There’s more than one way to win a game of football and it was a tactical tweak that helped Aberdeen see off Hibs, as Jim Goodwin explained afterwards.
“Prior to the game, I said I didn’t think there was much between the teams and I felt it would be a tight game. The stats say that was the case in the first half, my only concern at the break was we gave them to much space in behind, we were too high, and Cadden in particular got behind us on several occasions.
“We changed it a bit second half, sat a little bit deeper and looked to hit them on the counter-attack and it paid off. At home in particular, we don’t like allowing the opposition to have as much possession as Hibs did in the second half, but we felt that tonight, that was the way to go to get the win.
“I’m not going to say we gave Hibs a going over because we didn’t, the scoreline probably flatters us a bit because it was tighter than that. I did feel the first goal of the game would be huge and I know it will be a talking point. I was a big advocate of VAR and thankfully today, it went in our favour. It’s been in place all over the world for years now and we’re catching up here. The main aim is to try and get the big calls right more often than not.
“My concern about the first goal was that Duk was offside, so I was delighted when it came over the tannoy that he wasn’t and we actually got to check for the penalty. My view of it wasn’t great from the stand, but I thought Duk got there first and there must have been contact. Thankfully for us, they concluded it was a penalty. There’ll be other days when it doesn’t go our way, that’s the nature of the beast. We’ve had a number of decisions gone against us before VAR, penalties that shouldn’t have been, so maybe it balances itself out.
“I don’t care how long it takes to get to the right decision, especially in games of this magnitude where the three points are invaluable. Hibs are a good team, a terrific squad, and I expect them to be at the top end of the table, competing for the European spots along with Hearts, ourselves, and maybe one or two surprise packages as well. For us to beat Hibs and Hearts as convincingly as we have at home is great.”
Four more goals from the Dons reinforces their status as the great entertainers, certainly at home where they’ve scored 21 goals in six league games so far.
“There’s not a team in the country who have scored more goals at home than us, and that’s brilliant because it wins you games but it also puts bums on seats. If we can continue to entertain our crowd in the fashion that we have done, we’ll hopefully get even more people in the stadium.”
After defeat at Ibrox last weekend, some criticism came the players’ way but as the manager points out, they responded in the best possible style.
“It’s testament to the group that they bounced back from defeat last week. I spoke a lot about the recruitment process and how we got into real detail not just about good footballers but about good people, strong characters. We were beaten by Motherwell early in the season, were terrible on the day, then went four games unbeaten. We were dreadful at Tannadice, then won three in a row. We were poor second half at Ibrox last weekend, but tonight we’ve beaten Hibs 4-1.
“I encourage the boys not to listen too much to the noise outside of our dressing room. Everybody has an opinion, everybody can pick a different starting XI and I don’t have an issue with that. I know Jayden has taken some criticism, but I believe in the boy. He’s a young lad, he’s got so much more development in him. He’s going to make mistakes and be a bit inconsistent as all kids are as they make their way through. We’ll iron out those little deficiencies, he’s a good kid, willing to learn, which is the most important thing, and I would ask the fans to encourage not just him, but all the boys, because that helps us get the results we want.
“But tonight is about us getting back to third place, about scoring four goals, beating one of our nearest rivals quite convincingly and now we can all. look forward to the games tomorrow and the fans can enjoy their weekend.
“There are two difficult games coming up. Away to Livingston at any time is always a hard fixture, they’ve built a really good team and then we’re here against Dundee United on a lovely grass pitch at Pittodrie. We want to give a good account of ourselves in those games before the break for the World Cup, and that’s our focus now.”
