Big Andy just loves telling us his Euro stories on the group chats
Now Joe want team-mates to follow crocked star’s lead
JOE LEWIS wants Aberdeen to produce a special European night so they can follow in the footsteps of Andrew Considine.
The 34-year-old defender suffered cruciate damage in last week’s 1-0 play-off first-leg defeat in Baku and has had to have surgery, which will keep him out beyond Christmas.
Club captain Lewis now wants to give the Scotland star a major lift by ensuring the Dons get the result against Qarabag at Pittodrie that will take them into the Europa Conference League group stage.
The last time Aberdeen made the groups in continental competition was in 2007-08, with Considine part of that successful team who got past Copenhagen, Atletico Madrid, Panathinaikos and Lokomotiv Moscow before Bayern Munich halted their brave UEFA Cup run.
Lewis said: “He’ll be cheering us on as much as anyone.
“While he won’t make the game, I’m sure he’ll be watching it on his computer or telly. He’ll be supporting us 100 per cent.
“I’ve spoken to him about it before and he said it was a fantastic experience. That team got through to the last 32 as well. He spoke about that too.
“Anyone who spends time with Andy loves to pick his brains and his experience, especially the younger boys. He’s one who can pass on that experience.”
Considine now faces a tough few months but Lewis is in no doubt he will come back stronger.
The keeper added: “Andy has been fantastic for us for a very long time now. There is disappointment for him personally and for the team.
“It’s clearly a blow but Ross (McCrorie) and Declan (Gallagher) are more than capable of filling that void. We need to move on with it because there’s nothing we can do.
“But Andy is the type of guy who will come back stronger. Any longterm injury is a physical and mental battle. He’s had injuries before, luckily not anything like this. But he’s a strong boy mentally and physically.”
Aberdeen have been in Europe for eight seasons now.
The 33-year-old goalie has been involved in six of those campaigns and reckons his team have a great chance against an Azerbaijani side who he knows remain dangerous.
Lewis added: “It would be fantastic. From a players’ point of view, you’ve got another six games guaranteed. Big games, three at home, so they’d be great occasions for the supporters as well.
“Hopefully, restrictions depending, fans would be able to go to away games as well because I know a lot of supporters love doing that.
“We’ve not qualified for the group stage in a lot of years. The opportunity to get there and get the Aberdeen name back in the minds of European football and European opposition is a fantastic one.
“We want to do that as players and we’re one game away.
“We need to win the game, we know, but we approach it the way we would any other – to win. It’s not going to be drastically different.
“They’re a good team, we know that. But we’ve played against good teams over the last two rounds.
“We know they have really good quality but we don’t want to dwell too much on them.
“We’ve looked at them but you don’t want to get too wrapped up on the strength of the opposition. We like to think we’ve got a few things that can worry them hopefully.
“Financially it’s worth a massive amount to the club.
“Coming out of a pandemic, I’m sure those funds would be greatly received by the club and we’d look to build with that.”
Lewis has also played in more than his fair share of big games with the Dons and knows tonight at Pittodrie could be right up there.
He said: “I’ve played in cup finals with the club and they’re huge games. As players – and for supporters too
– you want to lift trophies.
“This game won’t bring you a trophy but it brings you a lot of other rewards, such as financial ones and the opportunity to play on a big stage.
“It’s very hard to gauge in terms of how you’d measure it against a cup final but a cup final as a one-off is what you want as a player. It’s certainly up there alongside it.”
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