Aberdeen skipper Graeme Shinnie provided the inspiration after coming on for the second half and rousing the team, and the supporters, on the way to a 2-1 recovery win over Kilmarnock at Pittodrie.
“The first half, I thought it was just a little bit tentative,” he said. “Plenty of possession, but playing in front of them a bit too much and they were pressing well. The atmosphere was a down a little bit, which is probably to be expected after Thursday night, it just had that feel about it.
“When we came in at half-time, I just said to them, ‘We need to start putting it in behind them more, making them defend, get crosses into the box,’ because once in the first half, Alex put the ball in and Kevin had a header, and it creates a bit of momentum. It gets the crowd into the game and that’s what we needed, to bring a bit more energy, put pressure on them.
“We didn’t have many shots in the first half, it was a bit too possession-based without really doing anything and Kilmarnock were comfortable with that and dangerous going forward as well. If it wasn’t for Dimi with a big save towards the end of the first half, it would have been a tougher fight in the second half. That was huge from Dimi.
“Then it was just a case of trying to pick up the energy and pick up the fight and start creating more, start putting pressure on their back line. I thought we did that loads in the second half, we had a lot of chances. I had a good one myself that I missed, but we created a lot of chances and when you do that, you give yourself a chance of winning the game. We’ve got the two goals that we needed to win the game. We could have had more in the second half, but the second half performance was a lot more like us, especially at home, with the backing of the crowd as well. They got right back into it and drove us on.”
Kenan Bilalovic grabbed the equaliser with his first goal for the Dons, much to Shinnie’s delight.
“It’s testament to Kenan and how he’s worked and how he’s kept his head down. When he gets his opportunity, no matter how long it will be in a game, he needs to try and make an impact. Today, he scored a massive goal for us to get us back in the game and give us the platform to go on and win the game.
“The squad is crucial, especially in a season where you’ve got Europe and games coming thick and fast. It’s important that everybody chips in. I think that was seen today with the second half, people coming on, changing the game and picking up an important three points.
“We’ve put ourselves back in the position where we need to be, fighting up at the top of the league. We obviously had a really slow start but we’ve hit a good bit of form. It’s not always been pretty but winning 1-0 at St Mirren, we haven’t won there for a while, winning at Kilmarnock, which we haven’t done for a while, winning at Livingston, which we haven’t done for a while. That’s important, it doesn’t always have to be pretty.
“You gain momentum by winning games and that’s what we’ve done. In this league, it’s so vitally important that you go on winning runs. Look at last year with Hibs, they went on however many games run and they ended up finishing third. We can’t take our foot off the gas. It’s a busy Christmas period with a lot of points to fight for so we need to keep going.”
