Manager Jimmy Thelin carried out his pre-match media duties on Friday ahead of our final Premier Sports Cup Group A match against Dumbarton at Pittodrie. RedTV subscribers can watch in full now.

“Heading into the game this weekend it is always the same, always stay humble, always respect the opponents. Do the same work before the game as usual, nothing is changing, don’t think about one point, think about how we can win the game. It’s the same process as usual because football is football, especially cup games. That’s the nice thing with football is you can never know exactly what will happen inside a game. We need to be prepared, be ready and have the respect, stay humble and do our work.

“I have said from day one that this is a long term project. I like the energy (from the fans on Tuesday night) and that people have trust in us and want to progress with us, it is a thing that we have to do together. It’s not a one man show or the players or the coaching staff, I think it is the whole city and the supporters and how to bring this energy, step by step be a consistent team at the top. You need to start from somewhere and then try to build something with that and that’s why we need everybody behind us. I liked the positive vibes and the energy from the fans that is there because we’re going to need it. It’s not going to be an easy journey but we have to take the progress and we believe in it and we’re going to take it step by step. It’s not a quick fix, it’s not easy for us to do like this (clicks fingers) and everything is working fine. We’re training with hard work and strong support from everyone, to connect with the fans and their support with the team and trying to build something that we can believe in for the future. That’s where you have to work, otherwise it is not possible. We need everyone behind us and trying to create this small momentum by trying to keep winning.

“Even with some setback we get up again and do it with a strong belief inside the games. I think it is really important. It was a nice atmosphere, it was also a good challenge for us. The opponents were good and they put us under some pressure in the first half but also how we came back in the second half and did things better. That is a sign that the team has something that we can act on during a game, like change some small parts and be better. It was good to see some answers from the squad and not dropping. Even more so I think it was good progress inside the game and the energy from everyone inside Pittodrie was good and also how we celebrated together after the game. I think it was a really good night.

“I think we have a clear plan of what we want to do but we have said it is a three year project. Then we have the transfer windows which is step by step and you can’t do everything in one night but it’s not only about transfers. It’s also about how we train and how we compete in training, the fighting spirit in training because we need to close the context from training closer to the game and how we can try to create the identity we want to show the supporters, we want to create it here first and from there start building.

“Maybe some of the players are growing a lot and making a bigger impact in the team. Maybe we need to bring someone in to make the process quicker. Nothing has changed but the goal is the same clear idea how we want to play, really quick, really strong in attacking, both centrally and wide. How we’re going to do that is through training but maybe we need some different kind of qualities inside the team. For me, for the future we are still working on the squad and trying to be more clear. We saw some movements like in the first half we were not intense enough. It was not consistent with our identity yet. First we need to show and to create this aggressiveness. How hard we run for each other, these kind of things first and then try form there. Be consistent with that and then adding qualities during training or with the window.

“Bojan is a really good player and what he showed in the second half was really nice to see. It was the first game that he has played while I have been here which was good to see his qualities inside the game. He brought a lot of good stuff to the team, how we play and these kind of things. There is still a window so there is a lot of noise but he behaves really well and his focus is here and he is ready to be in the squad tomorrow again.

“In terms of team news, Angus had a minor operation but he will be ready to play again in around 10 days. We try to fix it now before the season starts because he is suspended for the first game. This was a good window now to fix the small parts but it was just a minor thing. Otherwise Dante is still out and the rest of the squad is available.

“I think Dumbarton are quite direct with how they want to go in behind. They are good in transitions. They did a strong game last time, they were winning 3-1 and then they lost in the last part of the game but they did well.  It is not only one point (needed to qualify) we need to be ready. Let’s see. They also signed a new striker, let’s see if he plays. He is another kind of striker, he is quite good in target play. If he is available tomorrow they can change the dynamic of the attack. For us it is more like what we have to do like what I talked about in the first time in the last game. Our identity needs to be more consistent in the game. That’s what we talked about from the last game, how we improve. We live the things we want to be every game, not only some games and you need to keep the consistency there. That’s what we worked on this week.”