Pittodrie’s tribute to Craig Brown was warm and genuine.
Whilst it is true that other areas of the Scottish football landscape were more conspicuously altered by his craft, it should not be forgotten that much of what has been built in Aberdeen over the last 10 years sits on a foundation he laid.
Though Brown gained little tangible return for his efforts as Dons manager, never being quite able to lever a corroded club out of the ninth-place crater it had become wedged in, he stopped the rot, returned credibility, and with the signings of Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn, Mark Reynolds and Russell Anderson he sourced both the defensive and attacking keystones on which Derek McInnes would later rely.
Even to those whose clubs he never represented, Brown’s ubiquity in the modern football firmament was such a given that it feels strange that he is only now here in memory.
Few gave more for longer.
That length of service tended to see Brown presumed old-school, and though not entirely without cause, he would not have thrived in such a variety of roles were he not an innovator.
Craig Brown as a coach for Scotland and the Dons
As Scotland coach he was an early adopter of the back three – much against a sacred hegemony of 4-4-2 – and as such he would have taken great interest in the Aberdeen line-up read out prior to the applause in his honour.
Fielding a pair of genuine attackers at wing-back, and two certified full-backs in the centre, was the best Aberdeen could do with the resources to hand but was always likely to invite disaster.
So it proved, with Nicky Devlin’s careless header, from a position he would not normally find himself in, ultimately settling the contest.
Angus MacDonald and Rhys Williams should make a noticeable difference to this team.
The sooner the better.
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