It is hard to say goodbye but Paul Sheerin insists the standards set by Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty will be their legacy at Aberdeen.
Sheerin, who was brought back to Pittodrie as coach by McInnes in 2014, finds himself thrust into the spotlight after being put in charge of first team affairs alongside Barry Robson and Neil Simpson following the management team’s dismissal on Monday.
Sheerin is sad to see the duo depart and it is clear he is not the only one but he believes the best way to show their respect is by ensuring Aberdeen’s season is not allowed to peter out.
The Dons coach said: “The standards are huge at Aberdeen, Derek and Tony have always demanded that.
“When I was a player at St Johnstone, they came in and brought the standards up and they arguably set the standards at St Johnstone to what are there now, they are part of that grounding.
“Hopefully whatever happens next those standards will be kept, and it will be part of Derek and Tony’s legacy.
“The players have built up relationships with Derek and Tony over the years, they signed almost every single one of them.
“From that point of view, it is tough, but all of the players will pull together.
“The staff will all pull together. Everybody wants what is best for the club, and that is what we want to achieve.”
The dust is still settling on what has been a difficult few days at Pittodrie and the bonds built following their period working together will not be broken easily.
But Sheerin knows there is little time to mourn the end of the McInnes-Docherty era with six vital league matches left for the club to try to overturn Hibernian’s three point lead in the race for third place.
The first task, however, is addressing the issue of having scored only one goal in the last nine matches.
Sheerin said: “We won’t be making any hugely dramatic changes. We know what we need to do.
“We knew what we needed to do for a few weeks, and it is something that we have worked continuously on in training but for whatever reason it has just not happened on a matchday.
“We will continue to strive to be better and break this duck and start scoring goals. It is obviously important, you need it to win games; that is stating the obvious.
There won’t be wholesale changes in the way that we approach things and we have mentioned that to the players. Hopefully they will be responsive to the little things that we do change.”
On McInnes and Docherty’s departure and being asked to take over on an interim basis Sheerin added: “Personally, I am gutted. Derek and Tony brought me into the club seven years ago and gave me the opportunity of working in full-time football again.
“It is the first time I have experienced this as a member of staff but I have experienced it as a player.
“Both of them are brilliant people.
“You don’t just build up working relationships over eight years, you build up friendships as well. I feel that my family and the two of their families have built up a relationship over the past few years as well.
“You can tell that everybody feels it around the club. They are brilliant at what they do. They have consistently delivered results for this football club.
“The board have mentioned to me about being in charge until the end of the season but obviously the process for a new manager has started so I realise that could all change at any moment, it is part and parcel of what we are doing.
“I will just do what I am asked until I am told differently and to the best of my ability and hopefully it is good enough.”
