Mark Reynolds aims to maintain Dons’ ‘feelgood factor’ by reaching League Cup semis

ABERDEEN defender Mark Reynolds spoke yesterday of the “feelgood factor” currently surrounding the city and club.

The Dons are on an impressive 12-match unbeaten run – they haven’t lost since visiting Celtic Park on the opening day of the league season back in August – and lie third in the SPL.

Attendances are subsequently rising at Pittodrie and Reynolds believes the excitement levels would go up another notch if the team were to beat St Mirren in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Communities League Cup this evening and reach a sixth semi-final in six seasons.

“There is a feelgood factor about the city and certainly around the club,” said Reynolds, who was a solid performer at the heart of the Aberdeen defence in Saturday’s 2-0 SPL victory over Dundee.

“I think gradually over the weeks the fans have slowly been coming back and hearing about how we’ve been playing and the results we’ve been getting, I think getting to the semi-final would just increase that again.

“The boys in the changing room feel we are playing well and we are getting the results we deserve.

“We are working hard and it is paying off. If we can keep that going, we don’t see why we can’t have a successful season.”

Decent form in the league, though, counts for little when it comes to cup football and Aberdeen have suffered more than their fair share of heartache in recent seasons.

Last September, East Fife knocked the Dons out of the Scottish Communities League Cup with a penalty shoot-out win at Pittodrie, so manager Craig Brown certainly won’t be taking SPL rivals St Mirren lightly this evening.

“Obviously we consider this an extremely important match,” said Brown. “In the league you can recover if you fail because you’ve got many other league matches to follow but there’s no recovery from a faulty cup tie so we’ve got to have full concentration and be at our very best.

“I’ve looked at St Mirren in the last couple of games and they were the dominant side on Saturday although they lost the game.

“They had a heavy defeat to Celtic, they recovered and that is testament to the quality they’ve got in their team. We’ve got a game on that’s for sure. We’re in no doubt that it will be a difficult fixture.

“Each St Mirren player is comfortable in possession of the ball, they want to pass the ball and they defend bravely and stoutly. So it’s not going to be easy, and the players will be in no doubt this is a game which will require full focus and terrific energy.”

After struggling to score goals in the early part of the campaign – fans had to endure three consecutive 0-0 draws at Pittodrie – Aberdeen have now found the net in their past seven games.

And no one has discovered their scoring touch more than Niall McGinn. The Northern Ireland striker has scored in five successive matches, including in his country’s World Cup qualifying draw in Portugal earlier this month, and Brown is pinning his hopes on that run continuing against the Buddies.

Brown added: “Hopefully Niall will continue to score but he’s not just scoring. His movement is giving us space up front and he is creating. He went along the by-line brilliantly at Tannadice, he’s made a number of chances for others so at the moment Niall is hot and we hope he will stay that way.

“His attitude is so favourable that you can’t see him dipping. He won’t get carried away, he’s very level headed, and he’s a dream of a player to have because of his attitude.”