That Was Brutal v Gave The Game Up watch Michael Stewart and Willie Miller trashing Aberdeen

Craig Levein never quite recovered from admitting that he sent out a Scotland team without a striker to play the Czech Republic.

The former Hearts and Dundee United boss wasn’t even streetwise enough to claim a False 9 or some other excuse. These days Levein sends himself up on Radio Scotland laughing off his various nightmare moments in management.

Yesterday Jim Goodwin took a major step down that route. A year ago he earned plaudits for piecing together a scratch team of St Mirren players that held Celtic, fresh from lifting the League Cup, to a 0-0 draw in Paisley.

There were no Aberdeen players officially self isolating yesterday but their forwards might as well have been watching from the stand, left alone with virtually no scraps to feed off.

Six home wins out of seven, third place in the SPFL with a positive goal difference everything seemed set for Aberdeen to give Celtic a decent test. St Johnstone, Hearts and Motherwell managed it before the World Cup break.

Nineteen per cent possession is a grim statistic whatever way you look at it, some issues can’t be dressed up and glossed over.

Goodwin is free to play any way that he likes, his side are in third place this morning but Hearts, Livingston and St Johnstone are within striking distance with yesterday’s abdication going to be thrown back at the Aberdeen boss with every set-back he encounters.