Times: Mark McGhee says confidence can easily be brought back

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7063274.ece

 

Mark McGhee, admits that confidence is “fragile†in the Aberdeen camp but feels that there is a good performance waiting to come out of his players.

 

Aberdeen go into tonight’s Clydesdale Bank Premier League match against St Johnstone without a victory in nine games. Zander Diamond’s equaliser away to Hamilton Academical prevented their losing streak hitting four matches but Aberdeen go into the game only seven points off the top six, with two games in hand, after Heart of Midlothian lost away to Motherwell on Saturday.

 

“It doesn’t take much to just tip the confidence the other way,†McGhee said. “To go to St Johnstone and get the first goal and go on and win the game could make a huge difference to the rest of our season.

 

“We can play a lot better than we did to get the draw at Hamilton, so it’s not just about sneaking it — we want to play well. We have a performance in us and that’s what we want to produce going into these remaining games.â€

 

Aberdeen also face St Johnstone at home before the split and McGhee admits that they need to beat them twice after the Perth side moved above his team in the table on Saturday. “I think we’ll have to win twice against them to have any chance of making the top six,†he said.

 

Derek McInnes, McGhee’s counterpart at St Johnstone, is looking for his players to put together an extended unbeaten run after Saturday’s win over Falkirk, the bottom side, took them into seventh place.

 

McInnes refuses to talk about a potential top-six finish in his first season as an SPL manager, but said: “Can we up it in the coming weeks? That is the challenge for us now.

 

“That challenge is for us to go on a run between now and the end of the season, finish the season strongly and see where we are then. We have never shown any consistency and gone on an undefeated run of five, six or seven games. Others, like Motherwell, Dundee United and Hibs, have all had a run of form like that at different times.â€