Brown makes apology for Dons victory

ABERDEEN made it through to the last eight of the Scottish Communities League Cup last night and, while manager Craig Brown said credit should go to his players for coming through such a tough test, he also apologised to Dunfermline boss Jim Jefferies, admitting that his side had been fortunate.

A Scott Vernon goal three minutes into stoppage time gave the Pittodrie side a 1-0 victory after Dunfermline had been denied by some wonderful goalkeeping by Jamie Langfield as well as the woodwork.

“He said sorry,” said Jefferies, who said he was proud of his First Division side, “but they took their chance… all we didn’t get tonight is what you need – the rub of the green. A couple hit the woodwork and, at the end, it just wouldn’t fall for us in the six-yard box. People were even trying to backheel it into the net because it just wouldn’t fall right for us to poke it into the net. But that was the story of the night.”

“He can feel a bit upset,” conceded Brown. “That was a far better Dunfermline team than the one we played last season. Any SPL team would have had a great difficulty and I’m delighted we managed to squeeze through. The big transformation was when Russell Anderson came onto the pitch. He is a brilliant captain. We rested him tonight, rested Stephen Hughes and we didn’t have our full-strength team out.

“It wasn’t our strongest team but it was a team we thought could do the job and fortunately they managed to do that job.”