Source: FOOTYMAD
Hibs And Aberdeen Plan For Next Season
With nothing to play for, Colin Calderwood and Craig Brown used the game to get some fringe players involved. Colin Calderwood was disappointed by what his side delivered in terms of performance as they won 1-0 against Aberdeen at PIttodrie. Akpo Sodje scored the only goal of the game after 15 minutes, but Calderwood was disappointed with the lack of urgency his side showed from then on. The result moved Hibs five points clear of the Dons who will both finish in the bottom six of the SPL. Boh managers took the opportunity to blood some young players as they look to build for next season.Calderwood said: "I'm pleased with the opening period of the game. We got ourselves into the ascendancy, had some nice phases of play and got ourselves the goal, but we were poor after that That was quite annoying really. The players looked like they were happy just to get through the game and hope that was enough, but we have to show a bit more desire. This is all about improvement, and every time we step on the pitch we've got to see thing that are better. In games where it's difficult we've got to cope better, but that was a game where you could drive on. We had control of periods of the game and found ourselves missing chances in the second half, but Aberdeen could have levelled from anything in the box. League position is irrelevant to a certain degree, but I'm looking at attitude and performance of players. We looked very leggy and tired."The former Scotland defender confirmed Derek Riordan had missed the game through injury, adding: "Derek missed training yesterday with a thigh knock. He couldn't train yesterday. I felt to travel on the bus and maybe come off the bench today was unrealistic, so we'll focus on getting him ready for next week." Aberdeen manager Craig Brown was also keen to look for positives after watching his side continue a poor run of form with another loss. However, he was heartened by the performance of his young side, and the way they continued to create chances right to the death. He said "It was a bit unfortunate, but that's been the story of recent games, where we've had a lot of the ball and a lot of possession but we've not taken our chances. The positive from that is, though, that both sides had half a team of under-21 players in their starting line-ups. I thought it was very good to see. Both teams started with five under-21s. We had another five on the bench and Hibs had another one. In terms of looking ahead, both of us are trying to introduce young players and I think that's a positive."From his own side's point of view, Brown was heartened by the performance if disappointed by the end result. He said: "We created a number of chances, and hit the woodwork three times. It was the old story. One of our lads made a mistake to lose possession and we lost a goal because of it. We made a couple of mistakes and were punished. Hibs made a couple of mistakes and weren't. Chris Maguire's hit the post twice and we've hit the bar as well. If we weren't creating these chances I'd be concerned. I'm not happy we lost the game, but every statistic is favouring Aberdeen except the result. We've got to encourage the lads to continue, and the breaks will come."
