Robson won’t be distracted by Goodwin factor when Dons face United

Aberdeen caretaker manager Barry Robson insists facing his predecessor will be no distraction in Saturday’s clash with Dundee United.

Jim Goodwin has moved on quicker than the Dons following his sacking last month and will take charge of United for the first time on Saturday evening.

Robson has won two out of four matches since replacing Goodwin on an interim basis and is focused on the game rather than his opposite number in the dugout.

Robson said: “It won’t be strange for me, I have never come up against Jim Goodwin as a coach or anything like that. For me, it’s not strange at all.

“For Jim, it’s great. He has left a huge club and has managed to go straight back into a top club in Dundee United. For Jim, it has worked well for him and I am sure he is pleased.

“I have been in the game a long time, nothing surprises me. I have seen it all. I am pleased for Jim that he is back in at a great club. Good luck to him, obviously after the weekend.

“But it’s not been a distraction to me at all. I have been focused on making our team better.

“We are all excited about the game, the boys are looking sharp. That’s always been the focus for me.”

Robson is not concerned that Goodwin will have an inside track on his players.

“He will know all the players but I don’t think he will know all the stuff we have been working on the last three or four weeks,” he said. “We have been working on a few different ideas.

“Listen, any manager you come up against knows all the players, you play each other that much in the Scottish game. So I don’t think that’s a huge distraction for us.

“The things we have been working on, we have won a few games, we look sharper, we look more confident, braver on the ball, we look better in transition. That’s the thing I am concentrating on most of all.”

While United moved quickly to replace Liam Fox this week following six consecutive defeats, Aberdeen are taking their time as they seek a permanent successor to Goodwin.

New chief executive Alan Burrows started work on Monday but Robson’s dealings with the former Motherwell man have been largely based around his work as development phase manager.

“I sat down with Alan for about an hour last week,” the former Dundee United, Celtic and Aberdeen midfielder said.

“It was good, we got on well, (director of football operations) Steven Gunn was there as well. I have seen him a couple of times about the place.

“The thing we sat and spoke about most of all was, we have been building a model at the club for the last three or four years to put out to all the young coaches.

“He was intrigued about all the work that has been done. That’s been a lot of work over the last few years so we showed him everything we have been doing and he enjoyed it, he is quite pleased with all that.

“This club has been built on bringing young players through and 95 per cent of the conversation was about that.

“I know the first team is the most important part but there is a lot of things that need to be right underneath that to make the first team work.”

On the subject of the managerial vacancy, Robson said: “We spoke briefly and he said the board are putting names together and once we get all that put together we can maybe have another conversation then.

“That was all that was said and to be honest I didn’t want to speak about it, I just wanted to show him what we were doing and all the good stuff in the background.”