Barry Robson faces the biggest examination of his fledgling managerial career tomorrow afternoon when Rangers are the visitors to Pittodrie.
Just nine games into his reign, the caretaker boss takes on the Ibrox side boasting an impressive record of seven victories, the last six of which have been on the bounce.
It is Aberdeen’s best run of wins in years, and one which has seen them instilled as clear favourites to clinch third place.
The two defeats suffered have come against St Mirren – when the team played with ten men for virtually the whole 90 minutes – and Celtic, who dismantled them, coasting to a 4-0 stroll.
Since then, Robson’s men have conceded a single goal while taking 18 points out of 18. It has been an astonishing turnaround.
During that time, they have played some excellent football and put in a few eye-catching performances, but they have also had to dig deep on occasion, and following the captures of Mattie Pollock and Angus MacDonald, have rediscovered the art of defending.
That says much about the players, but also about the work done on the training ground by Barry and Steve Agnew, and their staff.
When you consider the pair took over after one of the worst weeks in the club’s history, the embarrassment at Darvel and the six goal hammering by Hibernian, it makes what has been achieved in the past few months all the more remarkable.
That has to put them in a better frame of mind for tomorrow’s showdown, but it will be a challenging encounter, and one which is likely to test the strength of the Dons’ revival to the limit.
Michael Beale is hardly a veteran boss himself, his time in charge stretching to just 22 matches. On the face of it, his stats are highly decent, given he emerged victorious in 19 of those, but crucially for him, and the club, the three blots on his copybook have all come against Celtic.
Rangers should have won the first of those, at Ibrox in January, but had to settle for a 2-2 draw, and have since been beaten by their city rivals in the League Cup final, and again in the Premiership, a result which extended Celtic’s lead to an insurmountable 12 points.
They still have the Scottish Cup semi and another league game to come, and there is no question Beale will be judged by the Rangers fans on how he fares in both.
Before then, he simply has to keep winning, and that adds some spice to what is always a much-anticipated fixture.
The big talking point for Dons fans in the build-up has been the enforced absence of captain Graeme Shinnie.
Unlike many, I had no issue with the red card shown to him in Dingwall. Given the way the laws are currently applied, I am afraid the challenge ticked the required boxes. In the present day, that was a sending-off.
I was surprised the club appealed as I could not see any way it would be rescinded, but it certainly was not a ‘frivolous’ move, and adding an additional game to his ban was outrageous.
The club was entirely justified in issuing the statement it did but it was no shock that the Scottish FA rejected their request for the incident to be reviewed by a new panel.
All to play for in the Championship
As seems to happen every year, the Championship has once again been the most competitive of the divisions in the SPFL and it seems likely nothing will be decided until the final round of fixtures.
The title will almost certainly be won by either Dundee or Queen’s Park, but four other clubs are battling it out for the two remaining play-off places, and given how the season has panned out, it is almost impossible to predict which will be successful.
Of the ten, only Raith Rovers have nothing to play for in the run-in.
The other three are in an intense struggle for survival. Arbroath will feel they are almost there, but face Cove Rangers today, and finish off at home to Hamilton, so there could yet be a dramatic conclusion.
Cove need to win this afternoon to retain hopes of eighth place; it promises to be another nerve-wracking 90 minutes!
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