Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin has hailed the travelling Red Army for making away days feel like playing at Pittodrie.
The Dons were cheered on by a massive 2,174 strong travelling support in the 1-1 draw with Ross County at the weekend.
Supporters snapped up the allocation for the trip to Dingwall just four days after an eight-hour round trip to Annan Athletic.
Dedicated supporters also sold out the entire allocation for that Premier Sports Cup tie at League 2 Annan.
Goodwin insists his summer signings have been blown away by the strength of the club’s travelling support.
The Red Army have bought the entire away allocation in five of the six games on the road this season.
In the other game, 3,000 travelled to St Johnstone all during a cost of living crisis that will be hitting the finances of every supporter.
Goodwin said: “I have to give huge credit to our travelling support.
“The new signings have never experienced this before.
“They couldn’t quite believe that there were more than 2,000 Aberdeen fans up at Ross County.
“It felt like a home game yet again.
“I recently added up the numbers and in the last six away games we have had nearly 10,000 Aberdeen fans travel on the road with us.
“We have sold out pretty much every allocation that an opposition team has given us.”
👏🏼 The travelling Red Army:
Peterhead – 1500 – Sold out
Stirling Albion – 1500 – Sold out
Celtic – 750 – Sold out
St Johnstone – 3000
Annan Athletic – 1000 – Sold out
Ross County – 2100 – Sold outCOYR! #StandFree pic.twitter.com/V3nOVgy9CJ
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) September 2, 2022
Almost 10,000 fans on the road so far
Aberdeen have been cheered on by 9,924 supporters in the six games on the road in all competitions so far this season.
The ticket allocation for the Premier Sports Cup group ties away at Peterhead (2-0 win) and Stirling Albion (5-0 win) were both 1,500.
Aberdeen supporters snapped them all up.
The ticket allocation of just 750, for 60,411 capacity Parkhead, was sold out for the Premiership opener at Celtic (2-0 loss).
Then 3,000 travelled to Perth for the league clash (1-0 win) with St Johnstone.
Despite an eight-hour round journey on a Tuesday evening, all 1,000 tickets were sold for the away trip at Annan Athletic.
Aberdeen needed extra-time before triumphing 4-1 against the part-timers in the League Cup clash.
Then just four days later, the die-hard Dons support sold out their allocation for the six-hour round trip to Dingwall.
Supporters deserved to see victory
Goodwin was disappointed he could not reward the supporters with a victory against Ross County.
Aberdeen went 1-0 up courtesy of a sublime goal from substitute Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes in the 88th minute.
🚲 ⚽
Duk opens the scoring yesterday in Dingwall.#StandFree | #cinchPrem pic.twitter.com/CEPD6EQIe6
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) September 4, 2022
However, they could not hold on and conceded to a William Akio strike five minutes into injury time.
The goal was the last kick of the game and a hammer blow to travelling fans.
Goodwin said: “When we scored the goal at Ross County, the jubilation was great to see.
“I am really disappointed for the supporters more than anything.
“They are ones that travelled down to Annan on Tuesday and Dingwall on Saturday.
“They deserved us to get three points and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that for them.”
Late goal a ‘bitter pill to swallow’
Goodwin admits conceding with the last kick of the game from a long throw-in was a “bitter pill to swallow”.
However, despite the disappointment of blowing a victory, the Reds still jumped above Hearts into third spot, on goal difference.
The Reds are just three points and a goal behind Rangers, who they host on Saturday.
Should they defeat Rangers in the noon kick-off, the Dons will move above the Ibrox club into second place.
Goodwin said: “If we win the game at Ross County everyone is talking about how well we played.
“We had 13 corners, large periods of possession and were quite comfortable.
“The only criticism is we didn’t work Laidlaw in the Ross County goal for all the possession we had.
“I was quite relaxed on the day because the players were playing well.
“Unfortunately, the late goal puts a real negative and dampener on the game when there are plenty of positives.
“Individual performances and collectively as a unit I thought we looked strong.
“We looked solid, but we just couldn’t see it out.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow.”
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