Maturing team under management sages

26/09/12: Jim Jefferies is not for changing ...

Three old men from Yorkshire who have never grown up face the trials of their fellow town citizens and everyday life and stay young by reminiscing about the days of their youth and attempting feats not common to the elderly. That was the parallel drawn by Jim Jefferies as his team prepared to meet that under the charge of old adversary Craig Brown and Archie Knox. He quipped:-

"With Gerry and me on one side and Jocky Scott with Aberdeen now, although I think he sits up in the stand, it could be a good audition for Last of the Summer Wine."

Audition it is not but Jim is certainly still game and up for the challenge when Aberdeen come to face Dunfermline in the Third Round of this season's Scottish Communities League Cup tonight. He sees it as another harsh test for his newly constructed side:-

"I'm a bit surprised how well we're doing, given it's a new team and we're trying to blend them together and integrate them into the club. What we're doing now, I thought we would be doing a couple of months from now."

Recent results have been ideal confidence builders and levels are high going into the game and so it should be.

"Of course this is a taste of what we're striving to achieve. This is why we're trying to win this division, even though we said we were going down this path of giving young players and lower-league players an opportunity. Maybe this is too early for them at this stage, but we'll find out."

Confidence is building within the Manager too. Following an impressive run of five wins in a row he firmly believes that his side are capable of taking an SPL scalp:-

"I'm not saying it will happen, but you can take a wee leaf out of the book of Queen of the South beating Hibs and Rangers. That gives you that wee bit belief that you can go in there and cause them problems."

Jefferies dismissed references to the last meeting in Fife when Aberdeen lost 3-0, as an indicator:-

"They gifted us a couple of goals that day and their team and our team has completely changed. They're a far stronger team than they've been for a while, they've got a lot of strength in depth.

"We're looking at it as a challenge and we've got nothing to lose. You want to do as well as you can in the cups and it helps the club financially as well. But the main target is to make sure we're up there challenging at the top of the league and keeping as close to Partick Thistle in case they slip up. To do that, we need to win games and we've shown recently we're capable of doing that."

The gaffer is delighted with the tempo and the way his team goes about their training:-

"There's a real enthusiasm. With Neil McCann being part of the backroom staff, we looked at each other and thought it was very reminiscent of the squad we built in 1998 at Hearts. There was more quality in that team and a lot more experience, but the tempo and the enthusiasm and the drive is the same. Training looked after itself with us and they took it out onto the pitch, and that's the same with our players here. They're also going about things the same way and taking their training out onto the pitch.

"They always say if you train that way you'll play that way. I'm not comparing them with that team. That team was an excellent team, they were in a different league, and we're not at that stage yet. But what I'm saying is the way they go about it is very similar. You get that feeling of 'where have I seen this before' and Neil and I looked at each other and we were thinking the same thing."

The immediate job in hand is to try and pour more cup disappointment on Aberdeen and that is something that all opponents will try to use:-

"It happens, that's what cup ties are all about. I've been there myself, when you go down to a lower division and you get knocked out because it's a cup final for them. We need to go out and give a really good account of ourselves and if we play like we've been playing then Aberdeen will have to play well to beat us.

"Then you can hold your hands up and say 'they were better than us on the day'. What you don't want to do is to go out there and go into a shell and let them boss you and dominate you, because that's not what Dunfermline have been about this year. We've been going out there and taking the game to teams and that's what we'll do. That's the way we're asking them to play and that's the way they're playing, and we'll not be changing it for this game."