Brown's Reputation Is On The Line

Last updated : 12 December 2010 By Ed_ScottishFitba
Knox and BrownIt would be interesting to be a fly on the wall of the first team talk Craig Brown gives to his new set of players at Pittodrie. He comes over in interview as the quiet man but I don't think the Aberdeen players will be left in any doubt how he felt sitting in the Tynecastle stand on Saturday. He will not want to suffer that kind of performance again and, with the transfer window about to open, the Dons players picked a poor time to give such a lack lustre showing. Not to take anything away from Hearts who did a professional job on a team that  were there for the taking. Just what can Brown and Archie Knox do to revive a club now facing a battle to avoid relegation for the first time in their 107-year history?

The Dons are at the foot of the table by dint of goal difference with Hamilton having the same points but now a game in hand. A Rudi Skacel double, singles from David Templeton, Stephen Elliott and Arvydas Novikovas saw Hearts secure their a fifth straight win and Aberdeen record their seventh loss in succession. A porous defence is one of the many issues for a Dons side which won the opening two games of the season under Mark McGhee but are now in a crisis of confidence and have failed to score in 401 minutes of action. Dons youth coach Neil Cooper, who was in temporary charge alongside Neil Simpson on Saturday, insists the job can be done. He said, without a hint of irony: "There's a good nucleus there to work with". Brown and Knox - both of whom could not sit still in the stand and were seen in the dug out during the game offering guidance during the first half  - may beg to differ, scouring their contacts books and calling in favours from friends such as Ferguson.

Midfielder Derek Young certainly knows the Dons are in a battle for survival. He said: "We're not daft. It's definitely a relegation battle we're in, something a club this size shouldn't be in. But that's where we are. Nobody's big headed enough to think we shouldn't be here. The new manager and Archie Knox have seen the game, they've seen what needs to get worked on and hopefully, come Monday, we can start working. He (Brown) said he saw a lot, a few good things, a lot of bad things. Conceding five goals is not great and it could've been one or two more. The team as a whole needs to defend a lot better and if that changes hopefully results will change. We're not going to get anywhere without hard work. The boys are looking forward to it. It was inevitable there was going to be a change and the boys are happy that Craig Brown and Archie Knox are in. There's a hell of a lot of experience there and it's what we need right now. It's going to take a lot of hard work, we know that, and it's not going to change overnight. We just need to bide our time and hopefully things will come good."
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