JIM GOODWIN insists his new-look Aberdeen side are heading into tomorrow's cinch Premiership clash with Livingston full of confidence after their win at St Johnstone last weekend ended an eight-month wait for a top-flight victory on the road for the Pittodrie side.
Leighton Clarkson's stunning 25-yard free-kick was enough to claim three Premiership points away from home for the first time since another 1-0 win at the same venue back on December 11 last year.
The Pittodrie manager also praised the club's board for allowing him to get the vast majority of transfer business done, including match-winner Clarkson who arrived on loan from Liverpool, well in advance of the window closing on Wednesday night.
And now the Irishman is targeting greater consistency of results to match the performances he feel his group are producing.
Despite two wins from their first four Premiership matches so far this season, Aberdeen have not won back-to-back top-flight fixtures since that last victory over St Johnstone in December.
But with the feel-good factor returning to the Pittodrie ranks, Goodwin is confident of building on the hard-fought win in Perth when David Martindale's side arrive in the north east tomorrow..
“There is a good atmosphere around the place," said Goodwin, whose only fitness concerns are the injured Connor Barron and Callum Roberts.
“The boys are in a buoyant mood as you would imagine off the back of a first win on the road for a helluva long time for this club.
“We are pleased to get three points at what has always been a very difficult place to go for a lot of teams. Very rarely do St Johnstone get turned over significantly on their own patch.
“We were delighted to win the game and we need that little bit of quality from Leighton to do it but we had numerous opportunities to add to the single goal we managed to get.
“Three points on the road is good in this league because it is always very difficult. As a manager, you are grateful to get it and the performance was also very pleasing.”
While Goodwin admitted he is thrilled with the recruitment business he has managed to pull of over the summer, with 11 players arriving at the club while 15 have gone the other way, the Aberdeen manager insisted there may be more players to come through the door at Pittodrie before the window closes next week.
On the club's transfer dealings, Goodwin said: “Everyone deserves credit for that from the director of football to the head of recruitment.
"We have worked tirelessly since I came in in February to strengthen positions that I felt we needed to strengthen. There are not many teams who have done as much business as we have. It is important to remember that we let 15 go – 15 out and 11 in – and I couldn’t be any happier with what we have done. There is still a week left in the window and there will be probably a few going out the way and hopefully one more in.
“We are talking to a few at the moment but there is no panic from our end. You tend to see a lot of teams in the last two or three days scrambling about to find key positions which always baffles me when I see that happening, especially with professional clubs when they have had so long to get their business done.
"We are in a good position. If we get the one in that we want then great, if not we are in a good enough position.
Asked whether a permanent deal for Liam Scales, who is currently on load at Pittodrie from Celtic, could be a possibility, Goodwin replied: “No chance just now. Definitely not.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here