Aberdeen

Peter Leven believes Aberdeen are in big trouble following their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Dunfermline at East End Park. Dunfermline defeat the cup holders with goals from Matty Todd and Olly Thomas brace put the Pars’ into their first semi-final since 2009. Peter Leven wasn’t afraid to criticize his side’s display as Aberdeen put up a horror display in Dunfermline. Aberdeen started the first 5-10 minutes well but going down hill as soon as the hosts went ahead with Peter Leven saying: “We started okay, we had a chance with Stuart Armstrong, but after that, I can’t defend the players any more, that was unacceptable. I can only apologise to the fans for what they’ve seen. “We had so many experienced players on there, but we never won the battle. First balls, second balls, a lack of fight, a lack of confidence, it’s really poor. We’re the holders, and we’ve limped out the Scottish Cup, that’s unacceptable for me. I can take losing, but after going 1-0 down, the fight was gone, and that was so disappointing.” Aberdeen have been miles off it with just three wins since the start of 2026. The Dons currently sit 9th in the Scottish Premiership following Dundee’s win over Motherwell on Saturday. If things weren’t to get any worse, Peter Leven’s men have a very tough run of fixtures in the lead up to the split with visits from Falkirk and Hibernian as well as away days to St Mirren and Rangers in store. With the way things are going, Peter Leven said: “We’re in trouble, we’re in serious trouble, because we’re not picking up wins, we’re not picking up points, and we’re out of the Scottish Cup. There’s a real possibility we can get dragged into the relegation fight, I said that to the players after the game. “We cannot go on like this, but I can’t protect them any longer. They’ve got to stand up and be counted. They have to show the character because we can’t do anything else, there’s no transfer window, so they’re going to have to pick it up.”

Sandro Schwarz has landed in the Granite City as talks begin as Horneland’s move to Aberdeen has faced ‘unforeseen circumstances’. This afternoon, Sandro Schwarz flew into Aberdeen to hold talks about the chance of becoming the new boss after the sacking of Jimmy Thelin at the start of the year. He will meet with Dave Cormack, Alan Burrows and Lutz Pfannenstield over the available job at Pittodrie this afternoon. Eirik Horneland remains the main target to take the job in Scotland but ‘unforeseen circumstances’ have appeared with Sandro becoming a possible back-up option should the talks with the Norwegian break down. Lutz knows him from his time in Germany and the USA where he managed New York City Red Bulls with Lutz being at St Louis City. The German boss has had a handful of managerial jobs such as Mainz, FC Eschborn, Hertha Berlin, Wehen Weisbaden and Russian side, Dynamo Moscow. Sandro who was most recently boss in New York had a win percentage of 38% which was a win rate of 1.4 points per game in MLS football. Aberdeen currently have Peter Leven in charge on interim basis with Ex-Ross County boss, Tony Docherty in as assistant. Aberdeen have struggled big time this season, sitting eighth in the Scottish Premiership with top-six looking like mission impossible. Horneland joining Aberdeen may still happen but it has been made clear that the appointment won’t be any earlier than the summer.

Aberdeen have had a struggle of a season as they sit eighth with a difficult run to come for Peter Leven’s men. It’s been a difficult season for Aberdeen after a poor start which saw Scottish Cup winner, Jimmy Thelin sacked at the start of the year after a defeat away at Falkirk. Aberdeen have only won three times this year so far which came against Championship side, Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup, a 6-2 win over bottom of the league Livingston and an impressive 2-0 win over 9-men Motherwell in the Scottish Cup. Aberdeen have failed to win away since early December and this year hasn’t been great at all. The Dons’ new manager search has taken quite a while as still no manager has taken the role yet despite huge talk of Eirik Horneland taking the job which looks like it may not be until next season. Peter Leven is currently in charge as interim boss with former Ross County and Dundee boss Tony Docherty alongside Leven. Aberdeen also added former Notts County boss, Ian Burchnall to the coaching staff for the remainder of the season. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Dons with a trip to Tynecastle on the cards tomorrow – a place they haven’t won at since 2017 before they take on Celtic on Wednesday night. They then look to defend their Scottish Cup as they travel to East End Park next Saturday night to face Dunfermline. Aberdeen will also have to face the likes of Rangers, Hibernian, Falkirk and St Mirren ahead of the split which is far from ideal as Aberdeen are in dire need of grabbing wins to make a late push for top six. It is highly unlikely Aberdeen will go down due to the amount of quality but Peter Leven’s men certainly need to up their game to prevent being dragged closer to the bottom with sides around that area improving week by week.

Aberdeen man Lyall Cameron fully believes Aberdeen can go to Tynecastle and pick up points against the league leaders. The on-loan Rangers man feels his side can go to Gorgie and cause a shock and beat Hearts who sit top of the league and ending Aberdeen’s winless record which goes all the way back to 2017. Current Hearts boss, Derek McInnes was the last Aberdeen boss to secure victory at Tynecastle where McInnes defeated his current side 2-1 on the 7th of May, 2017. Aberdeen look likely to be involved in the bottom-six this season following their goalless draw in the City of Discovery on Tuesday evening at Tannadice. Lyall Cameron said: “We definitely need a win. We can win any game in this league. It has been shown this year with teams dropping points everywhere. “We just need to go there and play our own game. Play as well as possible and hopefully we get the three points.” Hearts have only suffered defeat on home soil once this season which came back in the Scottish Cup with Falkirk ending Scottish Cup dreams for the Jambos but has proven to be a very difficult venue for visiting sides. Cameron added: “We know the atmosphere at Tynecastle is going to be magnificent,” he insisted. “Their fans are really behind them. “We just need to go there, do our best, match their energy and give it back to them. We have players in our dressing room who can hurt them and players coming back who are good footballers, so we are looking forward to it.” This has been a clash where it has been the home side who appear to come away with all three points in. Aberdeen have failed to win away ever since December in a 3-1 win at Dens Park with there last away goal coming just before Christmas where Bilalovic netted late on in a 3-1 defeat at Celtic Park. As well as that, Aberdeen have suffered major blows at the backline with no Tobers or Knoester and now McIntyre adding to the list. He said: “That is the benchmark now. We have shown we can defend ugly and play ugly. We have players in the team who want to play football, myself included. “Every time I got the ball at Tannadice, I had to bang it in the channel. It is not what I want to be doing, but that was what the game was like on Wednesday. Hopefully, Saturday will be better and the travelling fans will get a better watch than that.” A win on Saturday may boost any remaining top-six hopes although those hopes already look to be deflated. Hearts will certainly be needing the win ahead of the Old Firm meeting on Sunday as they look to extend the gap but will need to deal with Aberdeen first.

It was a frustrating afternoon as Dundee picked up their first win at Pittodrie since 15th of May, 2004 in a 3-2 victory. Aberdeen started off brightly where it took just 13 minutes for Aberdeen to fire ahead as Kevin Nisbet had his effort in the back of the net as Aberdeen looked as they could’ve had more. Aberdeen were reduced to 10 just before the break as Liam Morrison denied Dundee a goal-scoring opportunity as Leven quotes: “We stopped playing football, they equalise and then there’s the red card. We need to be better at dealing with a long ball. But he’s cut across him, I’m not sure what he can do and I don’t know why we’re punished twice. But we’ve got to take it on the chin.” Leven added: “We’ve got to take out chances and go two or three-nil up. But we get a wee bit nervy and stop doing what we did early on. That’s two red cards in two games – it’s not good enough.” Dundee were then awarded a penalty following the foul where Simon Murray made no mistake and slotted the Dees’ a way back into the match. Right before the break, Joel Cotterill had Dundee ahead on the brink of half-time to send the away end into mayhem after an attempt from very close range and made no mistake and gave Dundee the lead going into the break. Dundee had the better first half start but Kevin Nisbet midway through the second 45 had a free-kick from distance and whipped it high into the top left-hand corner to level up the game. Dundee found themselves in front once again as an absolute stunner by Ethan Hamilton from far out right into the top right-hand corner which was near impossible to stop with the amount of power on the strike which smacked the bar and rattled the back of the net to give the Dees’ a famous win in Aberdeen. Leven said: “I thought at times we were good in the second half. We get it back to 2-2 and it’s got to be a point in that game. We turn the ball over too easy, we’ve got to go up the line and gain territory. But we gave it away and don’t defend the shot.”