JOE Lewis believes Aberdeen's winter training camp in Dubai will help new signing Dylan McGeouch settle in quickly and assist the Pittodrie club's bid to land silverware in the second half of the season.
McGeouch, the former Celtic, Hibernian and Scotland midfielder who this week joined Aberdeen from Sunderland until 2022, has travelled to the Middle East with his new team mates.
Lewis, the Aberdeen goalkeeper, feels going away together during the January shutdown will enable the 26-year-old to integrate into the squad ahead of the William Hill Scottish Cup game against Dumbarton on Saturday week.
Speaking to Red TV from Aberdeen's Jebel Ali base in the United Arab Emirates, Lewis said: “He will benefit more than most in terms of getting to know the lads. He will be training and then getting to know the lads away from that at the hotel. I settled in nicely off it when I came in and that will help Dylan as well.
“It is a real treat for the players. We are really grateful to the club for doing this for us. It is a nice escape from the weather back home. It will give us the chance to get some sun on our backs, some warm-weather training and back into things after a couple of days off. We are now looking to get ready for the Dumbarton game.
“It is definitely something we need to have our eyes on. The league is very important but the Scottish Cup is a great chance for silverware. The supporters will get behind us. The Scottish Cup needs to be a big focus for us.
"I came up here to win silverware and I haven’t done it so far, but I have my heart set on it at this football club. All the players understand the importance of it and by the time of the 18th we will be ready and we can put on a convincing performance and get into the next round.
“You can only do it one game at a time and you don’t want to get too carried away before you get through the early rounds. We need to be motivated to go as far as we can and to go third in the table."
Lewis added: “It is a big month for us. We have Motherwell at home after the cup game. Last time we beat them 3-0 away and we scored three of our best goals of the season as well. We played some good football and we will want to replicate that.
"They have been very consistent and every time we have won they have won. They have resilience and are a good team and have quality and a good manager.
“Every time you feel like we are going to have a full squad we are hit with another one or two injuries. We can’t control that and all we can control is the 11 players on the pitch who are trying to put in a performance and to get a result.
“The first half of the season the performances were inconsistent. I would say the results haven’t been terrible although we have had one or two bad results and performances. We need to make sure that consistency comes into the game and we take responsibility for our performances.”
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