Jim Goodwin is feeling confident as he prepares to go back to where it all began for him as Aberdeen manager.
The Dons boss was appointed as Stephen Glass’ successor only hours before his side played out a 1-1 draw at Motherwell in February.
Goodwin returns to Fir Park this afternoon with a completely rebuilt side and with a spring in their step after securing a place in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals with a 4-1 midweek win against Partick Thistle.
Only two players who started Goodwin’s first game against Well – Ross McCrorie and Vicente Besuijen – were in the starting XI for the victory against the Jags which set up a January 15 showdown with Rangers at Hampden.
Goodwin said: “It’s been a big turnaround since I came in.
“I signed the contract hours before the game at Fir Park and it was straight into the mix.
“It seems like a long time ago as there have been drastic changes since then.
“There are a lot of new faces, 12 signings in the summer and we are going back to Fir Park in a better place mentally and as a squad.
“We are going there with a better opportunity of getting a better result.
“When I came in I felt we still had enough in the squad to close the gap on the teams in the top half.
“If we could have got into the top six then anything could have happened.
“But we didn’t and we didn’t get the reaction I hoped for and the season petered out.
“This season the group are new and fresh to it and a lot of them won’t have played at Motherwell before but they are looking forward to it.
“We have to do better on the road. We have won against St Johnstone and that’s not good enough with the group we have put together.
“We want to put that right in this game.”
Goodwin is encouraged by the firepower his players have shown this season as they bid to address their poor run of results away from home with only two wins in their last 23 away league matches.
The Dons have scored 40 goals in 16 games in all competitions this season – Celtic (45) are the only top flight team to have scored more.
Goodwin said: “We had a chat with the players and we shared stats with them about our goals.
“Sometimes you get people giving opinions and they see the game differently. I am a great believer in stats.
“They are facts and that’s not me making them feel good about themselves.
“We are doing the difficult part of scoring goals, particularly at home, really well.
“On the road we are creating chances but we haven’t been capitalising on it.
“We have conceded too many goals and been giving away too many opportunities and that’s something we are working on.
“Hopefully we can do that against Motherwell. Being organised defensively isn’t that hard a thing to do.
“Being creative and scoring is the most challenging thing, so we are doing the difficult part well now we have to make individual mistakes, make better decisions and hopefully that will all come to fruition.”
Goodwin is hopeful VAR will be a worthwhile addition to the Scottish game with video assistant referees used for the first time in the top flight this weekend.
The Dons boss added: “I’ve always been a big advocate of it. We’ve taken our time catching up with big leagues around Europe. Thankfully we’re there now, it’s ready and I’m delighted they’ve decided to bring it in now and not wait any longer.
“If the service is available then let’s get on with it because decisions could be made this weekend that could be very costly.
“If we have the system there ready to use then let’s get used to it and get referees used to using it and hopefully it will be a great benefit to everybody.
“I can think of two or three big decisions that have gone against us already, a couple of penalties we’ve been awarded against us I think VAR would have had a strong look at.
“I’m pretty sure every manager could have a handful of instances where VAR would have helped them. You could look at the flip side and there’s probably one or two that’s been in your favour.
“The most important thing is that the big decisions more often than not will be correct. There will be an element of opinion involved with every decision but the percentage refs get right will improve and that can only be a good thing.”
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