AFC interim manager Paul Sheerin spoke to RedTV:

 

This Week

“It has been a subdued week at Cormack Park.

“Personally, I am gutted. Derek and Tony brought me into the club seven years ago and gave me the opportunity of working in full-time football again.

“It is the first time I have experienced this as a member of staff (the management team leaving), but I have experienced it as a player.

“Both of them are brilliant people.

“You don’t just build up working relationships over eight years, you build up friendships as well. I feel that my family and the two of their families have built up a relationship over the past few years as well.

“You can tell that everybody feels it around the club. They are brilliant at what they do. They have consistently delivered results for this football club.

Standards

“Cormack Park is part of their legacy. Both strived to get a training ground and were keen for it to be a part of the club. They have done that and delivered it. They had a lot of help for it to happen but for it to happen on their watch is brilliant and something that was desperately needed at the club.

“The standards are huge at Aberdeen, Derek and Tony have always demanded that. When I was a player at St Johnstone, they came in and brought the standards up and they arguably set the standards at St Johnstone to what are there now, they are part of that grounding.
“Hopefully whatever happens next those standards will be kept, and it will be part of Derek and Tony’s legacy.

Aims

“When you get a change of being a manager it is usually because they move onto bigger and better things or that the team is in a precarious position, which isn’t the case. We are three points behind Hibs and we still have a Scottish Cup to compete for. There is still a massive part of the season to play for and a lot to look forward to.

“For whatever period that myself and Barry are in the job, we will do all that we can to try and deliver third spot and get a run in the Scottish Cup. We will keep the standards that Derek and Tony have set and hopefully results will turn.

“I think third spot is still achievable, it is in Hibs’ hands and it is going to be difficult, there is no getting away from that but there are still enough games left in the season.

The Players

“I have spoken to the players about what has happened and have reiterated the standards of the club and if we can keep those standards, then the whole coaching staff would appreciate that.

“They are brilliant professionals, and they are a brilliant group of boys who are very close knit.

“They have been really responsive in training and have been excellent from what we have asked of them.

“My relationship with the players hasn’t changed too much at the moment as we are just training but if we are still in place for the Dundee United game and I have to pick a team then the relationship will obviously change. Once you pick a team it is second nature that some will be happy, and others won’t be, and it is how you deal with that once it comes.

The Coaches

“Monday night was a bit of a whirlwind and it was a bit of a shock. Your focus then turns straight to Tuesday as we were preparing for a bounce game.

“It is probably not the worst thing that we don’t have a game until next Saturday because it allows the dust to settle a wee bit and lets us get ourselves set and to find a way of working that will suit us and the players. The players will get a couple of down days, with no game this weekend, and come Monday it will be full on as all of our concentration will be on Dundee United.

“I haven’t worked with Neil Simpson that much on the coaching side of things, but he is the head of the academy and he is around the club so that has allowed us to build up a relationship. I have worked with Barry day in day out and we have similar ideas – that’s if you want to admit to having similar ideas to Barry!!

“No seriously, we have similar ideas on how we want to approach the game and how we want to play.

“Then you have Scott Anderson who I have worked very closely with in the past, and the same with Gordon Marshall. So there are no issues with the coaching side of things. Beyond that there are always people around the club I can go and ask for advice if it continues for a while.

“The board have mentioned to me about being in charge until the end of the season but obviously the process for a new manager has started so I realise that could all change at any moment, it is part and parcel of what we are doing. I will just do what I am asked until I am told differently and to the best of my ability and hopefully it is good enough.

Development Squad

“The bounce game against Ross County on Tuesday was more about just getting minutes for the younger boys that haven’t played.

“It has been really tough for the younger ones.

“We have managed to get a couple out on loan but that got knocked on the head because of the leagues stopping. It becomes difficult for the likes of Jack MacKenzie and Connor Barron because you want them out and playing games. Beyond that you have got Kieran Ngwenya, Mark Gallagher, Calvin Ramsay, Ryan Duncan, Tom Ritchie and Kevin Hanratty who have hardly kicked a ball all season. They have all maybe played two or three games over the course of a year, it is so difficult to get that balance – it is about trying to get them topped up with fitness so if they are called upon at any given time you are hopeful that they will be up to speed. But it is always difficult when you don’t have match practice.

Pull Together

“We won’t be making any hugely dramatic changes. We know what we need to do. We knew what we needed to do for a few weeks, and it is something that we have worked continuously on in training but for whatever reason it has just not happened on a matchday. We will continue to strive to be better and break this duck and start scoring goals. It is obviously important, you need it to win games, that is stating the obvious. There won’t be wholesale changes in the way that we approach things and we have mentioned that to the players. Hopefully they will be responsive to the little things that we do change.

“It is a case of reminding the players that they are still good players. We can’t get away from the Hamilton game, we should have been 3-0 up after 20 minutes. The worry would be if we didn’t have that 20 minutes and we were not creating chances. When you are creating chances, it is always a good thing, the longer you go without taking those chances it becomes more of a worry. The players maybe tighten up and it maybe subconsciously starts affecting them, it is not a deliberate thing. The fact that we started so well, created opportunities, has to be a positive from the game. It would be more worrying if we were not creating those chances. The longer the game goes on, the more anxious that the players become with the recognition that they haven’t scored goals.

“The players have built up relationships with Derek and Tony over the years, they signed almost every single one of them. From that point of view, it is tough, but all of the players will pull together. The staff will all pull together. Everybody wants what is best for the club, and that is what we want to achieve.”