Paul Sheerin took his development squad north this evening to honour James Blanchard, who was a young keeper at Pittodrie when Paul was a player at Aberdeen. After the game he gave his reaction to the performance:

“It was probably the opposite of the other night.

“In the Elgin game we struggled defensively as a team. Tonight offensively some of our play was good up until that last little bit and if we made better decisions in the final third then we would have come away with a better result than the draw.

“Ultimately, we deserved to win the game and it probably should have been five or six.

“It was pleasing though that we did get into good areas, granted the opposition was different from the other night with the greatest of respect.

“The response was pleasing. Especially when you go 1-0 down. You get a bit edgy! But the response was good, we kept doing what we were doing. Apart from when they hit the post, Sam (Jackson) in goal did not have too many saves to make.

“The testimonial was thoroughly deserved for James.

“To have played at the club the amount of time James has been here, it is few and far between these days.

“It is good that we can bring a team up and recognise that. On the night he was excellent. He had save after save and then the sub keeper comes on and makes two great saves in the final five minutes that he is on the pitch.

“So, frustrated we never won the game, but certainly a lot more pleased than last Thursday.

“For the players it is all about topping up the minutes. We managed to get everyone on the pitch tonight other than Tom Ritchie. That is pleasing. We have fitted a game into Friday so the younger ones will get 90 minutes or close enough to it and then we go again against Inverurie and then Keith before we play in the Aberdeenshire Cup.”

“For the players it is all about topping up the minutes. We managed to get everyone on the pitch tonight other than Tom Ritchie. That is pleasing. We have fitted a game into Friday so the younger ones will get 90 minutes or close enough to it and then we go again against Inverurie and then Keith before we play in the Aberdeenshire Cup.”