RED-HOT RACE FOR 2nd PLACE
Dons are on a roll and the runners-up prize is there for the taking, declares Stockley
WITH EACH passing week, aberdeen are providing an increasingly cogent counter-argument to the old wisdom that you get what you pay for.
Operating with a playing budget that is dwarfed by that of Rangers, by rights, guiding the Dons to third in the Premiership table would be an achievement commensurate with the resources at Derek McInnes’ disposal.
By the close of play on Sunday, however, the men from the north-east were not only lying above their Glasgow rivals but threatening to disappear over the horizon. a six-point gap and a vastly superior goal difference had them firmly established in the ‘strong second’ slot Rangers chairman Dave King felt was the minimum acceptable return from this campaign.
With 13 games to go, that lead is by no means impregnable. It is surely inconceivable that interim Rangers manager Graeme Murty will be in charge for much longer, with an experienced replacement until the end of the season offering some hope that second place can yet be salvaged.
Yet it is beginning to look like the most thankless of tasks. Murty’s scathing assessment of his players’ application in the aftermath of the defeat at Dens Park contrasted sharply with what aberdeen produced at Rugby Park earlier in the day.
McInnes was doubtless anticipating a display which fell somewhere short of the 7-2 mauling of Motherwell.
Truthfully, his side never came close to hitting those heights but, in a sense, the other qualities they exuded to turn a one-goal win into a ninth victory in ten games were just as impressive.
Trailing to Rory McKenzie’s goal with seven minutes remaining, the Dons showed considerable mental fortitude and guts to prevail.
Two of the substitutes, Jayden Stockley and Peter Pawlett, got the all-important goals, a tell-tale sign of a squad that has its collective shoulder pressed to the pump.
‘Our belief and attitude are brilliant,’ said Stockley. ‘I don’t think they have ever been in question all season.
‘The lads are brilliant here. Our quality in depth is tremendous.
‘against Motherwell, we were brilliant and everything was going for us. You get these games in a season like at Kilmarnock.
‘Sometimes you don’t get the three points and are angry, so as much as we were disappointed with the performance, we were delighted with the win.
‘That’s the strength of character we have. Obviously, the gaffer chooses his 11 and decides when to use his subs.
‘We’re desperate to get that second spot. We’ve shown everyone that we’re hitting some really good form.’
It says much that two players who might well have sulked on account of a lack of game time of late turned Sunday’s affair on its head.
Keeping a squad happy when a team tends to pick itself is the most arduous of managerial tasks. But while it is easy to talk about being ‘all in it together’, you sense that those on the fringes of McInnes’ plans truly buy into it.
‘There are a lot of players who didn’t get on at Kilmarnock who were in with a good shout of playing,’ added Stockley.
‘That’s what makes it even more important to take your chances when you get them. Myself and Peter did that.
‘everyone just wants to be in the starting 11, which is healthy for the squad. Opportunities are there for the lads to come on and make a difference.
‘The team showed a bit more on Sunday as we didn’t have it all our own way.’
Stockley’s 18-minute cameo could hardly have been more eventful. Not only did he pick Miles addison’s pocket for the equalising goal, he was involved in hotly contested penalty appeals at both ends of the park.
‘I feel that I got away from conor Sammon and he’s ripped my shirt in half,’ he said.
‘It was a definite penalty. I don’t think the linesman or the ref were looking at me. If they were, they’d have given it.
‘The other one at the other end, I did my shoulder so don’t remember too much as I was eating the astroturf at the time.
‘It’s sore at the moment. I don’t really know much about that one, to be honest.’
Reflecting on the moment that changed the course of the day, Stockley said: ‘I saw Miles holding (adam) Rooney off and there was a bit of confusion with the goalkeeper. I managed to sneak in there and get a nice little poacher’s finish. I was really happy with that one.’
You wonder how that goal and the one from Pawlett that followed resonated in the visitors’ dressing room at Dens Park.
certainly, Rangers’ first-half display was as disjointed and dispirited as they come.
For Stockley, it’s now a question of ensuring a sizeable gap to third place remains that way.
‘We’ve had it a few times this season when it’s been the opposite and Rangers have got a lot of late winners,’ he said.
‘We’re really happy to get it on the board and to apply a bit of pressure in an early kick-off.
‘I think we need to be confident in ourselves, in how we play, and realise what a great run we’re on.
‘If we can extend that and carry it on until the end of the season, then it should be our spot.’
“We have real quality in depth and our belief is just brilliant”