Andrew Considine returns to action this afternoon
Andrew Considine came through his first 45 minutes of pre-season this afternoon as a strong looking Aberdeen U20s were beaten by Highland League side Inverurie Loco’s. It would be a huge boost for manager Derek McInnes to have the central defender back in contention for a starting spot before hopefully too much longer.
Aberdeen lined up with Murray at right back. Rumsby and Andrew Considine were in central defence and McKenna was left back. O’Neill, Storie and Gibbons were in midfield with Smith, Shankland and McManus up front.
In the early stages both keepers made some good saves. Rogers did well to block an effort from Martin Bavidge and at the other end Shankland did well to create space for himself but Reid blocked. Minutes later Rogers again did well to parry a shot from the former Peterhead striker Bavidge. Shankland then had another good opening but put a header from free kick over. Rogers made two more saves before on 14 minutes Craig Murray was found in space on the right side of the box but Reid blocked.
The Dons slowly started to get more into the game and on 20 minutes a great passing move saw the ball eventually come to Storie 25 yards out and his fine strike just went past the post.On 23 minutes the Dons opened up Inverurie for the first time and McManus was clean through but the ball took a nasty bobble and he put it over. Two minutes later Declan had a great run and his shot just went past the post.
Aberdeen were starting to go through the gears but then found themselves behind on 35 mins. The Dons lost the ball when a promising move was on. Locos worked the ball the right and when the cross came in Hunter got in front of his marker and headed home.
The young Dons came back strongly and Reid again made a couple of good saves, one very good one from McManus from close range.
As planned at half time Andrew Considine was replaced by Michael Rose.
At the start of the second half Andy Low put a free kick just wide for the home side. The same player had another free kick later in the half which Rogers did well to turn away. Apart from that it Aberdeen had all the possession but they failed to find a way through a well organised Inverurie defence. The Dons struggled to attack at pace and get in behind the back four.
At times the game became bad tempered and Kieran Adams was lucky to stay on the park for an off the ball incident with Declan McManus.
The Dons made a couple more changes and Alan O’Sullivan came on for Shankland and Gibbons was replaced by Campanile as they looked for an equaliser. The best chance in the second half fell to Cammy Smith at the near post but the keeper got just enough of a touch to put the ball to safety. Stephen O’Neill also had a fine effort from 30 yards but the ball was touched over the bar.
Neil Cooper spoke to RedWeb after the game. “I would be disappointed with the result if we did enough to win the game but we did not. Inverurie deserved to win it. Their appetite was far greater than ours. We have a lot of youngsters who are doing very well at this moment in time but this is an education to them as it shows how far they still have to go. The desire and hunger of the Inverurie players was a lot greater than ours today.”
“I thought our passing was too predictable. It was too slow and negative. We did not do enough to break them down.
Aberdeen U20s | Rogers, Murray, McKenna, O’Neill, Considine (Rose 45), Rumsby, Shankland (O’Sullivan 62), Storie, McManus, Smith, Gibbons (Campanile 71) Subs: Burns, Ferries, Duguid, McMahon
