Nicky Devlin reckons Aberdeen will only know if this was a good time to face Rangers at around 9.45 tonight.
When the smoke clears on what’s sure to be an epic encounter at Pittodrie, three points will be the ultimate judge of who had the best time. Aberdeen are 15 games unbeaten and joint top of the Premiership while the perceived wisdom is Rangers are the ones under pressure going into the Pittodrie cauldron.
Philippe Clement’s men are six points behind and defeat this evening would leave his side in a real predicament. But Devlin knows all that counts for zero when John Beaton’s first whistle pierces the Aberdeen air at 8pm. Devlin said: “Is the pressure all on Rangers and is it a good time to play them? It is if we win. I don’t think they’re in a bad place, to be honest, they’re right behind us and Celtic at the moment. I’m sure they’ll look at this as a chance to close that gap.
“This is a game we’re looking forward to and want to win but we are under no illusions how difficult it will be. Rangers have won their last couple of games comfortably, including one in Europe.
“Their form is good So we know we will have to be at our best to get the three points. It’s a massive game for the club and everyone involved in it.”
The Scotland new boy doesn’t want Aberdeen to make their start to the season a flash in the pan. He wants it to be the standard, not just for Rangers but for every game.
The right back stated: “You can only concentrate on winning the games we’ve got and up until now we have managed to do that. Apart from the Celtic game we’ve managed to win every game.
“So we concentrate on us. We concentrate on what we can control and see what happens. If we manage to win, it would say we’re in a good place and we’re a good side.
“But the best sides and the good sides do it every single time they play. No matter who they play and where they’re playing, they get results all the time.
“That’s what we have to do now, that’s what we have to be looking to do if we’re going to stay in these positions and challenge. You have to win every game, every time.”
Aberdeen have 14 wins and a draw but the defender thinks there’s still a lot more to come. The new Scotland star doesn’t think Thelin’s side are anywhere near their peak.
Devlin added: “Is there more to come from this team? Yes, because I think anyone who has watched us this season would agree that while there have been spells in games we’ve been good we can still improve on a lot of things.
“The manager has stressed that as well, there are a lot of aspects of the game he wants us to get better at. We are working towards that every day with him and the coaching staff.
“We think we can get better and we just have to work hard on the training ground. If you’d said to us after Dens Park in March we’d be sitting here now I wouldn’t have believed you, to be honest.
“It has been a remarkable turnaround but the manager has stressed he wants more, he’s not satisfied with just what we’ve done so far. It has been a brilliant start to the season but we want more.”
Devlin reckons his old team-mate Connor Barron will know what is coming but will thrive on it when he makes his red-hot return to Pittodrie in a Rangers jersey.
The midfielder will head back to the Granite City for the first time since his controversial summer switch to Ibrox. The 22-year-old came through the Cormack Park ranks but then moved on freedom of contract to the Light Blues.
That sparked a furore and fight ensued between the clubs over a fee, with Premiership chiefs still to make a decision. There is no love lost between the supporters of and Barron will find himself a major target for the Pittodrie boo boys.
Barron follows a path that has seen the likes of Ryan Jack and Scott Wright have trodden and it has seen them get it in the neck on their returns to the North-East. Devlin, who played alongside Barron last season at Aberdeen, claimed: “It will be an interesting evening for Connor.
“He probably knows what to expect and what’s coming. He was with Aberdeen for a long time, but I’m sure he will thrive on that added pressure.
“As players you don’t get too caught up in it and I’m sure he will be the same, he won’t want to get too caught up. The atmosphere will be what it is regardless anyway, so I’m sure he’s looking forward to it as well.”
Aberdeen will have a third sell-out in a row at home. Devlin reckons it is massive. It helped them get over the line in their 1-0 win over Dundee United. The big thing for the Dons was not only the win but the clean sheet. Devlin knows they need to tighten up.
“Getting a clean sheet last weekend was important,” the former Livi star claimed. “When we were doing the warm-up with Christer (Persson) he said to us that we have to be able to win games 1-0.
“You’re not always able to score two or three goals every time you play, sometimes you have to score once and win. So clean sheets are massive for us.
“We went through a spell at the start where we had a couple and after that we needed to score two or three times to win. That’s not sustainable, I’d love it if it was – but you can’t do that every week. So getting those 1-0 wins are important and if we can get another one tomorrow we’ll take that.”