Following Aberdeen Under 18’s impressive 3-2 victory against Rangers in Glasgow on Friday afternoon, interim manager Stuart Duff reflected on an important victory for his young team.
“We touched base with the guys leading up into this game this week, regardless of who we’re playing, we want to bed into young Aberdeen teams that we want to go to places like this and actually beat Rangers without it being such a big surprise. I thought all the guy’s application and effort today was first class, so the three points are certainly well deserved.
“We gave them a formation last week that was completely new to them, and they executed it to the letter. We got ourselves two goals in front, we hit the woodwork three times, so looking at that you could say that they could have been five goals up after 20 minutes. It’s just simply down to the guys taking information on board and implementing it well. Credit to Rangers for coming back from 2-0 to 2-2 at half-time, but I think the boys showed a real resolve and some great character. I thought that we were the better team in the second half, we looked dangerous every time we went forward, so full credit to the boys.
“We are literally taking it one game at a time. We’ve told them to enjoy their evening, tonight, and we’ll be back to work on Monday morning. We’ve given them the day off tomorrow. For me and Robbie, any talk about winning league titles doesn’t even enter our head. The most important thing for me is we go to places like Edinburgh and Glasgow, and we are beating teams, so it becomes normal. We shouldn’t be going down to places like that with the weight of the world on our shoulders, we should be going down knowing we are a good team, and we are going to show that. I’m delighted for everyone involved: Beth Walker, Kevin Symon, Robbie Hedderman and obviously Barry Robson and Scott Anderson, we have inherited such a great team from them. It’s back to work on Monday.”
Findlay Marshall and Adam Emslie both got on the score sheet during the first half in Glasgow, and it was Alfie Bavidge who grabbed the winner, and his 30th goal of the league campaign.
“His stats are excellent. As a striker, putting the ball in the net is the hardest thing to do. Everyone thinks Alfie is this mad goal scorer and yes, he is that but I think he showed a different side to his game today – his physical attributes, he’s holding the ball in, he’s doing selfless running in behind his midfielders if they had to track back, and I thought that had an effect for the whole team. I think they really put their bodies on the line for each other, and that was most pleasing part. I think certainly for Alfie he’s had a fruitful season and he’s been in and around the first team now and I’m sure he’ll get more of an introduction into that. He has to keep doing what he is doing for the 18s. I’m delighted for him as well as the rest of the squad, there is a real team spirit in there now.”
The big games keep coming for the Young Dons, next up for Stuart Duff’s side is the visit of reigning champions Hibernian to Cormack Park on Friday.
‘It’s another big game next Friday. We did a lot of analysis work on Hibs leading up into this game today, as Rangers played Hibs last week. We’ve been in good form at Cormack Park but we’re certainly going to have to be at the top of our game, because we’ve got almost a target on our back now. We’ll go into that with both staff and players ready to go. I think we’ve maybe got a couple of niggles injuries but I’m sure they will all be back for the game which would make us at full strength. We will take the game to Hibs and hopefully continue our good momentum.”
