Joe Lewis has only had one session at Aberdeen ’s new Cormack Park training facility but already believes they now have no excuses for underperforming.
The Pittodrie No.1 has been blown away by the new complex, opened on Thursday by Sir Alex Ferguson .
And Lewis reckons the players must now repay the board for providing them with the perfect place to prepare for winning matches, starting today against Kilmarnock .
The Dons captain said: “I’ve never witnessed the transition of moving into training
facilities. I think we’ll see huge benefits from that.
“Cardiff’s facilities were good but not as good as this. Fulham’s weren’t as good. Blackpool’s facilities were the worst I’ve seen. Peterborough promised facilities from the minute I signed until I left.
“You always get promises but this has become the real thing.
“It’s a massive achievement for everyone at the club who has worked so hard for it.
“The team and management will be the beneficiaries. We’re very grateful for that.
“The main pitch is as good a spec as you can get for a football pitch. The other ones that are ready now will be as good as the matchday pitch at Pittodrie.
“There are no excuses from that point of view so we can have a better quality of training and improve.”
Lewis has set a goal of going into the international break in the Premiership ’s top three and knows the Dons can do precisely that with a home win against Kilmarnock today.
Derek McInnes’ side trail Motherwell by one point and Lewis wants his team to try to get above them over the next two games at home to Killie and away to Ross County.
He said: “We’re not in a terrible position in the league.
“If we can do well in the next couple of games, come the international break we could find ourselves in third.
“The two results against Rangers and Celtic have been real blows with disappointing performances. They’ve been the low points.
“We need to try to eradicate those performances, we need to make sure we’ve put them behind us.”
Aberdeen got back to form with a win at Hamilton on Wednesday and Lewis knows traditionally this is a time where they tend to hit their stride.
He said: “We’ve had a few runs over Christmas and New Year since I’ve been here.
“We know we’ve got the ability in there. We’ve seen how we can play which has made the poor performances so frustrating for a lot of people.
“If we can start to reproduce that on a more consistent basis I can see us really going places.”
The Dons face a Killie side also fighting for that third spot and Lewis added: “Killie will be difficult opposition, even though they lost during the week against Motherwell.
“Look at how many people wrote them off at the start of the season. They steadied that quickly and picked up results.
“They’ve always had the players there and anyone with real knowledge of the game won’t be surprised at how they came back. They’re still a good team so we need to give it our 100 per cent attention and be at the top of our game.”
