Jack MacKenzie insists his lucky-dip last-gasp winner for Aberdeen at Livingston is further proof of a brave new era at the Dons led by master motivator Scott Brown.
The full-back let fly with his weaker foot in the 94th minute when many expected him to play the percentages and throw the ball in the box.
Thankfully for the Dons the 21-year-old’s decision to take a punt proved just the ticket as Livi keeper Max Stryjek fumbled into his own net to turn a game Livi had led 1-0 on its head.
As a way to break your duck it was pretty memorable – not least for the Red Army pitch invasion that followed as Stephen Glass ’ side soared back joint top of the Premiership.
Now with a Europa Conference qualifying second leg against Breidablik up next on Thursday, MacKenzie is convinced the Pittodrie men have a mental strength – driven by new skipper Brown – which perhaps was lacking in seasons gone by.
He said: “You can’t get much better than that. I just cut inside and thought I might as well have a go. It’s the old cliche – if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win the raffle.
“My last goal at any level was when I was about 16, five years ago. It’s so long ago I can hardly remember. It’s how you dream of scoring your first – a last-minute winner.
“I’m not too sure what was going on at the end. I just got lost among the players.
“I thought I hit it well but I looked up and saw it was going straight at the keeper. Then he’s dropped it into the net. But I’m not complaining.
“It’s been a positive start but it’s only a start. We need to keep going. We’ve shown an ability to deal with adversity. We lost two quick goals in Iceland last week but we came back and got a third goal which lets us take a positive result back to Pittodrie.
“Again on Sunday we’re a goal down at half-time and this isn’t an easy place to win at all. To turn it around and win 2-1 is really pleasing.
“It shows a real mental strength. At half-time it’s easy to almost hide in the second half as you’re one-nil down on a tough pitch and they’re a tough team to play against. But we didn’t. We created a lot of chances and got the two goals.
“Scott Brown has that winning mentality. He knows the right things to say and how to get things out of players. He definitely helps as does the management team and some of the other senior players. It’s a real team effort.
“It’s massively important to keep this going on Thursday.
“We need the same level of performance we showed in the second half. If we do that we should get a positive result.”
Glass proved the strength in depth in the Dons ranks as he made five changes for the Livi clash with the hectic schedule in mind.
Top scorer Christian Ramirez was on the bench alongside Brown, Ross McCrorie and Calvin Ramsay while injured Lewis Ferguson was out of the squad altogether. All are expected to return for the Pittodrie clash with Breidablik.
MacKenzie said: “It shows the strength of the squad that we can rotate that much and still come away with a win.
“I absolutely won’t be resting on my laurels. I need to keep performing because I know that one bad performance and you could be out of the team. I need to keep improving.”
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