Dundee

“I think that might be my sixth goal at Dens Park.

“That one though was more probably more important than any of them, especially with the circumstances that led to their penalty.

“I kept thinking in my head, I gave away the penalty. I got myself tangled up with Forster feet. It was a silly one to give away. I wanted to redeem myself and I manged to do that in the 91st minute and we went on and won the game. For the winning goal Scott and Greg do very well down the left, Greg whips in a superb ball and Sam gets up well and guides the ball into the bottom corner.

“It was fantastic as we knew it would be a tough game going down here.

“We sat in the hotel on Saturday night and had seen that four of the five ties had gone to extra time and we knew our game would be equally tough. Dundee made it difficult for us, they kept going long but to be fair they also had some tidy players in the middle of the park. In the first half they hit the post and also flashed a couple of balls across goal so the warning signs were there.

“You keep playing until the referee blows his whistle and we did that. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

“I thought the boys showed some real determination and some real character and we finally got a result.

“We managed to dig it out.”

Confidence

“I thought once we finally managed to get the equaliser we looked bit more relaxed and played some better football. We also seemed to then find some energy again. Prior to that I thought we looked a bit low in confidence and Dundee capitalised on it. They made it difficult for us but once the game went to extra-time we looked a little bit more like ourselves. Connor also came on and showed some nice flashes of skill and we created more in front of goal.

“Winning games builds confidence and hopefully this can be the start of a little run we can go on before the international break.

“The bottom line is we are through to the next round and we can now look forward to the quarter final.”

Quarter Final

“Hearts away will be very difficult.

“It has been a tough place for us to go over the years but it is time for that to change and hopefully we can go there and get a result.

“There are never any easy games when there are only eight teams left in the competition.

“If you want to win cup competitions, then you need to win games like this. if you remember when we won the League Cup in 2014 we had a great win against Motherwell at this stage, when we were down to ten men for most of the game.

“We will be ready for it.”

Expectations

“I think some of the boys who have come in over the summer maybe did not fully appreciate the size of the club and the expectation levels at Aberdeen. To go three games on the bounce without a win, even although two of them were European games, is still not great.

“There is an expectation to get results.

“Those have us who have been at the club for a while, we have tried to explain that there is a “backlash even if we lose one game.

“The new boys now understand that and realise there is an expectation to win games every week.

“You don’t want to have your tail between your legs and not feel that you can look each other in the eye. That is not the type of team we are. We have built a really strong team ethic, we are a really close bunch of boys and it is days like Sunday that really show the character and show how much we have gelled already this season. It is a good dressing room and Sunday showed the togetherness that we have.

“Any football club in the land, the fans are going to noise their unhappiness when you are losing games.”

European Exit

“In the European games we felt that we had a huge chance. Even going into the second leg 2-0 down, we still felt we could get through. The sending off and giving away two silly goals, completely took the wind out of our sails. You could see and feel the disappointed all around the stadium, not just the boys on the park but also the fans.

“It is the third or fourth time we have got to the third round and got knocked out. We know it is difficult but we want to take that next step and as I say I felt we had a chance this year. We understand the fans frustrations and there was a clear displeasure at how the game went on Thursday. The second half was simply damage limitation to not lose any more goals. We almost used it as a training excise and that is something you never want to do, particularly a big game at home and you could feel the frustration.

“I have been lucky enough to have been here for 17 years and I know what it takes and I know how it feels.

“It felt terrible after the game on Thursday, it is horrible to lose a game like that because we did not give ourselves a chance. We had a great support and the game was over within 15-20 minutes. I was awful.

“So Sunday was all about getting a result. We have done it the hard way, but we have done it.
“The manager said that we were due the fans a performance and the staff as well. I know we were not great at times – you could say for 91 minutes it was not great – but to get an equaliser and then go on and win the game at a tough venue, as I say we showed great character if nothing else.”

Recovery

“I would rather we were still playing in Europe this week. But with no game it will give the boys a bit of a rest as there has been half a dozen players who have played every game and it will also give the others a chance to do some extra work and we will all be able to do more on the training pitch.

“We have a large talented squad and we will need everyone over the course of what will be a long season but if we can show the same character we did at Dens, it will take us a long way.”