Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin praised the character of his side as they came from two goals down to earn a point against Dundee United in an entertaining 2-2 William Hill Premiership draw.
United had taken advantage of set-pieces to lead at the break through headers from Vicko Sevelj and Sam Dalby, but the Dons were dominant after the interval and Kevin Nisbet netted a fine double to pull Thelin’s men level.
“Some parts of the performance in the first half were quite good, but we lost soft goals and we know we have to do better to avoid these situations,” said the manager.
“We talked at half-time about what we needed to do, and to never give in or give up. The way we came together to push until the last second, I’m so proud of that character the team showed, and it’s going to be so important to keep that going for the rest of the season.
“When you go 2-0 down in the first half, you have to take the positives. It was an important point today, and how the game went in the first half and how we reacted to it shows a lot about this team.”
United boss Jim Goodwin admitted the changes made by Thelin at the interval were key to the outcome of the game, saying: “To lose the equaliser in the 93rd minute like we did, having defended the box so well all afternoon, I thought the two centre-backs were outstanding.
“I can’t have too many complaints about the final score – I thought Aberdeen were excellent in the second half and I think you can see with the changes they can make, they have real quality throughout the squad.
“Jimmy Thelin had to gamble being two goals down, and they put a lot of attacking players on the pitch. For the majority we coped with it, unfortunately we just couldn’t see it out to the end.
“Three games in a week is a tough ask for this particular group of players given how low we are on numbers. We’re a man light in the squad today and have key players missing. We’ve had to ask Craig Sibbald to start for us having been out for the best part of four months.”
