Aberdeen 6 - 0 East Fife: Love is all around for Chris Maguire

Published on Sunday 9 January 2011 15:29

IN bagging his first senior hat-trick and the first by any Aberdeen player in the Scottish Cup for 19 years, Chris Maguire was guaranteed much aplomb, especially when the 21-year-old's individual haul, achieved before the interval, underpinned a first six-goal match tally for the Pittodrie side in 11 years, and provided further ample evidence that they are a team transformed under the tutelage of Craig Brown.

But even allowing for all that, Maguire was love-bombed to some degree in the aftermath of Aberdeen's mauling of rusty Second Division opponents.

East Fife manager John Robertson - who legitimately pointed to the fact his team hadn't played in seven weeks as a principal reason for their inability to compete - positively gushed over Maguire's efforts. He championed the striker for a senior Scotland call as early as next month's Carling Nations Cup. Brown concurred with Robertson's assessment of Maguire as a player with "all the attributes" and great international record.

To top all that, his strike partner Scott Vernon gave a bold assessment of the manner "little Chris" is able to put these all together. In a week wherein Dundee United striker David Goodwillie has been tagged a 1.5m player as Rangers have identified him as a replacement for Kenny Miller, Vernon suggested Maguire might have more than the forward whom he formed a potent partnership with for the under-21s.

"They are slightly different types," said Vernon, who actually should have outscored Maguire on Saturday but had to settle for a double after passing up a host of chances. "Chris likes to get the ball in, get turned and get at defenders. He can dribble really well whereas at the moment Goodwillie is playing up front on his own and doing a great job of managing to get the goals and get on the end of crosses. Both are fantastic players but Chris is a team-mate so I'll have to say he just edges it."

Until a fortnight ago, Maguire had only netted three times. With four in two games, he has moved on to seven and a little closer to the 11-goal tally of Goodwillie. Where the parallels between the two may be strong is that both could be about to move on from the clubs that reared them. Maguire, seven years on the Pittodrie club's books, was decidedly non-committal about hanging around beyond the summer, when his current deal ends. The predicament Aberdeen find themselves in is that they want him to ramp up his scoring ratio but know that, if he does so, the chances of him remaining with the club will become evermore remote.

His manager already accepts Aberdeen will not be able to compete financially with offers from the Championship.

"That's football; that's the way it goes if you are a striker," said Vernon, Aberdeen's scoring completed when Josh Magennis claimed his first goal for the club with just about the final kick. "Chris knows that and he tries his best for the team every week. He is an asset to the club on the form he has been in the past few weeks. I can't comment too much on the contract, it's not my place, but I am sure the club will be trying to keep him."

With three wins and a draw from his first four matches in charge, Brown's time has been the day to the night of Mark McGhee's final months. Even if victory over the Fife club was to be expected, the blunderbuss nature of it was not.

"It was a convincing win when it was down as a potential upset," Vernon said. "Other teams struggled playing lower league opposition. We put them to bed pretty early and it sends out a message to other SPL teams that we are on form, scoring goals and getting results."

The results part Vernon believes isn't entirely attributable to the change of management. "Each manager has a different style and Craig Brown has been trying to get his ideas across, little things liking doing the simple things well. In terms of the difference winning at Hibs in his first match in charge was important. That was a massive confidence booster when we were used to losing so many games (the previous seven]. The difference now is the combination of a new manager coming in and us winning that game."

MAN OF THE MATCH

Chris Maguire (Aberdeen)

An easy choice with the striker sharp as a tack in netting his first senior hat-trick, inside 28 first-half minutes.