Dundee United captain Jon Daly believes Craig Brown is already working his magic on Aberdeen but wants the Tangerines to break the spell when they travel up to Pittodrie.
Two successive victories against Hibs and Hamilton have done the trick for the Dons now that the former Motherwell manager has settled into his new role.
However, United played some great stuff themselves when drawing 2-2 at Easter Road on Wednesday night, only being undone by Hibs when reduced to 10 men following Danny Swanson’s red card.
Daly, who played as an emergency centre-half in midweek, can expect to be back in an attacking role as Garry Kenneth returns to the heart of the backline after serving his one-match suspension.
Swanson will be missing after his daft ordering-off but Daly hopes the Tannadice men will have enough to cope with the Brown “bounce” on Saturday.
“It is going to be tough,” said Daly.
“Aberdeen have got a new manager in and that usually gives a club a lift. It certainly seems to be working for them.
“Craig Brown did well at Motherwell and appears to be having a good effect on Aberdeen already.
“So it won’t be easy but you saw in our play for most of the game at Easter Road that we can trouble teams and we will be confident about going up there.”
Daly revealed he liked playing at the back against Hibs, despite suffering along with his team-mates when John Hanlon grabbed a last-gasp leveller for the home side.
“I enjoyed it and I thought we were quite comfortable most of the time,” he said.
“It was an experience and if the manager wants me to play there again I would be more than happy to do so.
“As a striker, you have an idea what the forward is going to do and can anticipate things.
“I also enjoyed being alongside Sean Dillon, who has plenty of experience and helped talk me through the match.”
Swanson was heavily criticised by manager Peter Houston for leaving United in the lurch and Daly revealed the midfielder had said sorry to his team-mates.
“Just before Swanny got sent off I thought we were looking really comfortable and couldn’t see them scoring, unless it was from a set-play,” said Daly.
“Obviously, the red card gave Hibs a massive lift and we had to try to contain them but it just wasn’t to be. There was a bit of an onslaught to be honest.
“Having been 2-0 up in the game, we came off at the end feeling like we had been defeated.
“We had enough chances in the first half to be three or four up and maybe there was just a bit of rustiness about us and to concede in the last couple of minutes was hard to take.
“He (Swanson) was obviously upset and he has apologised to the lads.
“I think the first booking was a reckless challenge and had he not won the ball it would have been a straight red.
“He was just on the park and maybe he had a rush of blood and needs to learn not to go into tackles like that.
“The second yellow (the handball) it was one of those things.
“We are now down to the bare bones, as you can appreciate with me playing centre- back.
“Swanny is a big player for us. He has just come back from injury but now we are going to have to do without him again.”VictoriesCraig Brown has urged his Aberdeen players not to let their home support down after treating their travelling fans to consecutive victories.
Scott Vernon’s injury-time goal earned Aberdeen a 1-0 victory at Hamilton on Wednesday in front of almost 1300 visiting supporters.
Brown and Archie Knox have already taken more points in two games since arriving from Motherwell than their team accumulated in the previous 14.
Aberdeen had not kept a clean sheet or won consecutive Clydesdale Bank Premier League games since August, and Brown has implored his players to spread some cheer to the Pittodrie fans when Dundee United visit.
Brown said, “The fans can’t be delighted with the performance but they can be delighted with the attitude of the players, the organisation and determination.
“The Dundee United game will be a very good one, I hope, and we don’t want to let the fans down at home.
“There will be so many sitting at home saying, ‘We couldn’t get to Edinburgh, we couldn’t get to Hamilton, so we’ll go and see them this time.’
“So the message is quite clear to our guys -don’t disappoint the bigger support.
“I’m hoping we can replicate what we did at Motherwell. That was very fortunate, we went 12 (SPL) games unbeaten there, but that’s getting greedy.”
Aberdeen will be without Nikola Vujadinovic against United after the defender limped off with a hamstring injury.
Brown said, “His loan from Udinese is up in January. We still hope to extend it but he’s got an injury. I’m not a physiotherapist but it will be two or three games, I would guess.”
Aberdeen have been dealt a massive blow with the news that influential skipper Paul Hartley has picked up a one-match ban.
His booking in the victory over Hamilton was his fifth of the season and, combined with his red card in the 9-0 hammering from former club Celtic last month, took him over the SFA’s disciplinary points threshold.
The 34-year-old will now miss the crucial home clash on January 15 with St Mirren, who lie level on points with the Dons but one place above in 10th spot on goal difference.
The Young Arabs coaching session scheduled for January 15 at Gussie Park has been cancelled due to the weather.