JIM GOODWIN believes that the next five weeks will be pivotal to Aberdeen’s chances of a successful season with a heavy fixture list on the horizon.
The Dons return to Premiership action at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow afternoon – the first of seven league fixtures to be played before the break for the winter World Cup in Qatar on 12 November, with a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Partick Thistle thrown in for good measure too – and Goodwin expects to see a reaction from his players.
Aberdeen’s previous outing ended in a 3-1 defeat to Hibernian at Easter Road and the manager of the north east club hopes his side can recapture their form and embark on another unbeaten run after the previous one was halted so abruptly as we enter a crucial stage of the campaign.
“Without a doubt,” Goodwin replied when asked if the next month is pivotal. “When we go into the World Cup break we want to be up there at the top end of the table. The league is extremely tight at the moment. One win can catapult teams near the bottom right back up into the mix again at third or fourth.
“You saw that the other weekend when we were sitting third prior to the Hibs game. Then teams around you win games and all of a sudden you drop a few places. I tend not to take too much notice of the league table until that first round of fixtures. We still have a few games to go before that happens.
“I think you get a better understanding of how the league will pan out after that particular period. It is a busy month for everyone. We have that League Cup game to look forward to as well in amongst it.
“The squad is going to be stretched as there are a lot of midweek games in there with the games on a Saturday and Sunday as well. It’s exciting times. That’s the way you want it as a player and a manager. You like to have games coming thick and fast and we will be well prepared for it.”
Aberdeen will be without the services of centre-back Liam Scales and midfielder Connor Barron this afternoon as Derek McInnes returns to Pittodrie with his Killie side. The former is suspended after his sending-off at Easter Road while the latter is still returning from injury. Barron trained with the first team this week, Goodwin explained, but tomorrow’s fixture has come to soon for the 20-year-old.
The Dons currently occupy seventh place in the Premiership standings but he believes the league table does not necessarily reflect the quality of his team’s performances thus far.
“That’s a fair comment and I do try to be honest with my assessment,” he observed. “I’m not one of these defensive-minded managers that think we should be winning every week.
“We had a really poor performance against Motherwell and we were all honest as a group to hold our hands up on that occasion. Motherwell had a really good game plan but we didn’t play well.
“Losing 2-0 at Parkhead on the opening day of the season, I don’t think there is any great shame in that.
“I’m convinced if we had kept 11 men on the park in the last league fixture against Hibs we wouldn’t have lost the game. I don’t think we played particularly brilliantly in the first 45 minutes but [goalkeeper] Kelle Roos hardly had a save to make.
“All in all I think I am relatively pleased. But I do think there is a hell of a lot more still to come from the group. It is still a relatively new group. We are not looking to make excuses but I do think we are probably two or three points, at least, light on where we probably should be.
“We know we are a decent side when we are at it, when we are on our game. We know that we are capable of beating anyone – but we have to get to that level of consistency. That’s what it boils down to.”
