Docherty’s joy as Dons home in on Fergie feat
ABERDEEN assistant manager Tony Docherty hailed his players as they made it eight consecutive wins at Pittodrie for the first time since 1986.
On that occasion, the side managed by Sir Alex Ferguson would go on to win nine in a row; Hearts next month after the international break are the team standing between the incumbent Aberdeen squad matching the 31-year-old record.
A late Niall McGinn goal ensured the Dons came away with all three points against a stubborn Motherwell side and it means they are now nine points ahead of Rangers in the race for second in the Scottish Premiership.
‘It’s an absolute credit to the players to even be mentioned in the same breath as that team (in 1986),’ said Docherty. ‘But that’s what they keep doing — they keep churning out results. It’s difficult, the pitch isn’t great, we need to adapt and find a way to win but we’ve done it again.
‘That’s eight games now in all competitions that we have scored last-minute goals but that just typifies the spirit in the dressing room. There is a never-saydie attitude as we never know when we are beat and we keep going right to the final whistle, as we’ve shown again.
‘That’s something the players deserve a lot of credit for as you could see there was one team trying to win the game and one trying not to lose it. In football terms, the team who deserved to win did win.
‘That’s no surprise we got the goal as I know the desire of the players and their hunger for success this season. We’ve done our work and we can only affect what we can affect.’
On their last trip to Pittodrie, Motherwell conceded seven, but the despair of conceding one solitary last-minute goal yesterday was to plain to see for Stephen Robinson, their caretaker manager.
He said: ‘The players were on their knees in the changing room but they have to deal with it. We matched them for 92 minutes.
‘Make no mistake, they’re a good side but you could see how frustrated they were. But I can’t ask any more of the boys. They gave the club absolutely everything today.’