Stephen Robinson vows to ‘stay calm’ after 3-0 Aberdeen cup win over Dundee
Aberdeen boss Stephen Robinson promised to “stay calm” after his side cruised to a 3-0 win over Dundee to book a place in the quarter-finals of the Premier Sports Cup.
Captain Kevin Nisbet netted twice for the Dons, either side of debutant Mitchy Ntelo’s stunning drive into the top corner as Robinson’s men put last week’s defeat against the same opponents in the Scottish Premiership firmly behind them.
Robinson was happy with his side’s performance but is not about to get carried away with it.
“My job is to stay calm,” he said. “To not get too high when we win like today, and not to get too low when we don’t. It’s been that way at Aberdeen for too long, boom or bust.
“There wasn’t too much wrong, we’d won five games out of six before today and we’ve now won six from seven.
“It’s my job to remain calm in picking the team. Wholesale changes were not needed and we’ve proved that with the performance and the result.
“It was a good 90 minutes. We have to keep doing the simple things well. There’s lots from today’s game we can improve on and lots we can enjoy.”
Dundee manager Steven Pressley was also inclined to remain calm and realistic about his side’s defeat.
“I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome,” he said. “We came up here confident we could create an upset. I thought it was quite an even first half. It was a game where we had three good chances within that.
“Coming here and creating three good moments in the first half is good work. There were several things we needed to amend at half-time and we hoped we could come out and take the game to them. But we had a really poor 18-minute period in which Aberdeen scored the three goals.
“Aberdeen deserved the win and we’re obviously disappointed with that. I’m very real about the situation. I think everyone was getting really excited last week except me.
“The reality is that we’re going to get days like this. It’s part of the journey. There were a lot of good things today, but you have to give Aberdeen credit. We have to learn and improve from it.”
Dundee’s biggest concern will be the knee injury that forced striker Simon Murray off the field in the first half.