JIM GOODWIN has asked Aberdeen fans not to judge his new-look side on their defeat to Celtic, having told his players that they won’t come up against that level of opposition every week in the Premiership.
The Dons fell to a 2-0 defeat at Celtic Park, with Goodwin particularly disappointed by the early goal they conceded to Stephen Welsh that put them on the back foot.
He was proud of the response of his players though, and saw enough in their showing to be encouraged by what is to come from his team.
“Obviously we are disappointed, we came into the game with the confidence and momentum that we could possibly get a positive result from the game,” Goodwin said.
“I was trying to explain to them that they are not going to face this level of opposition week-in, week-out in Scotland.
“With the greatest of respect to the teams coming up in the next few fixtures, we are not going to be under as much pressure as we were against Celtic. I would imagine we are going to enjoy a bit more possession in the games coming forward.
“We will learn from it, we will certainly watch the game back and see what we can do better.
“We have got to put it behind us now. There’s no point dwelling on it, it’s the first game of the season. It’s the most difficult fixture you could probably get. We have to be positive now looking forward to the St Mirren game.
“I don't want people to judge my team on that performance because we know we are better than that.
“We still need to get people up to speed fitness-wise. It's not an excuse, but I know every other team will be in similar situations to ourselves, but (Bojan) Miovski's only had a little over two weeks training with the squad, while the others have had five in pre-season.
“Duk (Luis Lopes) is the same, he only has 25/30 minutes in him, so we have to try and get these guys as fit as possible, as quickly as possible without running the risk of injury.”
Meanwhile, Goodwin explained that defender David Bates may still have a future at the club, despite being left out of the matchday squad following the collapse of a move to Legia Warsaw.
“David is still very much part of the plans,” he said. “He just wasn't in the squad today.
“I know there's been a lot of speculation but I'm not going to get into that into too much depth. Until I've got something to tell you guys, then David is still very much an Aberdeen player. He's got two years left on his contract.”
