Jimmy Thelin’s perfect start keeps taking names from Aberdeen’s glorious history.
His 10-game winning streak had already matched the heroic squad of 1983; by extending it to 11, his team is on a run of sustained success not seen since the heyday of another Dons legend.
Greatness as both a player and a person do not always go together, but they absolutely do in the case of the wonderful Bobby Clark.
Of the many things he achieved while guarding Aberdeen’s goal, he is arguably most synonymous with the extraordinary sequence of 1970-71, when his twelve consecutive shutouts powered the Reds to 15 straight victories.
But the endlessly humble Clark – justly proud though he is of that record – would not fail to credit the work of others, particularly Jim Hermiston, Henning Boel, Tommy McMillan and Martin Buchan, without which it could never have been accrued.
With that in mind, 11 is an opposite number for Thelin’s unblemished record to reach.
For it is also the number of players in a team, and it is the team which has been the star of the early season rather than any individual within it.
And as a measure of the variation of Aberdeen’s fortunes, it is also the total number of competitive wins registered in the entire season as recently as 2009/10: a dismal campaign in which no Don scored as many goals as have already been hit by Pape Gueye, frequently the one in the right place to convert the setup work of the collective behind him.
The total football-type philosophy was best exemplified by the third goal, with Slobodan Rubezic swerving in a belting cross for Leighton Clarkson’s headed finish when the opposite would have seemed infinitely more likely.
All for one and one for all – and eleven for eleven.
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