The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Hartley wants more from Fyvie after his double against Gers B
Cove Rangers midfielder Fraser Fyvie is embracing the challenge of finding the net on a regular basis after his midweek double in the 5-1 drubbing of Glasgow Rangers B helped the Aberdeen side advance to the semi-finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy.
It took Fyvie’s tally up to five for the season so far.
Cove played the last half-hour with 10 men after Harry Milne received a second yellow card and was sent off.
Fyvie said: “The gaffer (Paul Hartley) has challenged me to get some more goals as I’m playing a bit higher up. I’ve done that the last few games and I’m enjoying it.
“I can’t drop so deep for the ball – he’s trying to get me to stay a bit higher. But it was a positive day all round.
“There’s a couple of things within the game I should scrub up.
“I think a couple of times I gave the ball away and they go up the pitch and score from one.
“But overall I thought I played well and I thought we played well as a team, especially in the first half.
“Going down to 10 men, I thought we looked solid.”
Cove are in the last four of a national trophy for the first time since joining the SPFL in 2019.
“You’re in cups for a reason, to win them.” added Fyvie.
“It’s the way to be and it’s the way the gaffer wants to be.
“He wants to win every game he can. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cup game or league.
“If we do it, great. If we don’t, we move on to the next one.”
The former Dundee United and Aberdeen midfielder also had words of praise for the young Rangers side, for the way they stuck to their principles despite the scoreline.
“They play the same way as the first-team do so we did a bit of analysis on that,” added Fyvie.
“We tried to give them a bit of a shock to start with and go with the high-press, see if they could handle it or not.
“The start of the game was really positive for us and we go two-up quite early.
“We put in ourselves in a good position to go on and do well in the game.
“I think it’s great they play from the back – you don’t see a lot of Scottish sides doing that.
“We try and play a similar way and I think it was a good game in that respect.
“I love seeing football like that as I don’t think many teams try to play like that.
“It’s a really positive way and it’s how the game should be played, in my opinion.
“They’re young lads coming up here and we’ve got some experience in the team.
“It’s a good learning curve.”