SCOTT BROWN has shrugged off an accusation of being an “acclaimed bully” in the wake of Aberdeen’s 5-3 aggregate victory over Breidablik in the Europa Conference League.
The Dons took control of the tie in the first leg, securing a 3-2 victory in Iceland before following that up with a 2-1 win in the reverse fixture at Pittodrie, setting up a clash with Azerbaijani champions Qarabag in the play-off round.
However, furious Breidablik coach Oskar Hrafn Thorvaldsson accused Brown and goalkeeper Joe Lewis of barging into the home side’s dressing room in the immediate aftermath of the match in Reykjavik.
Thorvaldsson claimed the two players “yelled some ugly and disrespectful comments” and labelled them as “childish”, singling out Brown as “one of the most acclaimed bullies”.
“Scott Brown can say what he wants, but he can’t try and come into our locker room and try to abuse our players,” he added.
The 35-year-old midfielder was back in action for the Dons on Sunday and came off the bench in the 2-1 defeat to Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park, and breezily dismissed the accusations from Thorvaldsson.
“I thought his comments were a little bit ridiculous,” Brown said, “But he obviously didn't like me saying that to him.
“He said I was a bully. That's life.”
With Thursday’s Europa Conference League play-off with Qarabag looming, Brown reckons the European clash will provide Aberdeen with a platform to respond to Sunday’s disappointing defeat.
He has previously locked horns with the same opponents during his time at Celtic but he doesn’t believe he has the inside track on the Azerbaijani champions. Having last played against them six years ago, he reckons Thursday’s opponents will be an altogether different beast from the team he faced.
Brown recalled: “It was warm! It's a different team from I played against them because there are a lot of Brazilian players in their team when we played them.
“We need a good result over there and we need to keep the tie alive so we can bring them back to Scotland and show them how we can play and us get back to playing proper football at a good tempo too.
“There was a crowd of about 22,000 or something and there was a good atmosphere. The pitch was soft, but they were a good team who wanted to play football and it was a good battle too.
“If you want to get into the group stages then you are going to have to play against and beat good teams and that's what Qarabag are.
“You have to deal with all the issues. We need to decide whether we are staying in our time or moving to local time, that's up to the manager.
“It was a disappointing result at Raith Rovers, but we have a lot of hours to reflect on that on the flight and watch the game back.
“It's a huge game for us. We have to forget about next Sunday's game too and focus only on Qarabag. It's going to be a huge game for us – every game will be for us until the international break.”
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