We are all winners
Reynolds is brimming with belief in his Dons pals and backs them to create new history
‘ You look at the starting XI we’ve got and I wouldn’t change one of them for any player from any team we’ve played — and I include Celtic in that.’
“When you play well consistently, a bad result is easier to brush off”
AS they swagger and strut towards a place in the history books with ever increasing assurance, this Aberdeen team show no fear of what has gone before. Shrinking from the sheer scale and grandeur of the club’s past is simply not allowed.
Chasing just a third cup double in 111 years of history, something to set this season alongside the memorable campaigns of 1985-86 and 89- 90, the Dons go i nto tomorrow’s semi-final as favourites to not only progress — but to win the entire competition.
There was a time when that expectation would have caused an Aberdeen side to buckle. We can all think of previous versions who have been spooked by the spectres of glories gone by.
Well, as Ray Parker Junior might put it, these boys ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
‘You know yourselves, this club is steeped in history, the walls are plastered with pictures from a great past,’ said Mark Reynolds.
‘It’s been imposing for Aberdeen teams coming in here and trying to live up to it. But it has always been something that this current team has aspired to. It’s what you want to do, get your pictures hanging on the walls.
‘We’ve done that with the League Cup, enjoyed that success, but Aberdeen is a very, very successful club — they’ve won European trophies, won cup doubles before. To be up there with the better teams, we need to try to win this other trophy as well.
‘Why have we not been overawed by the history? It’s something that everybody has really worked on.
‘ The manager has tried to implement that with everything he’s done. He’s built a very tight changing room and the squad he has assembled lends itself to coping with the pressure.
‘There are not many times on a Saturday when I look at the boys in front of me and think: “I would rather have this one or that one in the team. We’re going to be carrying this one, it’s going to be tough with him playing”.
‘You look at the starting XI we’ve got and I wouldn’t change one of them for any player from any team we’ve played — and I include Celtic in that.
‘Because it’s not always about having the best players in your team. It’s about having the right players to do the right job, play the kind of football you want to play.
‘ The blend the manager has put together is perfect — and it is showing in the results we have been getting.
‘I don’t know if we’ve been lucky or it’s just the type of player we’ve got. But nine times out of 10, we’ve had eight or nine guys turning up.
‘That’s enough at the start of a game, eight or nine firing on all cylinders, because it encourages the other two or three to step up and get their act together.
‘Especially in big games, all the players who need to step up have stepped up and performed.’
That confidence in their own ability, borne of just eight defeats in all competitions this season, is an essential part of this team. They’re not about to start indulging in false modesty just to protect the feelings of others — or to shield themselves from the inevitable accusations.
‘There is a fine line between swagger and arrogance,’ said Reynolds.
‘It’s just kind of watching that, because people are quite keen to use your swagger to trip you up. Plenty are willing to say that Aberdeen are getting cocky or getting ahead of themselves.
‘It’s easier for us to be confident now with the history we’ve got behind us this season. We’ve built on success and, thankfully, managed not to fall flat on our faces.
‘No disrespect but a lot of people were waiting for that to happen.
‘When you have a blip after five or six games, people are quick to point it out and say this could be Aberdeen’s bubble bursting, blah, blah, blah.
‘But when you’ve gone 25 or 30 games playing consistently, that bad result is easier to brush off. Thankfully, that’s what we’ve managed to do.
‘The dressing room helps to keep us grounded because there aren’t guys i n there who will cause problems or have the wrong attitude.
‘The main attribute is we’ve got a team full of winners. We compete at everything. Training every day, stuff away f r om the ground, everything i s competitive and everyone wants to win — purely for the sake of winning.
‘When you’ve got a lot of guys like that, it breeds within the team, younger guys learn from it and want to step up. The manager needs to be complemented for bringing in that kind of player — and for the way he makes his players carry themselves on and off the field.’
Putting themselves up to be shot at by other teams just comes with the territory of any successful side. Talk among Saints of revenge for their League Cup semi-final loss, a 4-0 hammering at Tynecastle, is accepted for what it is.
‘ They can talk all they want about what they’re going to do to Aberdeen, this or that,’ said Reynolds.
‘ That’s how they prepare for games. It’s not how it’s done up here, not how this Aberdeen do it. We concern ourselves with our own team, what we can do.
‘That semi, we got a lot of breaks and took our goals well, kind of blew them away. It will be used as fuel on both sides.
‘We can say that we’ve done it before, we’ll do it again. They can be determined not to let it happen again.
‘A lot of psychology goes into it and, ultimately, people motivate themselves. The way we’ve done it all season is just to keep it in-house and look at what we can do. There’s no point i n worrying about St Johnstone.
‘We know how we can play. If we do that, we can cause them problems.
‘ That’s better than worrying about the questions they might pose.’
The famed double is within their sights, then. With it comes the chance to repeat the experience of last month, when around 100,000 supporters jammed the centre of the Granite City to hail the League Cup winners.
Reynolds said: ‘ Once you taste that wee bit of success and see what it means to the city, see Union Street packed with tens of thousands of people, it’s definitely a f eeling you want to relive, something we want to emulate.
‘People have been saying that, because we’ve got one trophy, we should be happy with that. I think it’s the opposite.
‘Now that we’ve got one, we want another — we want to make success a more regular occurrence here.’