MILES OFF IT
Lewis says Dons are all right behind under-fire boss Glass but accepts results are nowhere near good enough
LEWIS FERGUSON insists the Aberdeen dressing room is fully behind boss Stephen Glass and what he is seeking to achieve – despite a dreadful slump that has seen them plummet to ninth.
The midfielder fully understands the furious fans’ frustration and apologised for the desperately disappointing 2-1 defeat by Dundee on Saturday night.
That loss was the Dons’ fifth straight reverse and stretched their miserable winless streak to 10 games in all competitions.
Asked if the players are behind the footballing philosophy of the manager, 22-year-old Ferguson said: “Yes, of course we are.
“Everybody at the club is together and working to try to change things.
“You can feel the fans’ frustration and we are as frustrated as them – the staff, the players, the club.
“It is tough at the minute. Obviously they paid their money and they came down in big numbers to back us.
“We are not giving them results at the minute.
“All the bad stuff is going to come our way and rightly so as we are not anywhere near good enough.
“We can feel their frustration but we are equally frustrated as well, as staff and players.
“We need to apologise for the result, which was poor – as it has been in the past I don’t know how many games.
“It is up to the players to turn it around and hopefully we can do that.”
Ferguson admits Aberdeen’s players have hit rock bottom.
He said: “The mood in the dressing room is disappointed, frustrated and angry.
“We have a good group of players with so much quality but we are nowhere near where we should be at the minute. We are absolutely miles off it.
“It is us who need to turn it around and we need to turn it around quickly.
“We have to stick together as a group because what we are going through at the minute feels like rock bottom. We really need to turn things round.
“The longer it goes on, the more the pressure builds.”
The Scotland midfielder concedes the situation is getting to the players at certain stages in matches, particularly when they fall behind.
He added: “As the game goes on and you are getting beat, then you maybe start to force things.
“Sometimes you start to play passes you wouldn’t normally do. That is a bit of frustration as well, trying to force things and do things you wouldn’t normally do.
“You’re trying to play passes that aren’t on, it’s bad decision-making and it is costing us at the minute.
“It is so frustrating because the quality we have is top notch but the results are nowhere near.
“The longer it goes on, the more the pressure builds.”
Ferguson insists the only way out of the rut is for everyone in the Dons squad to pull together.
However, their next two games look fraught with danger as Hibs visit Pittodrie on Saturday before the Dons head to Ibrox four days later.
He said: “It is a strong group of guys in there who have experience, they have quality and we really need to stick together and look after each other as it is a tough time. We need to get back in training and work on things as hard as possible.
“We need to turn it around. It is up to us to change it and turn the season around.
“There is a lot of bad feeling because it feels like rock bottom.”
The feeling at Pittodrie is the polar opposite to the emotions he felt last week while on duty with Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for the backto-back World Cup qualifying wins over Israel and the Faroe Islands.
Ferguson, who has picked up two caps in the course of the campaign to qualify for Qatar 2022, said: “Being
There’s a lot of bad feeling in the dressing room now because this feels like rock bottom
away with the Scotland squad was great and a couple of late winners was a great feeling.
“That is gone now, that is the past and I am back at Aberdeen.
“The mood was pretty good beforehand as the boys had a good couple of weeks training.
“We have so much quality and experience in that dressing room – winners – but we are just not showing it out on the pitch.
“I don’t know why, I don’t know what the reason is. We’re just making poor decisions in the final third and defensively we’re not great. We don’t concede too many chances but when we do concede chances, we seem to concede goals.
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb by going 2-0 down.”
The pressure is mounting on boss Glass, who was faced with, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” chants on Saturday night as his Dons endured Dens defeat.
The Pittodrie manager said: “It doesn’t add to the pressure but it adds to the disappointment.
“The fans were brilliant, they got here early in big numbers.
“They respond to what they see on the pitch. I am the frontman for that and I bear the brunt of it, I understand that.
“But I back myself and the group of players. We have put together a group who shouldn’t be losing the games they are.
“They are more than capable of getting out of the hole. I continue to back myself and the group.
“Good players make correct decisions 99 per cent of the time. That’s the reality of it. I front it up, I’m in charge of this group of players.
“I know what happens when you don’t win games. There’s a reality.”