Nicky Devlin wants Aberdeen to tighten up against Celtic so they can let loose and celebrate a place in the Premier Sports Cup Final.
The red-hot Dons head to Hampden on the back of a 16-game unbeaten run under Jimmy Thelin. The only game they haven’t won was at Celtic Park last month but they still managed to come from 2-0 down to salvage a point against Brendan Rodgers’ champions. Devlin knows that was a big result in terms of belief and since then they have kicked on and on Wednesday they beat Rangers 2-1 in the league.
The Dons and Celtic are nine points clear at the top of the Premiership and go head-to-head in tomorrow’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final. Scotland new boy Devlin said: “We’ll go to Hampden and try and get a result again. We obviously showed in the last week against Celtic that we can score against them. We have to bring that second-half performance from the very start.
“We probably let them get too much of a foothold in the game in the first half. They scored a couple of goals. So we know we need to keep it a wee bit tighter at the back.”
Aberdeen are very much a team on form but Devlin reckons there is still so much to come. The right-back claimed: “In a lot of the games we’ve been good in spells. Even [against Rangers] we were really good in the first half and then for the second half we weren’t so good.
“So if we can manage to put a full 90 minutes together… which to be honest I think if we want to go through on Saturday, we probably will have to put in a 90-minute performance, or 120. I don’t think we can probably be as poor in the first half as we were at Parkhead. There’s still loads the manager wants us to improve on.”
Devlin is enjoying something of a golden renaissance at Pittodrie. The 31-year-old bagged his first Scotland cap last month, penned a new deal and is also chipping in with big goals.
He volleyed in the opener against Rangers and provided the assist for Shayden Morris’s winner. Devlin is now on four goals but reckons he should already be clear of five-goal Pape Habib Gueye at the top of the Pittodrie scoring charts.
He said: “The gaffer wants me to find myself in the box more. I’ve scored four now but it should be seven or eight. To be fair, I have missed chances.
“It’s something the coaching staff have worked on with me, to make sure I find myself in areas where I can score. Luckily enough on Wednesday the ball fell to me a couple of times.”
Goal hero Morris looked like he was struggling at Aberdeen but under Thelin he’s making an impact and pushing to be a starter. Devlin is delighted and he said: “I’ve said to him quite a few times this year, he’s probably disappointed that he’s not started more because of how good he has been doing when he’s been coming on.
“I try to stress to him how we know as a team, as a squad, the management as well, just how important he is to us. He has such a big impact on games and getting the winner is probably a reward for how hard he’s had to work recently. How patient he’s had to be.”
It was a big win as the Dons dug in after missing a penalty and a Rangers equaliser to come out on top in front of a packed Pittodrie. Devlin admitted: “You can see the crowd and the atmosphere. It was obviously a big game, but yeah, it was nice to win in the end.
“We probably have to react better to the penalty miss. These things happen. Then in the second half, I thought Rangers did really well and made it difficult for us. I don’t want to say we were hanging on but we were penned in at times for large spells and couldn’t get up the pitch.
“With the character of the team, we found our way in. I spoke at a fans’ event a few weeks ago about the best atmosphere here and I think the support at home is incredible.”