Red Army gets rare glimpse of passion

MATHEMATICALLY speaking, in order to encounter a turning point one first has to hit the bottom.

Plummeting to an early, seemingly insurmountable, deficit will not have been the embattled Mark McGhee's formula but it allowed Aberdeen's season, which has thus far amounted to the square root of not very much, to finally factor in some spirit.

Yes, the Dons were aided in their recovery by barmy Dundee United defending – zonally marking set-pieces gives potential goalscorers their choice of lanes in which they know they will meet no human interference, while if Sean Dillon thought Stuart Duff required to be fouled to prevent him finding the net then the Irishman clearly didn't tune into the Gaelic channel to watch Duff's last Dons outing at Hibernian.

Duff's decisive contribution was to drive into the box from midfield. That is always offered as the one saving grace of the otherwise anonymous Gary McDonald, but here in his absence it was deliveredto point-scoring effect byhis understudy, a player who offers more besides.

McDonald is a footballing jellyfish. Occasionally he will creep up and sting you, but he is devoid of backbone.

That is one quality which is not, for all their deficiencies, lacking in Duff or Derek Young, who has seen oddly little action in central midfield since his man-of-the-match turn there against Rangers.

In the Dons' present predicament it is players like those upon whom they must rely. When Duff and Young are both on the field there is not the lack of impetus and endeavour which has characterised the resent decline served up by supposedly better players.

It may be that neither will be at Aberdeen in 2010/11 – McGhee would not play hardball with anyone interested in funding his renovation by rehousing Young and there will be no room for free agent Duff – but their honesty and professionalism will be vital in ensuring that next season is a SPL season for the Reds.

Chris Crighton is editor of Dons fanzine The Red Final