Dons share in Scottish renaissance

Aberdeen FC completed a tremendous week for Scottish football progressing to the group stages of the UEFA Cup following their 1-1 draw with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.

Scottish renaissance
After Rangers FC and Celtic FC inflicted rare defeats on Olympique Lyonnais and UEFA Champions League holders AC Milan earlier this week, Darren Mackie's first half strike in Ukraine ensured a hat-trick of success for Scottish teams in Europe. On the back of the national side's 1-0 win over France at the Parc des Princes last month, Dons manager Jimmy Calderwood claims Scotland is undergoing a footballing renaissance.

Taken inspiration
"It's a great result for Scottish football and a great result for us at the end of a great week," said Dons manager Jimmy Calderwood. "It started when Walter [Smith] took over the national squad. Alex [McLeish] has taken it on and now our clubs side are reaping the benefits. Gordon [Strachan] and Walter had two tremendous results this week and we've now done our bit. We took inspiration from those performances and we're so glad to be through. Scottish football is on a high at the moment and hopefully our coefficient will go up and we might get another team in the UEFA Cup."

Career high
For Calderwood last night's result marks a personal high water mark and the affable coach is now looking forward to leading Aberdeen back into European football proper for the first time in five seasons. "Taking Dunfermline [Athletic FC] into Europe by getting to the Scottish Cup final [in 2004] and then Aberdeen last season after finishing third in the league was great," added Calderwood. "But winning against a team of this quality is definitely the biggest achievement of my career."

Tense finale
Mackie who scored his 50th goal for the club admitted he could barely bring himself to watch the closing the stages after being substituted but was delighted his first goal of the season proved to be so significant after Andriy Vorobey had equalised for the home side 14 minutes from time. "When I came off I couldn't watch the last ten minutes," said Mackie. "I was standing there shouting and when they added on four minutes I was just hoping it would hurry up. Lady luck smiled on us a few times when they hit the woodwork but we're delighted to be in the next round. The whole of Scottish football has had a great week with the Old Firm and now we've added to it."