Aberdeen are beginning to reap the rewards from the strength and determination of chairman Dave Cormack and his board.
If you take on the role of chairperson or director of a club, you must be strong and determined in your beliefs.
It takes backbone to lead a club and the ability to take criticism that will come your way if results are poor.
Chairman Cormack showed his strength by backing manager Stephen Glass during a run of bad form.
Criticism is always directed at the chairman and the manager when results are not good.
Both have to show spirit, determination and grit in the hope the rewards will come.
With three straight wins and the Dons back in the top six, their strength is paying off.
Aberdeen suffered a 10-game run without a win earlier this season and chairman Cormack came out and publicly backed manager Glass.
The chairman’s backing after the 2-1 loss to Dundee was pivotal.
It gave everyone a bit of confidence at the club that they are all pulling in the same direction.
The intervention from the chairman had a positive effect and helped open up the path for Aberdeen to get results.
Turning around fortunes has to be a team effort – right from the chairman and the board at the very top to the people who work the turnstiles.
Aberdeen have shown this togetherness recently and it has transformed into results.
While Cormack backed his manager, I was surprised to see Hibs sack manager Jack Ross.
It was very early to make a decision on Ross.
I thought at the time when the pressure was piling on Glass it would have been wrong to make the same decision to dispense with his services.
All managers need time to turn things round when they go through the period of poor results.
I’m glad Glass got the opportunity and I’m sad Ross didn’t.
Ultimately that’s the modern day game and the way football is at the moment.
Fortunately for Aberdeen supporters, the situation at Pittodrie is beginning to look a lot brighter.
If that continues there should be real optimism for the new year.
It has been really patchy season for Aberdeen so far.
However, they are back on track, having won three games in a row.
The recent 4-1 defeat of St Mirren is the game that will have given Aberdeen real confidence.
It was a strong performance in all aspects.
Edging past St Johnstone 1-0 further builds momentum to potentially go into the winter break in early January in a positive position.
December always looked like being a defining month for Aberdeen.
The month that would decide if they went into the new year in the top six of the Premiership or the bottom six.
Would the pressure continue into the new year? Or would they get results to create a situation where everyone is more relaxed and confident?
Thankfully it is the latter. With recent results, Aberdeen are beginning to build a head of steam and are now just six points behind third-placed Hearts.
Although Aberdeen suffered poor run of form earlier this season, you cannot make a full judgement so soon in the campaign.
You have to give it a bit of depth.
You have to allow time for every team to play one another in what is a tight, competitive league.
Now Aberdeen are beginning to find their form and they must keep this going until the winter shutdown.
After the Dons trip to Ross County on January 2, the top flight goes into hibernation for three weeks.
If they can maintain this positive run, the Reds will go into the new year with a lot of optimism.
Scottish football was facing disarray
Thankfully there is now clarity for Scottish football clubs regarding Covid-19 rules affecting team buses.
There was confusion over the weekend after clubs were informed on Friday that if anyone on a bus tested positive for the Omicron variant, all passengers would have to self-isolate for 10 days.
In light of that advice, Aberdeen took an extra third bus to St Johnstone at the weekend.
The confusion began when Scotland’s national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch appeared to say on Saturday people from a bus with a positive result can test and release if double vaccinated.
Now the Scottish FA and SPFL Joint Response Group (JRG) says the Scottish government has revised that advice.
Only close contacts will not be able to be cleared by a negative test.
Boss Stephen Glass confident Aberdeen will cope with new Covid rules – but calls for more clarity
Thankfully the sensible approach has been adopted because isolating all the passengers on a bus for one positive Omicron case had the potential to throw Scottish football into complete disarray.
It could have put the fixtures in real jeopardy of being fulfilled.
Not just at the top level, but all levels of Scottish football.
The waters had been very muddy regarding the protocol and needed cleared up.
If it was the case that everyone has to isolate for 10 days after one positive test on the bus, it could have thrown Scottish football into confusion and chaos.
The test and release protocol appears to be the more sensible option.
If there are positive cases, they have to isolate, get the test and – if it’s negative – then they can get released and get on with their business.
Clubs are already basically sending wagon trains to away games now with up to three separate buses.
If everyone on a bus is forced to isolate for 10 days, it would decimate a squad and it almost makes the fixtures impossible to fulfil.
The need to introduce VAR
Aberdeen’s 1-0 defeat of St Johnstone at the weekend underlined the need to introduce VAR in Scotland.
For the sake of fairness, the sooner VAR is introduced the better.
VAR would minimise the type of incidents where Aberdeen secured a winning goal despite Teddy Jenks handling the ball before he scored.
However, until VAR is introduced, managers and players will just have to take the bad luck and the good luck as it comes.
🎯 Yesterday's winner in front of the Red Army courtesy of Teddy Jenks.#StandFree | @tedjenks_ pic.twitter.com/37RFgOWBI4
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) December 12, 2021
Aberdeen’s win in Perth underlined the good and bad fortune of football.
It was good for Stephen Glass in that a goal, where Jenks handled before shooting, stood to secure the three points.
It was bad for St Johnstone’s Callum Davidson as his side suffered a defeat that sent them to the bottom of the Premiership.
Decisions tend to balance out over the season.
Deep down I think most managers know that.
At times they can get caught up in thinking everything is going against them.
However, if you sit down and take the whole season into account, invariably it balances out.
That’s my experience of it, although it doesn’t feel like that when decisions go against you.
At the time you feel like the world is against you.
Both managers will know who got the good fortune and the bad fortune at McDiarmid Park.
