Its crash landing muffled beneath the sound of something resembling ABBA, a lone pint of Tennent's topples and plummets to the floor of a Dundee bar.
The owner of the now vanquished vessel pauses for a moment, bereft, before wondering aloud the wisdom of a non-alcoholic replacement.
A first sobering development of the day for an Aberdeen fan.
But for he and the legion of others commandeering this bustling corner pub, by no means the last.
Ignoring the expanding pool of lager, feet pound the wooden boards as a reworked "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" chorus continues unabated in tribute to Christian Ramirez.
The American's goal in a few hours' time proves a mere footnote in today's story.
It's 3.47pm on Saturday and on a distant TV across the bar you can just about glimpse Nicky Clark giving Dundee United the lead against Hibs, suggesting this particular establishment is on-loan for the day.
The novelty of a 6 o'clock weekend kick-off is peaking in the shadow of Dens Park.
A less welcome unfamiliarity is the run of form that brings the Red Army to Tayside with considerable angst bubbling ominously under the bravado.
Nine games without victory ensures any songs canonising manager Stephen Glass are conspicuous by their absence.
While you'll find few, if any, within these walls decrying the decision to finally part with Derek McInnes, a consensus on his successor is harder to establish.
"It's difficult, there's probably a split in the camp," says one, straining to be heard as a less than complimentary ditty about Dundee rises up to our left.
"You're getting rid of somebody like McInnes, who was there for eight years.
"If you lose someone with that level of influence, it's like Fergie to a much smaller degree when he left Man United.
"Anybody who comes in afterwards is going to have a lot of work to do, regardless of how good they are. I think that's what Glass is suffering from.
"The other side is the fans want to do better than McInnes, but we're not.
"There's a pain to be had short term for gain in the long term, but it's hard to accept when you're used to winning."
And therein lies the conundrum, neatly packaged yet agonisingly difficult for these supporters to unwrap.
Quite how much of that pain they're prepared to endure will likely become clearer by the time supporters buses roll back up the A90.
"I've not come away from games thinking we're absolutely shocking," confesses another. "It's not like we're getting drubbed every week."
Maybe it's the drink, maybe it's the camaraderie, but the prevailing pub narrative - although not without concern - retains a hefty dose of realism and even a dash of optimism, however hesitant.
Away from the bar, there's little such hope to be found with two older fans on nearby Provost Road.
"We'll be fighting a relegation battle soon, that's how severe it is," he declares to his pal's approval. "Glass shouldn't have got the job in the first place, he hasn't got the experience."
The former Atlanta United 2 manager and Pittodrie chairman Dave Cormack worked together in the US but Glass, an ex-Dons player himself, has maintained the influence of their relationship in securing him the job was "overstated".
The problem with the current trajectory is that questions such as "have we just replaced McInnes with the chairman's best pal from America?", as one worried fan puts it, will only get louder.
It's true, Glass does lack senior managerial experience but right now he's picking that up the hard way.
Even at this early stage of the campaign, there's a somewhat make or break feel about the impending 90 minutes. Despite the consternation staying broadly polite and the willingness for Glass to succeed holding strong, there's an unspoken truth that defeat here is simply not an option.
Dundee, newly promoted, are bottom of the Premiership, winless in their opening eight matches and carrying a goal difference of minus 10.
This is their home fixture but the late start time garners less approval among the fans I encounter, with a pair joking it's particularly unpopular with their significant others.
Saturday 3pm is a sacred ritual for thousands and woe betide anyone who meddles with it, lest they have a very good reason.
Tonight's experiment, pushed by the American influence at both clubs, has been described as an attempt at pushing Scottish football to a more international audience via a kick-off time that need not compete with the all-consuming English Premier League.
The well-oiled carnival atmosphere back at the pub suggests, for the match-going punter, it's primarily an away day treat.
"I probably wouldn't have come otherwise," one admits.
What follows as darkness descends on Dens may just make him wish he hadn't bothered.
An uninspired Aberdeen lose 2-1, consigning Glass to a fifth consecutive league defeat, probably the most galling of the lot.
Their performance is ironically reflective of opinion in the bars and streets; crippled by indecision and a lack of collective cohesion.
There are few supporters who didn't wear a pained expression when asked to ruminate on the current situation, one you suspect returns in earnest as their team huff and puff their way around Dens.
Ryan Hedges, back from injury, carries that same look for much of the match.
The Welshman continually drops deep into pockets of space but his pleas for a pass are too often ignored by centre-backs David Bates and Declan Gallagher, who look particularly ill-at-ease in Glass' system.
The manager has attempted to dismantle McInnes' much-derided playing style and while Aberdeen are certainly less industrial, they're also painfully ineffective.
Somewhere in an alternate universe, Lewis Ferguson is playing for Watford in the Premier League. Here, he's a ghost.
Scott Brown patrols the base of midfield but can't inject badly-needed aggression into another passive display.
Bates and Gallagher's risk-averse approach in possession shifts the onus on progressing
Aberdeen forward onto young full-backs Calvin Ramsay and Jack MacKenzie.
Dundee have quite clearly prepared for this and Ramsay, in particular, is paid special attention.
McInnes may be gone, the squad given a makeover, but familiar failings persist.
His latter day teams devolved into a disjointed mess and although this new iteration are attempting to join the dots with more colourful brush strokes, the final outcome is similarly impenetrable.
For all the summer changes, Aberdeen have lurched from one identity crisis to another.
Leigh Griffiths giving Dundee the lead, one which is swiftly doubled by Luke McCowan, had felt inevitable for some time.
The second triggers somewhat of an exodus from the away end and number of those who stay do so only to demand Glass "get to f**k".
At the other end, the palpable anxiety which exuded from the home support for much of the game has been purged and not even Ramirez' consolation can bring it back.
It calls to mind a pre-match outlier among what was a primarily gloomy outlook as fans arrived at the turnstiles.
"Don't worry about us pal, we'll be alright," declared one grizzled veteran as he hurried off in search of a pint. "It's Dundee, we're always slow starters."
It proves so casually prescient that you wonder whether he knew something the rest of us didn't.
The return of Griffiths and Charlie Adam, although the former limps off injured again after his goal, lends weight to the theory this Dundee squad can compete despite their conspicuous start to the campaign.
There's a bad-tempered finale to proceedings, prolonged by more than 10 minutes of stoppage time, but at no point do the hosts look in any real trouble.
That doesn't stop manager James McPake joining Aberdeen coach Gordon Marshall in the stands as tensions spill over, but he's back on the touchline shortly after, punching the night air in delight.
Glass, by contrast, carries the look of a man who'd rather the blackened sky opened up and enveloped him.
In fairness, he refuses to obfuscate in front of the assembled press.
"The reality of managing football clubs like this is the reality of playing for football clubs like this," he states bluntly. "You don't last very long if you don't win games."
And that's it in a nut-shell, really.
Talk of transitions, long-term projects, philosophies and building teams can be warm comfort blankets, yet only palatable when people feel the end goal is coming down the track.
While it seems Cormack is sticking with his man, how long will that go on as he approaches a tough triple header - facing Hibs, Rangers then Hearts - feels certain to be the focus of intense scrutiny.
As the Aberdeen fans pour out of Dens and into the driving rain, there's no need to ask how they feel about that just now.
