Glass urges caution despite Dons’ belated upturn in form

STEPHEN GLASS admits his side are still looking beneath them — despite moving into the Premiership top six before the winter break. The Dons won four from their last five games at the end of 2021 to put some distance between themselves and the ten-game winless streak which brought them to crisis point in October. And although Glass’s men are back within two points of fifth-placed Hibernian, the manager believes his side has not yet won the right to assume that the only way is up. ‘We are probably where we deserve to be in the league at the moment because we have not won enough games and have shot ourselves in the foot too often,’ he admitted. ‘We have been pretty inconsistent. We have had good and bad results so I think we are where we should be. ‘We are positioned to start challenging at the top end of the league, but also have to be cautious because if we don’t perform well we’ll be under threat from the teams below us. ‘Performance-wise, I think we could be higher but it’s points on the board that matter so I have to say we are where we deserve to be.’ Glass (pictured) has allowed Matty Longstaff and Austin Samuels to return to Newcastle and Wolves, respectively, after their underwhelming loan spells. One player closing in on a return to action is centre-half Andy Considine, whose recovery from a serious knee injury sustained away to Qarabag is gathering pace. The clash with Rangers at Pittodrie next Tuesday is likely to come too early, however, with Glass admitting: ‘He’s still a little bit away. ‘He’s doing his running and stuff, although the weather can curtail that a little. ‘He’s still making progress and we are hopeful of seeing him fairly soon, but I don’t like to put dates on it.’ Glass, who hopes to have Matty Kennedy available for the visit of the league leaders, is optimistic that Mikey Devlin can yet extend his stay with the Dons. Handed a contract until the end of this month after being sidelined for a year with a knee injury, the Scotland international could remain at Pittodrie in the longer term. ‘Mikey is still working away in the background,’ Glass said. ‘He is contracted until the end of January and is still pushing to be back with us before that. ‘He knows what we think of him here and he knows what we want to happen so we’ll see where we are with him at the end of the month.’