Marley Watkins previews the cinch Premiership game against Livingston on Wednesday at Pittodrie.
As the Dons head into a meeting with Livingston under the Pittodrie lights on Wednesday evening, Marley Watkins is under no illusions as to just how important the game is.
“Results are not good enough at the moment. We need to start winning games, we need to turn it around.
“Keeping clean sheets and scoring goals involves the whole team. We have to work together and all that matters at the moment is winning games. We need to be more ruthless.
“Livingston are very good at what they do so we know we will have to battle hard. The first goal is important. If you get it, it forces teams to come out.
“Hopefully we start winning again on Wednesday night and then we can go on a run from there. But talk is cheap. We need to go and produce on the pitch.
“Confidence has taken a bit of a hit, which is natural after a few defeats. I felt that we had turned a corner that week when we beat Hibs and Hearts and could have beaten Rangers but the recent results mean we are back at square one again.
“We have to stick together and work hard and build on the things we are doing well between the two boxes.
“Most of the games we have only lost by one goal so the situation we are in probably looks worse than it is. We are on the wrong side of fine margins in games at the moment so we have to cut out the silly little errors and be ruthless in attack.
“We are better than how it looks at the moment, but we need to start winning. There are a lot of games coming up in December and a lot of points available to turn things around. We just need to take one game at a time, going out there and making sure we are at it.”
As Ryan Hedges says in his interview in Red Matchday on Wednesday night, everyone in the squad is looking to produce more consistency over the next month, and Marley is no exception.
“Since coming back into the side, I’ve had my moments. I had the two man of the match performances but was then quiet in the second half against Motherwell, and against Dundee United.
“I’m getting there. Hopefully I will continue to get better the more games I have under my belt. I know I need to get more goals and assists. I have been close in recent games, but I need to do better.
“The chance I had against Celtic, the keeper made a very good save – against a lot of other keepers it would have gone in. It was a good move actually, and I thought at times Ryan, Christian and myself linked up well. But against Celtic you’re not going to get many chances. I thought first half we were ok, but our levels dropped in the second half and that was frustrating.
“But we are into a busy time now and if we can find that bit extra in games, we can put a lot of points together very quickly.
“Games are the most enjoyable part of being a player, with the fans being there and the pressure that comes with it, so I enjoy this time of year when the matches are coming thick and fast.
“It’s a case of play, recover, play, recover throughout the month. Doing quality training at this time of year is not easy with the weather. There is always stuff you can work on, but the conditions do make it harder.”
Now a permanent Don, Marley has clearly relished being back amongst things at Pittodrie.
“I ‘m very much enjoying being back at Aberdeen. Of course, you do get down when results are not going your way, so when the wins start coming I will enjoy it even more.
“Hopefully we can start climbing the table and have a strong second half to the season in the league and the cup when we get everyone back fit again.”
