Aside from a brief, anomalous Korea break, it has been a long time since Aberdeen’s matchday squads have routinely been without the name of Niall McGinn.
Its absence from the teamsheet last night was keenly felt, marking the end of an era.
It is almost ten years since McGinn – raw and ruffled, with the appearance of a bag of washing – began his first Pittodrie cycle, and he was not long in demonstrating that looks can be deceiving.
Though relatively short on game-time experience prior to his arrival, he instantly set about taking opponents to the cleaners and became both the backbone and the figurehead of the Aberdeen side.
McGinn’s measurable output – 87 goals scored and as many again assisted – is unrivalled among Dons of this century but his unquantifiable contribution is equally significant.
For it should not be forgotten that the team into which he was parachuted in 2012 was, to put not too fine a point on it, terrible, as it had been for most of the previous 18 years.
Although in that first season he played a lone hand – the first Don to break the 20-goal barrier since 1997, while his teammates barely bettered it between them – McGinn made the side credible.
It may not have been until Derek McInnes added midfield horsepower the following year that McGinn’s cartload of goals was converted into tangible improvement, but he was a fundamental building block in what became a total rebuild of a faded club.
That Aberdeen should start life after McGinn with a scoreless defeat is mere coincidence, his contribution long having dwindled away, but a salutary one.
Nothing runs by itself except downhill, and Aberdeen was thundering down the slope before McGinn and others wrestled the controls.
Farewell Niall. A truly great Don.
