Devlin urges Dons to improve Parkhead performance

Nicky Devlin is urging Aberdeen to bring their Parkhead second-half performance to Hampden on Saturday.

The Dons are heading into the semi-finals of the League Cup after beating Rangers in midweek to stay alongside Celtic at the Premiership summit and have made it 15 wins and a draw under new boss Jimmy Thelin.

They now have the chance to move closer to silverware and right-back Devlin cited the recent second-half comeback at Celtic Park where the Dons fought back from 2-0 down to salvage a draw.

“We showed last time against Celtic that we can score goals against them,” the Scotland cap said ruefully.

“We have to bring that second-half performance against Celtic from the start because I think the first half against Celtic wasn’t great.

“I probably let them put too much on the line. They scored a few goals. So we know we have to keep a little tighter at the back against them.

“But we know we have goals in the team.

“To be honest, I think come Saturday, if we want to go through, we’ll probably have to put in a 90-minute performance or 120, whatever it is.

“I don’t think we can be as poor in the first half as we were at Parkhead. Again, we have to be better at that.”