McCrorie full of praise for ‘true leader’ Brown
ROSS McCrorie has revealed the important role that “true leader” Scott Brown has played in helping Aberdeen to emerge from their alarming slump in form since moving back into defence.
The centre-half and his team mates were unlucky not to beat Scottish champions Rangers in a cinch Premiership match at a packed Ibrox on Wednesday evening.
The Pittodrie club took a two goal lead in the opening 16 minutes after first striker Christian Ramirez and then captain Brown netted headers.
They were only denied a victory when David Bates conceded a controversial penalty with nine minutes remaining and James Tavernier converted the spot kick.
McCrorie was disappointed that Aberdeen, who beat Hibernian at home on Saturday, failed to pick up all three points, but he admitted it was another encouraging performance and positive result.
Manager Stephen Glass came under pressure earlier this month after his team had gone 10 games without a win and had lost five matches in succession.
The defender feels that former Celtic and Scotland midfielder Brown, who slotted in between him and Bates once again in midweek, has been instrumental to their revival.
“I hope we have turned the corner now,” he said. “We have changed the shape a bit and it seems to suit us. We have strung a couple of results together. It is up to us to keep the performances up and keeping getting points on the table.
“Broony is good in defence. He is also very good in the middle, in centre mid, as well. He dropped in halfway through the last game. I just need to do all the running for him so that’s alright! No, Broony has been magnificent since he came in. I can only say good things about him. He scored a diving header against Rangers. Afterwards I said to him, ‘Where did you pull that from?’ Brilliant! As I say, he has been magnificent since he came in. He is a true leader and all of the boys look up to him.”
McCrorie added: “We haven’t really thought about the out
side noise. We just focus on ourselves. We are in our own wee bubble at the training ground. All the boys stick together and the management stick together. We stick together all the time, including through the difficult times.
“Maybe results weren’t going our way, but the tide is starting to turn a wee bit. Hopefully we can keep accumulating as many points as possible.
“I think if you look at our performances you could tell we were playing well. It is just a couple of wee small details. If we can tidy up the small details and string a few results together then hopefully we can accumulate as many points as we can.”
McCrorie started his career at Rangers and was upset to learn that the Ibrox club’s legendary former manager Walter Smith had passed away at the age of 73 earlier this week.
Light Blues supporters paid tribute to Smith before and during their league match on Wednesday night amid emotional scenes – but the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist stressed that he had just focused on playing well for Aberdeen.
“Walter Smith was a great man,” he said. “I didn’t really know him personally. I just said hello to him a couple of times. But it is terrible what has happened. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
“Wednesday night was obviously a big occasion, but we had a job to do and we came away with a point. It wasn’t awkward. We took a point up the road and we are happy with that.”