Craig Brown praises Aberdeen fans as he bows out

CRAIG Brown last night admitted that he would miss being in the dugout, especially after his last match as Aberdeen manager ended in defeat.

The 72-year-old, whose retirement makes way for the arrival of Derek McInnes, rounded off his career in the game with a 1-0 defeat that consigned the Pittodrie club to a place in the bottom six.

“I’m quite sure I’ll miss it,” he said. “I haven’t been too emotional, but this time next week, I’ll be saying ‘I wish we had a chance to redeem ourselves’. I’m very fortunate. I’ve lived the dream of every football fan, being able to work with Aberdeen and having a long time in the game. I’m very grateful for that.

“But the over-riding feeling is disappointment for the terrific support we had. I’ve sent three or four thousand folk up the road without the victory they all wanted. The best players on show were the Aberdeen support. They were absolutely fantastic throughout the match.”

Brown admitted that, after a poor first half, United had been the better team. He said: “Whenever we heard Dundee were ahead, we went for it. I’m quite sure we could have got a draw by just sitting there, playing as we played, but in an attempt to get the winner, we took too many chances. We asked Russell to do too much up front and that enabled them to get the winning goal.

“In the second half, United were the better team. Gary Mackay-Steven coming on brightened the whole thing for them, but every chance they created was due to our mistake. The winning goal was a mistake.”

Jackie McNamara, the United manager, said there was an outside chance of the injured Jonny Russell playing a part in next weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic. “Hopefully, he will not be too far away. He has a small chance. He’s not training with us yet, but he’s done stuff with the physio and we’ll assess him as the week goes on.”