Aberdeen attacker Connor McLennan has urged fans to pack out Pittodrie and roar the Dons into the group stages of the Conference League.
Stephen Glass’ side returned home from Azerbaijan in the early hours of Friday morning following a gruelling 1-0 loss to Qarabag in Baku.
With the return leg to come on Thursday, McLennan hopes the Red Army will be out in force for the biggest European game the club has played in more than a decade.
He said: “We’ll be more than ready to go back to Pittodrie in front of our fans next week. “We’ll need every single one of them.
“We’re disappointed to come away with a defeat as we were going to win the game.
“We haven’t done that, but it’s not the worst result in the world.
“We don’t need to worry about away goals – we just need to outscore them.
“We’ll go into it as we go into every game – to win.”
The heat of Baku was the least of Aberdeen’s concerns as the much-maligned surface at Tofiq Bahramov Stadium lived up to its pre-match billing by hampering both sides in their efforts to play anything remotely close to passing football.
It was farcical at times and McLennan is struggling to recall a worse pitch he has played on in his career.
He said: “I would say it’s right up there (with the worst parks played on).
“It was an absolute brilliant stadium to come and play at, but the pitch was definitely one of the worst I’ve seen.
“We were all pretty fatigued by the end because of it. We got the water break which helped a bit.
“The conditions were difficult. We were expecting the heat, but the pitch wasn’t what we were used to. It took us a bit of time to get into the game.
“You could see in the first half it was just cutting up under the boys. I felt it myself when I came on.
“Some of our players were changing their studs as it was cutting up that much.
“We obviously got a feel of it in training the night before the game, but it’s not until you are in an actual match environment that you can really get used to it.”
Dons wait for news on Considine’s injury
The poor condition of the pitch also cost the Dons a key player as defender Andy Considine was stretchered off with a knee injury after just 10 minutes.
Aberdeen are awaiting a prognosis on how severe the injury is and McLennan believes the poor surface contributed to his team-mate’s early exit.
He said: “We’ve come away having lost one of our main players. I don’t know if that happens on a better pitch. It’s really gutting for Andy.
“He’s not in a great way as he’s on crutches right now. But he’s in high spirits.
“You’d probably be better asking Andy that (if the pitch caused the injury), but in my opinion I don’t think it would have helped at all.”
Attention turns to Tynecastle
The weary Dons will hit the road again this weekend as they face Hearts at Tynecastle in a top of the table clash in Edinburgh.
Only three teams have won their opening two matches in the Premiership and with two of them going head to head in the capital, something has to give.
Dons boss Glass has rotated his squad between domestic and European games and McLennan would not be surprised to see the policy continue on Sunday.
He said: “It’s where squad depth comes into it. You look at our bench on Thursday and there was a lot of talent there, a lot of good young boys and senior pros.
“We’ve regularly been in Europe, so we are used to this situation. It’s what we want,
“We want to keep going and get to the group stage.
“It is tough playing Thursday-Sunday, and coming away this far, but it’s exactly what we want.”
Championship winners Hearts have started brightly with two wins from two, but McLennan is looking forward to the return to Tynecastle following the Jambos’ promotion from the Championship.
He said: “We haven’t been to Tynecastle in a wee while, so everyone is buzzing for the game.
“They are a team who will believe they can be right up there. They are a very good squad themselves.
“I think everyone knows the talent there is in the league this year throughout all the teams.
“Every game is really tough. We’ll go out and try to win the game.
“The league is stronger, but it is healthy competition and that’s what you want.
“But we’ve got the squad to do really well this year. We’ll just concentrate on ourselves and take every game as it comes to get the wins.”
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