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Page last updated at 18:29 GMT, Saturday, 13 November 2010

McGhee wants to reward long-suffering Aberdeen fans

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee
McGhee's Aberdeen have won three league games all season

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee believes his team need to start rewarding their fans after four successive defeats.

McGhee has been under pressure since a 9-0 thrashing by Celtic and described his side's performance in their latest loss to Rangers as "ordinary".

"The crowd again were fantastic," said McGhee after the 2-0 defeat at Ibrox.

"We eventually will have to give them something back. That's why we'll be on the training ground working every day to make sure we improve."

The Dons are just one point above the Scottish Premier League's relegation spot and McGhee survived in his job this week after coming under severe scrutiny in the wake of defeats to St Mirren, Celtic and Inverness.

"Maybe coming here there was a little bit of pressure off because not anyone expects too much of us here, regardless of what we thought," McGhee told BBC Scotland.

"It's given us a bit of breathing space before we go into a run of games where we now start to think about winning points; St Johnstone at home, Kilmarnock.

"These are all teams that are above us. They're all teams that are doing really, really well. We must start to claw them back now.

"We're fed up talking. I'm all talked out. But there'll be hard work on the training ground.

"We will break down every individual performance and we will talk about the aspects of the performance where we think they can improve as individuals, we'll work with them as a unit; the back four, the midfield, down one side, down the other side, the forwards.

"With a view to playing St Johnstone, we'll give them every bit of information we can find about St Johnstone, every help we can possibly give them and to prepare them for the St Johnstone game, starting on Monday morning.

"I know that there is improvement to come in this team and there's improvement to come over the season with the people we've got to come back, so it's full steam ahead."

Goalkeeper Jamie Langfield saved a first-half penalty and made several other fine stops to keep the score down at Ibrox.

"I've had no real issues about spirit or anything like that," added McGhee.

Jamie Langfield was back at his best again and you need a goalkeeper at his best when the team's under the sort of pressure that we're coming under defensively

Mark McGhee

"Again, we came here and the spirit was alright. But the performance was ordinary. With the team we had out there today, regardless of what we have to bring on, the 11 that started have more than they showed.

"We set them up early on in a 4-5-1 and it became a defensive stance in the first half, which was never intended. That was because we didn't really work hard enough at running in the other direction. We conceded ground too quickly, we went too deep and we invited pressure onto ourselves.

"As individuals and as a unit, we can do better than we've done today. But that's what we're here trying to achieve, we're trying to get better.

"If they score (the penalty), you don't know how it might affect the confidence. We felt 'something's got to give and maybe Jamie is due to save one'. He's getting practice at them.

"Jamie Langfield was back at his best again and you need a goalkeeper at his best when the team's under the sort of pressure that we're coming under defensively. He was back to his best again and we're obviously pleased with that."



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see also
Rangers 2-0 Aberdeen
13 Nov 10 |  Scottish Premier
McGhee did not consider leaving
12 Nov 10 |  Aberdeen
McGhee to remain Aberdeen manager
11 Nov 10 |  Aberdeen


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