Jimmy Thelin has urged his Aberdeen stars to take the feel-good factor from their Scottish Cup win into their Premiership push.
The Dons got a long overdue win as they saw off Elgin City to book their place in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. Thelin’s side hadn’t won in their previous 12 games but ended that disappointing sequence at Borough Briggs. Now their manager is looking for something similar when St Mirren come calling to Pittodrie this weekend.
Thelin said: “We need to use this good feeling now to have a good training week and to prepare for the next league game. The players are all working so hard, we are all working so hard to get the results. It was good for everyone to get the win. What we are aiming for (is a win in the next match). We have to keep working and to get ready for the next league game.”
The Dons have a mixed bag against St Mirren this season. Beating them at Pittodrie but they suffered their first league defeat to the Buddies in Paisley back in November. The Reds still have a lot to play for. They remain fourth in the table and are within touching distance of third-placed Dundee United. If they can recapture their early season form then it should keep them in the European fight, which has been one of Thelin’s main objectives all season.
Shayden Morris sent Aberdeen on their way before the cup win was finished off by a Duk double. It brought the Portuguese striker’s first goals of the season. Thelin hopes it will see him leave Pittodrie with a bang over the next four and a bit months. The forward is out-of-contract in the summer and is expected to move on.
The Aberdeen manager admitted: “The way Duk scored them and he is arriving more into the box. He was where the passes arrived, concentrated and showed some good finishing.”
Aberdeen had drawn three blanks before their Cup triumph and Thelin was delighted to reap the rewards of getting more players into the opposition box. The Swede stated: “The way we created chances, Nicky Devlin came back in his old form. He was running a lot more and arriving a lot more in the box.
“We arrived with more players in the box. “There were chances and you always want to score more. At least we scored three on Saturday and the belief is slowly coming back. I like the cup games.
“Coming to the arenas, you feel the passion of football and spirit. Teams from different levels can play against each other and there is still a lot of excitement and good games. For me, this is the place of football, especially if you win.
It was a really good feeling after the game. We put a difficult period behind us and got that feeling of winning again with our supporters.”
There was also the added bonus of the new-look Aberdeen defence keeping a clean sheet. The backline included January signings Kristers Tobers, Alexander Jensen, Slobodan Rubezic, who returned from suspension and Scotland cap Devlin.
“There were a lot here and it was a good experience and an exciting experience,” Thelin, speaking on RedTV, claimed. “We need to keep working on the standard of our own passing game. Even at the beginning of the second half they were almost through our backline but in the end we created some chances and scored three goals and got the clean sheet.
“We have to think about the backline. They haven’t trained so much since pre-season. How they coped with the game with that preparation was really good to see.”