Calderwood strikes out

Aberdeen ended their pre-season preparations for the new season with a disappointing defeat that did little to solve Jimmy Calderwood's striking problems ahead of Saturday's season opener against Rangers.

The Dons manager played experienced trialist Noel Whelan up front alongside Steven Craig but the former Coventry City and Middlesbrough striker had little opportunity to impress.

Whelan was only given his chance when Slovan Liberec's Lubomir Blaha withdrew from his proposed trial at the last minute but the man who brought in over (pounds) 4 million in transfer fees earlier in his career was given little service.

He did look good in the air and created a late chance which Chris Clark failed to convert from six yards on a frustrating night for Calderwood that leaves him with more questions than answers.

Whelan will have to wait to see if he will be offered a deal. He said: "I only have one game to try and win a contract with Aberdeen and hopefully I did enough in the match to convince the manager that I am worth taking on.

"Moving to Scotland at this stage of my career would be the exactly the sort of new challenge that would excite me but we have to wait and see what happens."

Calderwood scrapped the three-man defence he tried out at Montrose in midweek and went with a flat back four in the last match before the serious action gets under way.

Michael Hart and Kevin McNaughton had recovered from the injuries that kept them out of the previous weekend's double header in Holland and filled the full-back berths with captain Russell Anderson and Zander Diamond in the middle.

That meant Scott Morrison dropping to the bench alongside Phil McGuire while the manager's only summer signing, Scott Severin, shared the central midfield duties with Markus Heikkinen.

All that left Aberdeen with little creative edge in an opening period the Dutch side controlled with their physical and technical superiority on a hot night at the Arke Stadium.

Blaise N'Kufo angled a header into the net to break the deadlock after 21 minutes - Aberdeen's only effort of note during that frustrating first 45 minutes was a header from Clark that failed to trouble the home goalkeeper.

It was no better after the interval and when Diamond conceded a free-kick in 64 minutes Simon Cziommer curled the ball into the net from 20 yards to put a more realistic sheen on the result.

Then, in 77 minutes, Ramon Zomer took advantage of more aerial uncertainty to head home the third goal from just eight yards after substitute Raimond Fafaini swung over a free-kick from the right.

Copyright 2004 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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