Hear Rt of Glass
McCrorie says new gaffer Stephen has given Dons a killer instinct
ROSS McCRORIE reckons Stephen Glass has already given Aberdeen an end product that could set up an exciting Scottish Cup and Premiership finish.
The new manager took his Dons team for the first time on Saturday and they showed their guts and character, twice fighting back and then coming out on top in a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out.
Aberdeen have struggled for goals this year but Niall McGinn and a first for Flo Kamberi cancelled out a double from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
McCrorie believes confidence is starting to flow through the team and they’ll go into this week looking to take care of Celtic before they turn their attention to Dundee United in the Cup quarter-finals.
He said: “Third is our target and we want to go into every game and take the three points. We have four games left in the split and want to try to get maximum points.
“We want to take as many points as we can and see where we are at the end of the season. Hopefully we are sitting in a pretty position.
“We will go into the Celtic game with confidence after the last few results we have had. It is going to be a hard game.
“There is no getting away from it, Celtic are a tremendous team. You see what they’ve done over the years and they have very good players.
“But we will go in with a game plan and try to execute it as best we can. Hopefully in the end we will come out with three points.”
When it went to penalties the Dons scored all their kicks, with McCrorie netting the clincher after Jason Holt had rattled the crossbar.
And McCrorie said: “We never practised them but we have good penalty-takers in the team so we were confident going into it. It wasn’t a scenario we wanted to get ourselves into in the first place.”
Glass and Aberdeen suffered a body blow when Emmanuel-Thomas netted the opener. The Livi striker cut in from the right, took it back from Scott Pittman, ghosted past Tommie Hoban and slotted it away with a fine finish.
Aberdeen came to life after halftime. Jonny Hayes pulled a low cross for McGinn, who took a touch and smashed it high into the net. The
ABERDEEN 2 LIVINGSTON ABERDEEN WIN 5-3 ON PENALTIES
SCOTT BURNS AT PITTODRIE
Dons were on top when Livingston were awarded a spot-kick in extra time for Dean Campbell’s challenge on Emmanuel-Thomas.
Glass didn’t think it was a penalty – and Davie Martindale said it was debatable. But Emmanuel-Thomas netted it high past Gary Woods.
Kamberi, who hadn’t scored for the Dons up until this game, started and finished the second leveller as he prodded home McGinn’s cross.
The Swiss striker looked a different threat after it and McCrorie said: “Flo was brilliant as he came on and made a really good impact. He made it stick for us up there.
“Hopefully he can take a bit of confidence from that and take it into the remaining games that we have left. He was tremendous when he came on.”
Dons assistant Allan Russell is also England’s striking coach and is already addressing problem areas.
McCrorie said: “I am not a striker myself but he has been taking the strikers and doing their own thing.
“He is in the England set-up and is obviously a really good coach. You can see that day in, day out with Allan. He brings real experience and will be great for the team.
“We got two goals against Livingston and had good interchanges in the final third.
“You can see that with the gaffer and with Allan’s coaching we are creating chances.”
A disappointment for Aberdeen was the loss of keeper and captain
Joe Lewis. He failed to recover after going up for a ball with Jon Guthrie.
Woods stepped in and McCrorie, who was impressed with the back-up keeper, would have no concerns if he was to start against Celtic.
McCrorie added: “Big Joe took a sore one but I thought Woodsy was tremendous when he stepped in. He’d not played in a while but I thought he was brilliant. He was so calm.
“I have full confidence in Woodsy, he is a top goalkeeper and I see him day in, day out in training. He is brilliant and you saw the quality he brings to the team.
“If Joe can’t make it for the Celtic game then I would be happy that Woodsy would be good enough to step in.”