Jimmy Thelin reveals reason for Dimitar Mitov missing Celtic and why Aberdeen understudy Ross Doohan got nod

The Aberdeen manager surprised many when the teamsheet came out from Celtic Park on Tuesday night

Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin admitted he erred on the side of caution by leaving Dimitar Mitov out of the defeat to Celtic.

The Bulgarian, who has just got over an injury, came back at the weekend and kept a clean sheet in the weekend win over Kilmarnock. Thelin then put Ross Doohan back between the sticks for Tuesday night’s 5-1 defeat at Parkhead.

The Swede explained: “He had an injury before and he had only trained for one week. We didn’t want to get like last time where he came back too early and then he got another injury. He is on schedule but Ross had also been doing well so those and that was part of the decision.”

Thelin knows the importance of Sunday’s home clash with Dundee United. Jim Goodwin’s side, who play Hibs this evening, are just one point behind the Dons in fourth place. The Dons boss acknowledged: “It is going to be a really important game for us and we have to recover and look to that one.”

The Aberdeen boss was pleased with the chances his team created at Celtic but was disappointed that his side didn’t take more of them. Thelin also acknowledged that there were points also where his players were too soft.

“It is tough to lose 5-1,” the former Elfsborg boss stated. “They (Celtic) are good but the numbers got away far too much. We have to recover now and focus on the next game.

“The good thing for us is that we played in a difficult away game and got good chances in the first half. We were too soft in areas of the pitch when they scored.

“We have to keep growing and learning. The number of chances we created, we need to take some of those chances. We are going to grow from this game. It is hard right now but we have another important game at home to Dundee United and take the learning points from this game.”

Thelin knows the Celtic game was a learning point against a top team. Thelin, talking to RedTV, explained: “How we created the chances in the first half and how we arrived there is one part of the team but we have some areas where we lost the ball and they have a transition and they scored directly.

“We need to improve this part and to get an extra five per cent in the duel, where and when can we lose the ball? “We need to take those small mistakes from our game.

”They (Celtic) don’t make so many mistakes and when we do they hurt us directly. We had opportunities from transitions also but we didn’t get the shot (away), we waited too long or hesitated too much. Once we have stronger belief in those sorts of moments we will grow as a team.”