Dons dreaming of silverware

There isn't a happier man in Scotland today than Jimmy Calderwood. They say that to truly appreciate the highs, you have to experience the lows, and the Aberdeen manager can certainly claim to have had more than his fair share of bad days this season.

Consider this: after finishing 3rd and qualifying for the UEFA Cup last season, Calderwood lost some vital members of his squad and went hunting in the sales for some bargains. He had mixed results, and this term Aberdeen are currently languishing down in 8th place and struggling to make the top 6 before the split.

If Aberdeen do play out their final round of fixtures in the bottom half of the table, it will reduce the crowds still further, the fans already hacked off by lack of investment from the chairman, indifferent performances, and the "tactical tombola" which made it impossible to predict the line-up and system from week to week.

The criticism has hurt Calderwood, who has long felt under-appreciated in Scotland, aware that he is no longer a young, up and coming manager, but one whose career has not reached the heights he had hoped for. This season, he has felt let down by the board and let down by his squad. First he threatened to leave if not given certain assurances about his budget. More recently, he threatened a mass clear-out at the end of the season, saying that some of his players "weren't as good as they thought they were".

In contrast, the UEFA Cup campaign was generally regarded as a success, its high point coming when Aberdeen held Bayern Munich 2-2 at a rocking Pittodrie, reminding everyone of the passion the club can generate when circumstances are right. That evening was one to be cherished, though, because Aberdeen then got spanked in Munich, ending the adventure in no uncertain terms.

And then to the Scottish Cup, a competition that Calderwood reveres. Aberdeen were minutes from a shock win over Celtic, before a late equaliser took them to a replay in Glasgow. Calderwood seemed crushed - Aberdeen's chance had surely gone.

So it seemed last night, as the first half was pretty much one way traffic, with Celtic on the attack and Aberdeen on the rocks. Calderwood may be a passionate and animated character on the touchline, but this masks a surprisingly reflective and observant side to his personality, and he was honest enough to admit that Aberdeen "rode their luck at times". Yet the luck held out, and a rare attack in the 68th minute yielded the only goal of the game, as Darren Mackie put Celtic out.

Aberdeen's prize is a semi-final against 1st Division Queen of the South, who are combative but limited. Aberdeen are clear favourites to go through, probably to meet Rangers in the final, assuming they dispose of Partick Thistle and then St Johnstone.

To lift the Cup, then, Aberdeen will probably have to beat both sides of the Old Firm. Not easy. But what an opportunity.

European success undermines Old Firm's moaning

Rangers might have benefitted from goal-keeping errors last night, but the 2-0 result against Werder Bremen gives them a great chance to get through to the UEFA Cup quarter finals. Walter Smith will have been pleased by his team's defence, with Christian Dailly and Brahim Hemdani in midfield snuffing out the opponent's attack. Rangers have now gone 19 games unbeaten, with a big enough squad to challenge both in Europe and at home at the same time.

Meanwhile, Celtic were clearly second-best against Barcelona, but the club still saw signs of progress, with Chief Executive Peter Lawwell saying he saw "no reason" why Celtic could not go one better next season and get through to the last eight of the Champions League.

Of course, once you are in the quarter finals of a knock-out competition, anything can happen.

So if Celtic and Rangers both think that getting to the latter stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup are now realistic rather than hopeful ambitions, what exactly have they been moaning about all this time. The argument was that the SPL was holding them back, that they would never be able to reach their potential while "forced" to compete in poor old Scotland. They lobbied and lobbied to be allowed to join the English Premiership so that they could provide the success that their huge fanbases deserved.

Of course, there is no chance of them doing that now, and it turns out that the SPL isn't all that bad after all. It's not the most exciting or richest league in Europe, but it doesn't seem to be doing too badly for the Old Firm at the moment.