ANDREW Considine is the last man standing, a throw-back to almost a decade ago when Aberdeen last reached the group stage of what was then called the Uefa Cup.

Jimmy Calderwood had led them to atmospheric and lucrative Granite City nights under the Pittodrie lights and into exciting ties against Panathinaikos, Lokomotiv Moscow, FC Copenhagen, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich, and Considine is the sole survivor from that period. In their last two seasons in the Europa League, Aberdeen have fallen at the third qualifying round stage.

This time, the defender is confident a breakthrough is imminent, despite the little difficulty of overcoming a Maribor side which banked an away goal in last Thursday night’s draw at Pittodrie.

The Slovenians are bullish about winning the tie, needing only to see out their home leg in the Ljudski vrt Stadium on Thursday without conceding a goal.

Considine and Co have other ideas, with Jonny Hayes’ 88th-minute Pittodrie leveller five minutes after Milivoje Novakovic had struck for the visitors raising the hopes of Derek McInnes’s men.

“I was lucky enough to get a taste of the group stage nine years ago when we packed out Pittodrie for some really big occasions,” Considine said. “The atmosphere against Maribor reminded me a lot of those big nights and hopefully we can finish the job to make sure there are more to come.

“I certainly think the squad we have at the club now is every bit as good as the one that eventually went through to play Bayern Munich in 2008. You just have to see the quality of the players on the bench to realise that. The likes of Kenny McLean didn’t start on Thursday night and he’s a Scotland international now.

“You need that competition for places if you are going to progress at this level and the manager has definitely got that now. The thing back then was that there was only one qualifying round to get through while it takes a lot of football to make that stage now.”

Considine has confounded the critics who predicted his demotion from the Dons’ top team when Graeme Shinnie, operating successfully in midfield, made the move from Inverness Caley Thistle a year ago, and has shown his worth to the side with his stoicism.

But he knows the away leg against Maribor will be played out in a hostile environment with an emphasis on defensive focus and concentration. Much responsibility will also be placed on the shoulders of Hayes and Aberdeen’s other winger, Niall McGinn.

“Maribor are a cracking team, but with the wide men we have we can cause them serious problems and we have lethal finishers who can exploit that,” Considine added. “We have got stronger over the course of the qualifiers and I think we have the experience throughout the team to get the right result.

“What we have shown is how fit a team we are. We go all the way to the end in search of late goals.”

McInnes, meanwhile, also recognises it will be extremely difficult to breach a resolute Maribor defence in which centre-back Marko Suler was excellent at Pittodrie.

“I’ve watched them six times and the games have been played between both boxes. We had to get at them on Thursday night and we did that,” he said. “Our players never know when they’re beaten. They go the full way, that’s their mental attitude. And it’s a brilliant thing to have; it brings an identity to your team.

“That kind of resolve in the league campaign could win you 15 points in a season. I’m delighted we’ve managed to show that in these Europa League games.”

McInnes expects Maribor to be relaxed on their home turf and believes they are at their happiest when they don’t have the ball.

He admitted: “It might have to be our best European performance yet to go through.”