The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Ferguson: Third out of our hands
Lewis Ferguson concedes third place is out of Aberdeen’s hands after their latest league defeat. Aberdeen have won one of their last eight games and not scored from open play in that time, however they still remain in with a chance of finishing third.
Hibernian’s defeat to Motherwell keeps their slim hopes of catching Jack Ross’ side alive, despite trailing them by four points and having played a game more.
The Dons have finished fourth in the last two seasons, losing out to Kilmarnock and Motherwell, since finishing second at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.
Ferguson said “It is not really down to us at the minute. Hibs are obviously in control of that so it is down to them and whether they want to get that spot or not. We can just do all we can as we are pushing as hard as possible.
“We obviously want that and that was in our sights at the start of the season.
“It is still our aim but it is not in our hands at the minute.
“We have plenty of games to go and if we can pick up as many points as we want then you never know – it might get us that third spot.
“We are not thinking about that now, we are just taking every game as it comes.”
Aberdeen have Hamilton at home and Dundee United away in their final two games before the split and they have dropped points against both sides this season.
Their 1-0 defeat against Celtic on Saturday was their second loss at Parkhead in 10 days and another game where they have struggled in front of goal.
Dons midfielder Ferguson added: “We went through a bad spell of not getting results and not performing well. We have turned that corner in the last few weeks.
“We won against Kilmarnock and the performance was decent.
“It was decent again against Celtic on Saturday – although it was not good enough to win the game so we still have to get better.
“It is hard to keep your confidence high when you are losing games. Everyone will tell you that.
“It comes from something deep within yourself to try and bring that out and to try to spread it to the other boys in the dressing room.
“If you are going through a bad spell you need a bit of confidence. I thought we did that.”
CELTIC 1 ABERDEEN 0
Aberdeen were left to suffer the same fate 10 days on from their previous trip to Celtic Park. Again an early goal killed them, with Odsonne Edouard this time delivering the blow after eight minutes to condemn the Dons to another narrow defeat.
At times it was too easy for Celtic to play through red jerseys. When Aberdeen did press higher they were able to cause some problems but lacked a killer edge in front of goal.
While Callum Hendry’s goal against Kilmarnock stopped a goalless run, Aberdeen are looking no likelier to score from open play. Their last goal not scored from a set-piece was eight games ago in the 2-0 win over Motherwell and their biggest threats on Saturday came from three Ash Taylor headers.
Effort and endeavour – which should be prerequisites at any level – are certainly not lacking in this Dons side. However, glimpses of quality are in short supply and at times Florian Kamberi looks the only player capable of being composed on the ball and creating an opening.
Aberdeen’s record at Parkhead does not make pretty reading either. They have won just twice there in 10 years, the last being in their do-or-die game at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.
Nineteen points separate the two sides now, while Aberdeen trail Hibernian by four points with seven games to go.
“I thought we could have kept the ball up the top end of the pitch better,” said Dons boss Derek McInnes, pictured.
“It is a Catch-22, I have been a midfielder myself and it is hard to always get up there when the ball is coming back at you.
“I didn’t think we looked after the ball well enough. We need to play in their half more. There has to be an element of us doing better with the ball.
“It was a combination of not quite being brave enough with that part and not quite being good enough to keep the ball in the first half but the second half it was more or less up against them, man for man.
“Our defenders were outstanding. That is Edouard you’re dealing with. He always keeps you guessing and I thought the three at times against him in particular were outstanding.”
Edouard’s goal came after Taylor had hit the bar with one header and seen another turned over spectacularly by Scott Bain.
There was an element of fortune about the goal, with it taking a significant deflection off Tommie Hoban.
David Turnbull – the match-winner in the previous game – and Patryk Klimala came close to adding to that lead, while Edouard was beginning to click through the gears.
Celtic’s midfield trio of Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Ryan
Christie rarely looked flustered in the middle of the park and again the Dons were left clutching at straws for chances. Taylor had a further header at goal, this one cleared off the line by Klimala, but again they rarely looked like scoring.
McInnes’ side threw plenty of crosses into the box but with little reward, with Callum McGregor threatening to kill the game off on the break.
Had this been an Aberdeen team in full flow playing with belief then there might have been reasonable expectations of a result.
However, with their recent run and performances, confidence in a win was never particularly high.
This does have the hint of a side limping towards the finishing line before a big changeover in the summer.
There are seven games left for them to make a fist of fighting for third place, with Hibernian firmly in the box-seat for that. Both Celtic and Hibernian still have to go to the north-east before the end of the season.
McInnes said: “Post-split games is where it always sorts itself out.
“We now have two games, Hamilton at home and Dundee United, where it is important that we try to get winning performances then we can go into the post-split games where we can be relevant.
“We owe Celtic one, we need to deal with them at Pittodrie and we need to play Hibs at Pittodrie again. We need to make sure the next two games really decide the relevance of the post-split games. There is nobody here who thinks third place is beyond us.”