St Pauli 1-1 Aberdeen: Craig Brown delighted by ‘strongest squad’

By MARK WALKER
Published on 30/07/2012 00:00

ABERDEEN’s Chris Clark believes there is no reason why they cannot return from this week’s SPL kick-off with a fantastic result at Parkhead under their belts.

Scorers: St Pauli - Ebbers (63); Aberdeen - McGinn (71)

The Dons ended their German tour with another encouraging performance after new signing Niall McGinn netted a second-half equaliser. Craig Brown’s side should have won but German goalkeeper Phillip Tschauner made a series of excellent stops, including a wonderful reaction save from Michael Paton. The German Second Division side’s fans were so impressed with the Dons, they applauded them off the park.

Coming at the end of a week which brought a thumping 12-0 win and a narrow defeat by Werder Bremen, Aberdeen should be heading to Parkhead with some confidence, and Clark is hopeful Aberdeen can stun the champions.

He said: “We’ve really enjoyed our week. We’ve had a good week’s training and then a very tough game against Werder Bremen which was always going to be a tough work-out. The St Pauli match was a good performance by us.

“There has to be confidence because we are going into a brand new season.”

New signings Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn have impressed and Gary Naysmith is expected this week to complete a short-term deal until the end of the year. Add the influx of stand-out youngsters like Ryan Fraser, Nicky Low and Joe Shaughnessy, and the under-achieving Pittodrie side have their strongest squad for a long time.

Clark said: “When you see the players that we had out and some of the younger players who have come in and shown what they can do, I don’t think the manager would have too many problems about putting them in. They’ve shown they can deal with it and they haven’t looked out of place in training.

“They are confident young boys and we all know they are good players, so it is going to make it very difficult for the manager when it comes to picking a team.

“At the moment, there seems to be a lot of quality about the team.

“There’s also a lot of players who can play in a number of positions and that’s something we’ve rotated during the games so everyone can get plenty of minutes. There’s a lot of depth in the squad and that is a boost.”

Manager Brown has been delighted by the tour. He said: “We’ve got to be pleased about the week we’ve had and the important thing was not to pick up any injuries.

“It tells you a lot when the St Pauli fans applaud you and I think we deserved that because we played well.

“It’s the strongest squad I’ve had since I came here and we are going into next week’s start quietly confident.”

Former Scotland defender Naysmith is expected to be in the team for Parkhead next week after another solid display.

Brown added: “I would recommend we try to get him on a short-term contract at least and he can try to play for a longer contract. Stephen Hughes is on a short-term deal until Christmas and I’m hopeful Gary would be interested in that.

“As long as his expectations are not what he was used to in England and he wants the opportunity, we are likely to want to give him that opportunity.

“Every challenge he wins in the air, he’s strong in the tackle, he’s got a lot of attributes. One of the greatest things about him is his attitude – he is such a committed player.”