The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Lewis urges team-mates to clinch league second spot
Aberdeen goalkeeper Joe Lewis has challenged his team-mates to show a “massive reaction” in their remaining five league games that will define their season.
With their exit from the Scottish Cup after Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Motherwell, greater onus is now on the Dons to finish the Premiership campaign on a high and ensure they take second spot behind champions-elect Celtic.
Their post-split fixtures start with a trip to Rugby Park on Saturday before Hearts come to Pittodrie on Friday, April 27.
Then, in the space of a week, they welcome Hibernian and Rangers – their two opponents for second – to the Granite City and finish the season with a trip to Parkhead.
All of the experience the Dons possess will be needed to ensure the season does not end with a whimper following the end to their bid for silverware.
Lewis said: “They will define the campaign and we need to be mature and strong mentally to recover from that. We need to use the experience in the dressing-room to get ourselves back together and show a massive reaction in the next five games. They’re huge games.”
Several of the Motherwell players asserted that it was clear their players wanted the win more than their Dons counterparts but Lewis did not concur.
He said: “I don’t agree. I know the lads wanted it just as much and it’s just tremendously disappointing.
“It’s difficult to say that looking at the game and the performances, you would probably say they did want it more. But I can assure you our lads wanted it as much, but unfortunately the performances didn’t show that.
It’s difficult to explain. Everyone is bitterly disappointed with the performance and result.
“We started OK and just allowed Motherwell to get a foothold and get the ball forward early. Their frontmen are a handful and we didn’t quite deal with that.”
“Everyone is bitterly disappointed with the performance and result”