Andy Considine is convinced Aberdeen team-mate Lewis Ferguson’s release into a more attacking midfield role, courtesy of Scott Brown’s introduction to the Dons side, has allowed him to ramp-up his performances.

The 21-year-old former Hamilton player, the subject of continued interest from English Premier League outfit Watford, who’ve already had a £2m bid for him rejected as “an insult”, hit two goals against Sweden’s BK Hacken in their Europa League Conference qualifier, strikes that may attract interest from elsewhere.

He and Considine, who continues to move up the Aberdeen table for most appearances – he’s on 562, just 29 behind goalkeeper Bobby Clark – will be in place for the Reds when they come up against Breidalblik in the next qualifying round of the competition Iceland tomorrow night as the defender admits that he, too, has been re-energised, feeding off the young players brought into the team by manager Stephen Glass.

"Lewis is a young lad,” he said, “and having a guy like Scott Brown alongside him can only do him good.

“Scott sits in front of the back and gives Lewis licence to go beyond. He plays how Scott plays as well but looking at the games at the moment he is playing with a bit more freedom. He has a couple of goals already and the role will be good for him.

"You need youthful energy in your team. You need to bring through young boys who have that energy as it spurs us all on.

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“To have that mix of experience, even with the likes of Lewis who has played a lot of games at 21, and add the youthful energy of Calvin Ramsay and Jack MacKenzie at full-back; it's a great mix in the squad at the moment.”

The 34-year-old centre-back, however, isn’t ready to make sweeping predictions over whether he and his Aberdeen team-mates will breeze past their Icelandic opponents in in Reykjavík tomorrow night.

Hopes in past European adventures were dashed too many times prompting him to keep his own counsel on the possibilities this time, although Breidalblik’s surprise elimination of Austria Vienna in the previous round, has flagged-up potential problems for the Dons.

"We know what is coming on Thursday,” the Scotland international insisted, “as they are a high pressing, high energy team. We want to go over there and hopefully bring something back to Pittodrie and deal with them there.

"There is nothing I want more than having the boys experience European football until Christmas. It would be brilliant for the players, fans and the city, but we won't look too far just yet.

“I’ve been around football for a wee while and it’s great for me to see youngsters like Calvin, who’s just turned 18, come through.  You see a lot of young boys these days who get into youth team and think they’ve made it.

“But the likes of Calvin, Jack and Dean Campbell, all these young boys who have come through, show a real desire and hunger to do well and a consistency in training to keep improving. It’s good that the manager thinks they’re ready.”

Considine’s opener in the 5-1 home leg of their last Europa tie, against Hacken, equaled club legend Willie Miller’s record of having scored in fourteen successive seasons, but he reckons the current squad has found a new identity under manager Stephen Glass.

There’s also delight over the performances of front players Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Christian Ramirez, with input from Glass’ assistant Allan Russell, the former England striker coach.

“We’ve worked on a lot of final phase movements with Allan and the manager,” Considine said, “and they are starting to make our way into the team.

“You can see that over the past couple of games and it’s been really encouraging. We’re looking a real threat in front of goal.

“I feel that Christian and JET have brought us a different dimension. The hold-up play with big JET - he’s a man mountain of a guy and it’s hard to get the ball off him – means it’s great for us to get up the field.

“With Christian, I feel that we’ve sort of missed that No.9, a natural finisher in the box.”