He was the trainer turned stand-in, but it is clear the seven years’ experience gained in the background since hanging up his boots in 2016 has served Robson well.
Aberdeen were third at the time of the World Cup, but when Robson was given the reins the club was closer to the bottom of the table than they were to third place.
Now they are five points clear in third with six games remaining. That nine-point gap from the bottom is now a whopping 23.
Clearly, as we reach the end of the 33-game regular season, the Dons have not only regained their resolve, they’ve also come out swinging landing one haymaker after another.
Aberdeen’s rivals falling further behind
Aberdeen’s surge up the table back into third place has been so forceful Hearts felt they had to take similar action to that of their rivals in sacking their manager.
With Robbie Neilson now gone, it has fallen to two rookie bosses in Robson and Steven Naismith to duke it out for third place.
With a game to go, we still don’t know which teams will take the fifth and sixth place.
Who represents Scotland in Europe next season will be determined in the post-split fixtures in May – but Aberdeen can send out a strong message they will not be moved by winning their final regular season game against Rangers at Pittodrie on Sunday.
Pittodrie powderkeg could be a season defining one
In many ways this is the acid test of the Robson era.
The last good performance from the Dons under Goodwin was in a losing effort to the Light Blues in the League Cup semi-final defeat at Hampden in January.
The game will forever be one of football’s “what if?” moments, with Anthony Stewart’s moment of madness which led to his red card costing the Dons dear in a 2-1 loss.
Aberdeen were commended for their display, but much like their previous league meeting with Rangers, it is the result which matters and the Dons had once again come up short.
Hampden heartache was painful. But it paled in comparison to the Pittodrie collapse in December.
Trailing 1-0, the Dons had fought back and were on course for a deserved 2-1 win as the match headed into injury time.
Conceding once was bad enough, but to lose the game was devastating.
With hindsight it was a result from which the Dons failed to recover under their former manager.
That’s why Sunday is so significant for Robson and his players.
For the manager, it is a chance to show he is the long-term solution in the dugout.
For the players, this is a chance to show Aberdeen have progressed, matured, evolved from then.
It may go a long way to showing the recovery under the current boss is almost complete.
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