Aberdeen fan view: Jimmy Thelin should have subbed bewildered Dimitar Mitov off at Hibs when he had the chance

Goalkeepers receiving attention from physios has been a fashionable football conversation point in recent weeks, as mischievous coaches have cottoned on to its abuse as a means of holding a mid-game tactical conference without consequence.

So when Alexander Jensen kicked Dimitar Mitov in the face at Easter Road, he may have been subconsciously doing likewise to Jimmy Thelin’s backside.

The Dons had been singularly impotent from the moment they went behind to Hibs on Tuesday – this was perhaps an opportunity to foment and disseminate a new plan with which to attack the game’s last quarter.

It was a chance not taken, as everyone on the pitch and touchline alike merely hung around and waited to see whether Mitov would be able to continue.

On reflection, in the absence of any strategic pearls of wisdom, Thelin would clearly have been better served simply whipping the bewildered Bulgarian straight off there and then – he may have been able to satisfy the medics that he knew where he was, but the whereabouts of the ball and his near post would prove far thornier questions.

Thelin could certainly argue he was unlucky with the decision to disallow what had seemed to be a legal leveller from Kevin Nisbet – Scotland’s budget version of VAR once again has a struggle on its hands to convince it has sufficient tools to rule on marginal offsides outside the penalty area.

But, in truth, Aberdeen got all they deserved from the match.

A Hibs team who had been so energetic and impressive in blasting aside the leaders on Saturday was neither of those things, but did not need to be to ease away from lesser adversaries here.

Back, then, to the bottom six, and in all honesty, it is where this Aberdeen side belongs.

The season, now half over, still feels like it hasn’t got started.

[Source: Press and Journal]