Aberdeen’s high-flying squad will jet off to Atlanta today to take stock of the first half of the season and refresh themselves in the Georgia sunshine in readiness for the second phase of a Premiership campaign that sees them sit comfortably in third place.
And one of the big talking points manager Jim Goodwin and his squad will discuss will be how to improve on away form that has been less than impressive with just three wins in twenty-nine games stretching back to last season.
It’s an issue Ross McCrorie expects to be high on the agenda when the Dons settle-in at their week-long training camp in the southern state of the US where they have a tie-up with MLS club Atlanta United.
“There is no dodging the fact that the away form hasn’t been good enough,” the Reds defender admitted, “but that’s what the break’s for.
"We can train as a team and tidy up small details. Hopefully, we can come back with a lot better away form.
“The home form has been brilliant this season and the backing of the fans has been tremendous.”
Aberdeen’s 1-0 win over Dundee United, courtesy of a second-half penalty by Bojan Miovski, attracted 17,000 fans for the Saturday evening fixture at Pittodrie which kicked-off at 6pm.
McCrorie added: "The home form has been great. A lot of teams will fear coming up here, but that’s just down to the hard work we put in on the training pitch and the way the gaffer sets us out as a team.
"We like to put on a show for the fans and the attacking style of play is great.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half and had plenty of chances. The second half was a bit scrappy. We defended more and Dundee United are a good team, who came at us. But I thought we defended very well and the clean sheet was well deserved.
“The end goal, our target, was top three, top four. But we take each game as it comes and there are plenty of games still to play and a lot of things can still happen.
"We have got a semi-final to look forward to as well in January. When we come back, we’ve got two games against the Old Firm, so there are a lot of big games coming up.
"A lot of things can happen in the second half of the season and we’re looking forward to it.”
So, might we expect a meaningful challenge to Celtic and Rangers be on the cards? Or is third place in the Premiership the height of Aberdeen’s ambition? McCrorie wasn’t keen to engage with such questions.
“I’m not getting into that, mate,” was his reply. “Look, on our day I think we can give anyone a game. But you’ve got to have respect for Rangers and Celtic and what they’ve done over the years. They are two very good teams.
“Rangers were European finalists last year and Celtic have played Champions League, too.
“‘I’m not going to get into challenging them.”
Such issues will not trouble Steven Fletcher whose recent performances for Dundee United, particularly in their 4-0 win over Kilmarnock last Wednesday, have been exceptional.
Still, the Arabs general form has been substandard and inconsistent, hence their position at the base of the league table.
“We are not stupid,” said the former Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday front man. We are sitting in a situation where we are bottom of the league.
“We are not going to sit here and say it is all rosy, but if we start to panic then it won’t go away. We need the World Cup break to reset, take the positives, especially from the three games we played last week.
“All the results didn’t go our way but the one against Killie showed that if we start games positively then things can change.”
