Under-pressure Jim Goodwin admits he’s living on borrowed time and faces a major task in getting the Aberdeen fans and board back on side.
The struggling boss thanked the club’s directors for giving him another chance because he knows it would have been easy to sack him after Monday’s Scottish Cup fiasco at Darvel. Goodwin, who takes his team to Hibs on Saturday, has been given a short-term reprieve and he knows unless he starts to put wins on the board, he will pay the price.
The manager said: “I am grateful to the board of directors for giving me this opportunity on Saturday. It would have been easy to sack me, that would be the easy option. They’ve shown great belief in me in bringing me to the club in the first place and I’ve had great support from the board in order to make the kind of changes we have made behind the scenes and on the park.
“I’m grateful to them for giving me another chance to try and put things right.
“We are all in agreement that things need to change and change quickly. We have been on a poor run of results since the World Cup break.
“It is not acceptable for a squad of this quality and a club of this size to be on the run we are on There is no time limit put on this but there is a real onus on us turning things around quickly.
“Right now, as far as I’m concerned, for my situation it’s game by game. Simple as that.
“We have got to go to Easter Road and put on a performance that shows we want to make amends.”
Goodwin was brought in from St Mirren by chairman Dave Cormack in a six-figure deal almost 11 months ago. He failed to bring the ‘new manager bounce’ at the end of last season but his summer rebuild did look to be reaping rewards, when they went into the World Cup break in third.
Since then the team has gone into freewill, winning just one game and crashing out of both cups. The last two games saw them thrashed 5-0 at rivals Hearts and then lost 1-0 at Darvel – the worst result in Aberdeen’s long history.
Goodwin knows it is no longer about words but him and his team walking the walk and proving the doubters wrong with many fans questioning why their manager is still in a job. He stated defiantly: “I suppose it’s just a case of wanting to prove to people I have what it takes to succeed here at this club.
“I have never shirked a challenge in my life during my playing career and managerial career. When you’re going through that difficult period, that’s when you find out a lot about yourself and you find out a lot about other people as well.
“You find out about those who are really with you and really want you to do well. There has been a lot of soul searching and honest conversations. But I do still believe I am the man to take this club forward.
“I have a lot of people to convince at the moment. I have to try to get the supporters back on side and try to restore some pride in their club.
“I have to show that the decision made by the board in terms of my appointment was the right one. I’m determined as ever to go prove that to people.”
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