Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen fan view: Time to pay tribute to an extraordinary 234 days without defeat

Chris Crighton reflects on Saturday's 6-0 defeat against Celtic at Hampden and the end of Aberdeen's extraordinary unbeaten run.

Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers scores to make it 1-0 against Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final. Image: SNS.
Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers scores to make it 1-0 against Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final. Image: SNS.

What’s this? A defeat? It was always bound to come sometime. It happens to everyone. But the end of Aberdeen’s unbeaten run should not be treated as anything more significant than the perfect opportunity to reflect on the utter extraordinariness of it.

This was the first time Aberdeen had been beaten in conventional play for 234 days. That, outside of the two periods when football was suspended as the world was at war, is the longest timespan between two losses in club history – by three and a half weeks.

Those figures in themselves reflect a spell of abnormal resilience and quality, at a club which has fielded some extremely accomplished teams in its time. But for it to rise directly out of the ashes of the ridiculous bin fire which became of the 2023/24 season is the most dizzying turnaround imaginable.

Aberdeen’s Graeme Shinnie looks dejected during the defeat by Celtic. Image: SNS.

For it was only four days before that previous defeat that Aberdeen parted with their erstwhile manager, and just 38 more since they sacked the one before. At that point, the club was in complete turmoil, with results falling off a cliff, no sense of any coherent remedial plan and panic spreading across the region.

To imagine that that team, apparently incapable of getting through 90 minutes without calamity let alone winning a match, could be immediately transformed into the most relentless unbeatable machine in club history would have been as good as impossible.

The work done by Jimmy Thelin and, before him, Peter Leven – whose restoration of confidence and pride becomes more significant every day as a foundation stone of what has followed this season – has been breathtaking.

That work will continue, however backward a step this is perceived as being. 234 days say that Aberdeen are on the right track, irrespective of one bad afternoon.

 

Conversation