Brown: Players won't be affected

Craig Brown does not believe his retirement announcement will have any impact on his Aberdeen players during the rest of the season.

Last Updated: 15/03/13 at 20:58 Post Comment    Bet with SkyBet  Scottish Premier League. Click here to bet.

Craig Brown: Announced he will retire

Craig Brown: Announced he will retire

Brown on Thursday revealed he would step down as Dons manager at the end of the season but there remain eight games left in the SPL with the next three crucial.

Aberdeen travel to Celtic Park on Saturday in ninth place in the SPL with games against Hearts and Dundee United to follow.

But Brown does not feel the certainty regarding his situation will have any effect.

"I don't think it will make the slightest difference," he said.

"Players are very resilient. Obviously they want to play for a manager they are pleased to play for.

"But it's their job to play football and if there's no manager or if (Jose) Mourinho came in or if Sir Alex (Ferguson) came back, they would hopefully be as enthusiastic for us as they would be for them.

"Over the years I'm not going to deny Sir Alex might make a difference, I'm sure he would.

"But in the immediate term there will be no difference in attitude."

Left-back Gary Naysmith agreed with Brown, although he hopes the announcement that his former Scotland manager and assistant Archie Knox are leaving might give the players something of an extra edge.

"As a player your job is to win games," he said. "I wouldn't say it will fire us up any more but it's maybe something in the back of your mind, an extra incentive to make sure the two of them leave Aberdeen in as high a position as possible."

When asked about his reaction to the news, Naysmith said: "Disappointment for me personally because I'm enjoying working under him and Archie. I think I can speak for most of the team about that.

"When the gaffer spoke to us he said he was getting on a bit and it was maybe time for him to move upstairs.

"When you hear his reasons, it's no surprise he has decided to do that."

Aberdeen have given themselves a huge task to get into the top six after taking two points from their last three games against Kilmarnock, Ross County and Motherwell but Brown is not resigned to the club's fourth consecutive season in the bottom half.

"If you look at the last three games, particularly the two Saturday games, outstanding performance at Kilmarnock which could have resulted in a comfortable victory and if had we been given the penalty which was denied us unfairly, we would have had another couple of points," he said.

"And then against Motherwell no-one saw an indifferent performance against Motherwell, they saw a committed Aberdeen team making more chances than Motherwell.

"So, take these performances into the Celtic game and take into the Celtic game that we have the second best defensive record into the SPL - only Celtic have a better defensive record.

"So you need to defend well at Celtic Park and the evidence of the season is that we have defended well, particularly well.

"What we haven't done, everyone knows, is at the other end.

"So we take that good defensive record to Celtic Park, we take the enthusiasm and determination to try to finish in the top echelon of the league and I think you'll see a good performance."

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