Barry Robson says Aberdeen ‘won’t bother’ with freezing conditions v HJK because Scottish weather is just as bad
BARRY ROBSON is confident Aberdeen won’t freeze in blizzard-hit Helsinki - because the weather in Scotland has been just as bad.
Temperatures are forecast to plummet to minus seven tomorrow evening, with a windchill factor driving the mercury SEVENTEEN below.
HJK believe home advantage will count for plenty as they bid to get their first Conference League win on the board.
But Robson insists the blizzards will be no different to what the Dons trained in at Cormack Park just hours before flying to Finland.
He said: “If I’m going to be honest we did our match prep at Cormack Park this morning and I think that would have been minus three or four with the wind at Westhill coming in too.
“So I don’t think it will be anything different to what we are used to. It certainly won’t bother us, we’re pretty used to bad weather!
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“Are Helsinki a better team at home? Maybe. But I think they are a good team all the time and you saw that at Pittodrie with the way they moved the ball.
“They are strong at home, they are probably more used to playing on the astro compared to some of the teams they’ve had here.
“We are probably a bit more used to it than others because we go to Kilmarnock and Livingston in our league.
“But we know it’s going to be a difficult game regardless of the surface.
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“They’ve not played for three or four weeks but that can work in their favour.
“We are probably the opposite to them as we have played a lot of games.
“They have a season behind them, so it can work both ways. It will be a good game and tough.”
It will be HJK’s title-winning coach Toni Korkeakunnas’ final home match in charge, while Finnish legend Perparim Hetemaj will also play his last match in front of their fans.
They expect it to be near a 10,000 sellout but Robson is confident his men won’t be sidetracked by the emotional farewells for the opposition.
He said: “All we can do is try to play well, we are not focused on the things they have going on.
“Our focus is on our supporters and putting points on the board because we feel we should have more by this stage.
“It’s really important and we’ve spoken about it. I thought we were really good in the game against Helsinki last time.
“The performances have been good, we’ve gone toe-to-toe with big clubs who have a lot of finance behind them.
“We are trying our best at the minute as a team and as a club.
“We had a big rebuild in the summer, brought in a lot of new players some who had played at this level and others who haven’t.
“The big thing for us is we’ve learned a lot and will only improve for getting that experience.
“The more you play in these games the better you get. Hopefully we will see that tomorrow.”
Robson has been critical of VAR decisions this season, with several contentious calls at home and in Europe.
But the Dons boss refused to be drawn on plans to extend the reach of video officials to corners, free kicks and yellow cards.
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He said: “I haven’t read it, I would need to sit down, look at it and see what it entails.
“We have been preparing for this match so I haven’t seen much about it.”
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