JET hoping to soar after bump in road; likens Aberdeen strike partner to former West Ham United star

Normally, a 2,500-mile trek to Baku would be regarded as undesirable by professional athletes. For Aberdeen, however, it might not be far enough as they seek to put Sunday’s Premier Sports defeat to Raith Rovers far behind them.

Aberdeen's Jay Emmanuel-Thomas got off the mark for his club in the disappointing 2-1 Premier Sports Cup defeat to Raith Rovers (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

They can’t get much further away than Azerbaijan when it comes to European competition. Play-off round opponents Qarabag await as Stephen Glass’ side seek to atone for such a disappointing result last weekend.

Good strike though it was, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas could not derive much pleasure from his first goal for his new club at Stark’s Park. He was glad to get off the mark and is adamant that Aberdeen won’t let the disappointment detract from an otherwise promising opening month of the campaign.

“Spirits have been high since the start of the season,” he said. “We might have taken a bump on Sunday but it doesn’t mean our spirits are going to drop. We’re going to keep pushing and we’ll look to bring a good result back from Azerbaijan then bring them back to Pittodrie where we can finish the job.”

Aberdeen seemed to suffer for the wholesale changes made to the side ahead of the clash with Championship side Raith. Glass left out seven players who would be expected to start tomorrow night in Baku, including top scorer Christian Ramirez. The American has formed a productive association with JET so far. Aberdeen’s cause will undoubtedly be helped by both players being on the pitch from the start against Qarabag as they seek to establish a foothold in the tie prior to next week’s second leg at Pittodrie.“Chris and I talk a lot and we’re learning each other’s games and what our strengths and weaknesses are,” said JET.

A man of many clubs, he has known a number of attacking partners, going all the way back to Arsenal days. He only made a handful of appearances for the London club but played with the likes of Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott. He compares Ramirez to someone he played alongside at Bristol Rovers, where he scored the most goals in his career to date.

“We’re different types of strikers but we can gel quite well,” he said. “When I moved to Bristol City I had a really good partnership with Sam Baldock. I think in our first season together we managed to get about 45 or 46 goals between us.”

Baldock had previously been with West Ham United, where he scored five league goals in 13 appearances, and has just signed a short-term deal with Wayne Rooney’s Derby County.

“He was probably one of the players I had the best partnership with,” said JET. “It was the kind of big guy/little guy thing. He was a lot smaller but he was quicker and liked to play off the shoulder. I gave him a lot of service with balls between the lines and over the top. He would race after them and scored a lot of goals.

“We used to work on that on a weekly basis so it was a good link-up and we gelled quite quickly. The start with Chris has been really good that way. It has looked very promising. Obviously as time goes on and we do more it can only get better and grow.”

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