Dons stars merit a cap call, insists Considine
ABERDEEN are making a decent fist of retaining their ‘Best-of-the-Rest’ tag behind Celtic in the Premiership this season, while still dreaming of a potential third Hampden appearance of the campaign when they host Partick Thistle in their Scottish Cup quarter-final tomorrow.
But despite the team’s efforts, it would not surprise Andrew Considine if the only Dons employee in Gordon Strachan’s Scotland plans for this month’s double header with Canada and Slovenia remains the club’s assistant manager Tony Docherty.
Derek McInnes’ No 2 was delighted this week when asked by Strachan to join his coaching staff for the next two games following the departure of Andy Watson to a lucrative job in Oman.
Now Considine is hoping that Docherty’s promotion will in turn lead to similar call-ups for Aberdeen’s players, as the Dons defender feels too many at the nation’s provincial clubs are often overlooked for caps.
The 29-year-old was capped at Under-21 level and represented the Under-20s at the World Cup Finals in Canada in 2007 alongside the likes of Lee Wallace, Robert Snodgrass and current club team-mate Mark Reynolds, but has never progressed to the senior squad.
Considine is too modest to propose himself for a call-up at this stage in his career but feels that other deserving cases in the Premiership have been unjustly ignored and it’s time for change.
‘Tony deserves his call-up for what he’s done at Aberdeen,’ said the defender. ‘Hopefully, he’ll put in a word for the lads and there have already been plenty jokes made about that. Fingers crossed, one or two will get a call, though.
‘Some have been in before, Kenny McLean, Graeme Shinnie, Ryan Jack and Peter Pawlett.
‘The lads have been playing very well this year so you’d like to think they’d get recognition. But I often think that, if you’re not playing for Celtic, Rangers or down in England, then you get overlooked.
‘It’s a shame because there are a lot of good Scottish defenders but, because they haven’t played in England, they don’t get a call.
‘Scottish football is a very good standard. If you’re not going to give chances to these boys, then how will you know they can’t handle it?’
Considine will play his 381st game for the Dons in tomorrow’s cup clash at Pittodrie, overhauling Eoin Jess in the club’s top-10 appearance list.
He is set to add to that tally after signing a contract extension until the summer of 2019, and he admits he has surprised many with his longevity.
‘Most people thought I was done when Graeme Shinnie came in,’ he said. ‘I’ve had the vibe before that managers here have brought in players to replace me and he was probably the biggest one.
‘It was a huge challenge for me, the biggest one I’d faced, but I’ve seen plenty players come in to play at left-back and centre-half.
‘I do think that this time, though, most folk expected it to be a struggle for me to stay in the team. I saw that as a challenge, so it’s down to having the right attitude and wanting to succeed.
‘In the past, some boys have thrown in the towel under those circumstances and, before you know it, they’re out the door and playing in the lower leagues.
‘But, thankfully, I’ve been able to hold my position — and consistency has been a key factor.’
Now Considine’s most burning ambition is to get Aberdeen to a Scottish Cup Final for the first time in his 13-year stay at the club. The club last won the trophy in 1990 when he was just three years old.
Considine has suffered plenty of heartbreak on the way, including being sent off in a semi-final defeat to Celtic in 2011.
But his worst experience in the tournament was three years earlier when the Dons lost 4-3 to Queen of the South in the last four.
‘I scored twice in that game but it’s a day everyone here wants to forget,’ he said. ‘No disrespect to Queens but we should have done a lot better. They turned up and we didn’t so they were better than us.
‘Thankfully, our record is good at home this season but Partick will be a really tough opponent.’
Dons will be without Reynolds, who is due to have a hernia operation, as well as injured pair Jack and Jonny Hayes, but Jayden Stockley should be fit to return.