The Dons boss sat down with the AFC Media Team to discuss the Burnley match at Turf Moor as well as his thoughts on the new domestic season. To watch the interview please click here

Burnley Away

“There’s a lot of excitement about the game, naturally. Since we were drawn together it was a long time coming, the first game at Pittodrie last week, and I think that’s a wee taster of what we’re going to expect down there. Obviously, we had the majority of the support and a brilliant support on Thursday night at Pittodrie, but we go down there with a minority of the support, but I’m sure they’ll make themselves heard. I think you can visualise what the game is going to be like in terms of the atmosphere and what it entails. For us the purpose is to get through the tie as it has been since we’ve been drawn together. As difficult as that is there’s a regard for the level of opponent we’ve been facing and for our first competitive game the standard of play was very good from us. The organisation of the team and the levels they got to in terms of their fitness was really pleasing. The players were really tested because Burnley are a really good side and we didn’t get it all our own way as you’d expect against a team like them. I think there will be a lot of familiar patterns as we seen at Pittodrie and we’re going to have to defend well. When Burnley test our organisation, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for it. There has to be an underlying feeling we’re here to win the game and it’s not just taking part in what has been a high-profile fixture. That’s the intention. We go down there as we’ve had to do before to get through tough games in Europe and the onus is to score a goal. We don’t need to do that in the early part of the game, although ideally that would be the case, but it then puts Burnley under a wee bit of scrutiny to do their work. In Europe it becomes a bit of “Cat & Mouse” and ultimately, you’ve still got to score and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to score a goal down there first and if we can do that then we take charge of the game. We’re expecting a tough evening in terms of the level of opponent, but it’s a brilliant game to be involved in. We’ve gone through the feedback of the game and spoken to the players individually and there’s still a lot we feel we could have done better as pleased as we were.”

Team News

“Andy’s (Considine) trained the last couple of days and he’s due to train today, so he’ll be in the squad all being well. These things are set to test you and it wasn’t ideal preparation, but Tommie being the good player he is has adjusted absolutely fine and did the job we wanted from him. Tommie will be a very good player for us I’ve no doubts about that, but to be thrown in at the level of game having not played competitive football for a while is credit to him. It’s great to have Andy back and the squad will be similar. We’ve had some bad news since the game regarding Mark Reynolds and it just shows you how it can be taken away from you in football. When you’re fit and ready it’s important to make the most of that and the squad will be ready. We’ve still got a couple of training sessions to get through, but as we sit here now they’ll be full squad to choose from other than Frank Ross, Mark and Greg Tansey.

Scottish Premiership

“Steven Gerrard being appointed has obviously captured the imagination of most people and you can totally understand that. He’s went in and you can see the work they’ve been doing in the games. I haven’t seen all their matches as the focus has been on our game, but the one or two bits and pieces I’ve seen they seem to have a good structure and discipline about them, as well as good players. I’m sure Rangers will be looking for more from their team this season as we are. It’s important we’re looking for those improvements for ourselves and regardless of what our opponents are doing whether it’s Celtic or Rangers spending money we don’t have, we’ve got to make sure those improvements come from ourselves. I’m pleased with the way the squad’s shaped up for now and I think we can see already how key players in those attacking areas especially the importance of them performing. We’ve got good options through the middle and good physicality at the back. While we’re still looking to add to the squad I think there’s enough to suggest we’re optimistic we can do well again this season. We know we’re not going to get it easy again, the game’s hard fought for, but our consistency against the majority was very pleasing for me. If we can have something similar again then I’ll be pleased.”

“I can totally understand that view (Celtic and Rangers top two) but from our point of view it’s not about proving people wrong. For me it’s about doing the job as best we can and preparing the players and trying to get all the little advantages that we can over other teams. Clearly, they’ve got some clear advantages over us, but we’ve got our battles to keep above Hibs and Hearts and challenge The Old Firm again. For the past few seasons everybody has said “now it’s Hearts back in the league, now it’s Hibs and now it’s Rangers and this will be your toughest year yet. We’ve always answered up on that side of it. Maybe the momentum that Steven Gerrard has had at Rangers you can understand why a lot of people think it will be close between Rangers and Celtic this year, but for us our own battles have always been with ourselves and trying to be as competitive as we can.

“Clearly Kenny Miller will be Livingston’s best player as well as being their manager and he’s still going to have that influence on them. From what I know of Kenny and his personality I think he’s got the ability to make others better and as a manager that positive influence on your teammates and now on his players will be very important. The only downside of Livingston is it’s an Astroturf pitch and it’s not great we’ve got three in the Premiership now. I do understand the financial reasons, but we’d much prefer to be playing on grass more often. I think Livingston, the last couple of seasons and the work done by David Hopkin and the players, they have done brilliantly well.  They might be the favourites to go down, but they’ll have the sprit to change that perception.

There’s always a surprise team comes out and has a very good season. Kilmarnock were that under Steve last year, Motherwell done very well again and then you’ll have your usual contenders at the top end of the table with Hibs, Hearts and St Johnstone trying to get in. I think there’s an exciting building about the league this year probably more than any other year and there’s a lot of clubs doing the right things. Our support the other days shows that appetite is still there to come and get behind our team. If we could recapture that type of atmosphere more often or something similar to that at home what a weapon that is for us being the home team with the players feeding off that. There’s loads of excitement and a lot of good things going on at the club with a lot of new players, but the familiarity from our team has always been a real strength of us. Even though we’ve had different players over the last year or so now you can still see similar traits about us being hardworking, conscientious and leaving everything out there on the pitch. With one or two additions and tweaks to the squad I think we can be confident of having a successful campaign.

Betfred Cup v St Mirren

It will be a tough tie. You look at the teams we could have faced so from that point of view being at home we’re delighted with, but St Mirren’s going to be a tough opponent for us. They’ve earned the right to be in the Scottish Premiership this year and I’m sure Allan will be excited to take it on. I’ve spoken to him often enough in the last couple of months and he’ll be looking to put his stamp on the team. I think the team that was promoted needed some work done to it to improve the squad and now that challenge falls on Allan. I’m sure they will be a good side. His Hibs team were very good, and he knows exactly what the league’s all about and the levels he’ll need to perform at. It will be a tough game for us, but we’re delighted to be at home and hopefully we’re in good form going into that game because the cups are very important to us.”