Burnley’s Cork blown away by Pittodrie atmosphere

JACK CORK admits the Pittodrie atmosphere trumped anything he has experienced in the English Premier League.

Burnley’s Europa League tie with Aberdeen has stoked debate on the respective merits of the Scottish and English games, and Thursday’s 1-1 draw in the north east suggested the gap between the leagues might not necessarily be as wide as finances suggest.

Cork, capped once by England, agrees that the Dons acquitted themselves well but was especially impressed with the part played by a capacity crowd of nearly 22,000.

‘You just don’t get that kind of atmosphere in the league in England,’ he said.

‘It was amazing and when the Aberdeen fans were singing Flower of Scotland it was great. When they scored, you could tell it would just be a great atmosphere.

‘It was a good match to play in — it was competitive, their fans were up for it, our fans were up for it. It was just a good game of European football.

‘It’s a great memory for me because it was my first ever European game.’

With Sam Vokes’ late away goal tucked under their belts, Sean Dyche’s team remain clear favourites to progress.

However, the intensity which helped Aberdeen take the lead through Gary Mackay-Steven’s penalty has served warning that the job is not finished.

‘We will have to be on top of our game and, hopefully, the away goal can help us,’ continued Cork. ‘But if Aberdeen play like they did in the first 25 minutes for the whole game at Turf Moor, then it could be a very difficult night for us.

‘They didn’t take us by surprise. We knew it was going to be a difficult game because Aberdeen are a top team in Scotland with some good players.

‘We knew they had good quality and good players because we watched a lot of their videos — they also gave West Brom a good game last week.’

He added: ‘There was definitely no coming into it thinking it was going to be easy because we are Premier League and have the money. Our manager wouldn’t let us be like that.

‘We showed Aberdeen plenty of respect and I think that showed.

‘They played a style of football that we found difficult and for the first 20 minutes we were on the back foot. It took us a while to settle into the game, but I think we gradually got ourselves back in to it.’