Craig Brown bows out of Pittodrie with win that keeps Aberdeen's top-six bid alive

Gordon Parks

VETERAN boss ended Aberdeen's nine-match winless streak against Hearts and said he was choked with emotion at the response fans had given him.
Craig Brown applauds the Aberdeen fans at full time Craig Brown applauds the Aberdeen fans at full time
Sammy Turner/SNS Group

CRAIG BROWN waved goodbye to Pittodrie as boss but there was no farewell speech or retirement wrist watch to mark his final home game.

Just the parting gift of three points against the Jambos which ensured there’s still time on the clock for the 72-year-old to go out with a bang next week in a top-six shoot-out at Tannadice.

A goal in each half from usual suspect Niall McGinn brought Aberdeen’s woeful nine-match winless streak against the Jambos to a halt.

Boss Brown admitted he was choked with the reception he was given for his Pittodrie curtain call – and he’s already looking forward to the time when his head is not on the block when it all goes wrong.

He said: “It will take time to sink in that that’s my last game in charge at Pittodrie but I will still be here as a director and as a fan. But it will be great not to be the one getting the blame.

“It was an emotional walk off at the end and I’m not usually an emotional guy.

“Aberdeen fans always applaud the manager when he walks out at the start of games but if it goes wrong they are not slow to tell you to sort it out.

“I’m pleased the fans went away happy as pleasing the fans is the objective of every Aberdeen manager.

“We had a host of 0-0 games earlier this season where we were totally dominant and couldn’t score but McGinn has made the difference here.

“To try and win next week’s game at Dundee United is now the aim and we have an outside chance of making the top six.

“The support the fans here have given me has been fantastic and I’m sure they’ll be out in force next Saturday.

“I’m leaving Derek McInnes with the best signing of the season and I don’t need to tell you who that is as he’s proved his worth again with two fine goals.

“I’m sure Derek will make some good signings as he just needs a couple more to make Aberdeen a top-notch team.

“There is a conveyor belt of some very good young players emerging here.”

There was more of the same in Brown’s pre-match programme notes designed to make a case for his record at Pittodrie, crammed with trademark top-spin stats.

But not even Alastair Campbell could dress up a dossier for a dismal Dons season which had included just one win in 2013.

Brown received warm applause as he made his way into the home dugout as manager for the last time and he was to witness a fitting display for the departure of a Scottish football icon.

The recent history of clashes with the Jambos made for more painful pre-match reading, an aggregate of 15-0 in the last nine meetings of the clubs with Brown having been in charge for eight of them.

But no negative talk would be allowed to distract ‘Scotland’s Greatest Ever Manager’ from bowing out with a win. And you’d expect nothing less from a man who once said: “Our keeper only had one save to make but we lost 4-0.”

It may have taken 835 minutes to break that terrible run against Hearts but in the 10th minute the Dons edged in front and a task that had appeared so difficult for so long suddenly proved simplicity itself.

Gavin Rae found Jonny Hayes on the right and he rolled the ball across the six-yard-line for McGinn to tap in his 17th SPL goal of the season. It was a strike which typified the energy and purpose of the Reds in an opening spell as they used both flanks to get at a vulnerable-looking Hearts defence.

It should have been all-square on the half-hour mark when Jamie Walker sent in a low cross that John Sutton side-footed against keeper Jamie Langfield’s post.

The sporadic threat which Hearts posed almost brought them level just before the break as Walker spun inside the area but his low strike was superbly kept out by Langfield before Russell Anderson cleared.

Brown’s boys should have gone 2-0 up before the break when Josh Magennis went clean through but he somehow managed to slash his shot wildly over from eight yards out. It was a shocker of a miss and symptomatic of a side whose season has been seriously lacking in quality control.

But when No.2 arrived in 55 minutes it had class written all over it.

Again it was McGinn who found the net as he turned Dylan McGowan inside out before whipping a shot into the far corner from the tightest of angles.

With the Dons now rampant the crowd responded with a feel-good factor which hasn’t been felt inside the ground for far too long.

It required a goal-line clearance from Hayes, though, to prevent Danny Wilson’s effort from finding the net as Hearts pressed for a way back into the game.

There was to be no fightback and Aberdeen, who had a Magennis effort ruled out for offside, secured a result which keeps their top-six hopes alive.

Hearts gaffer Gary Locke admitted his side, which has won just one of their last nine games, lacked a cutting edge.

He said: “Craig will be a loss for the Scottish game. I wish him all the best.

“But the game was the story of our season. We created chances but once again we failed to take them.”

Taken from the Daily Record