McGowan plays down early Adam substitution at Pittodrie

PAUL McGOWAN spoke up for the “old brigade” after the controversial substitution of Dundee captain Charlie Adam just seven minutes into the second half in a pulsating encounter at Aberdeen.

The Dons clinched a 1-0 win courtesy of Lewis Ferguson’s second-half penalty-kick but the Dark Blues, fighting for their Premiership life, took much of the plaudits. The decision by Mark McGhee to replace Adam with Josh Mulligan, however, provided a major talking point and while the Dark Blues’ manager was in no mood to discuss this contentious matter or the timing of it, McGowan had his say.

“Charlie is a top player,” he said, “but I don’t see the big issue with it. It’s a squad game. He’s a big player for us and he’s going to be needed. You make subs, bring fresh legs on. It could have been me coming off to get the younger guys on.

“In the first half we were killing Aberdeen but were trying to throw caution to the wind as we need to win games.

“Charlie has been a big player for a number of years for us. He’s going to be raging coming off – no player likes coming off – but he was fine in the dressing room after it.”

Aberdeen’s Jack MacKenzie is in the embryonic phase of his career and has had the misfortune of being dogged by a series of injuries this season. He put in a more than acceptable show against the Dens Park outfit, however, and hopes the win – only their second in 15 fixtures – will bring joy to the team’s followers.

He said: “We can take momentum into next season. You don’t want the season to end by petering out. We need to keep going. We felt relief and joy, especially after the poor result against Livingston in our previous game. We had to put that right.”