Peter Leven demands clinical approach from Aberdeen as holders sneak past Raith

Interim manager Peter Leven was pleased to see holders Aberdeen progress to round five of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup but called on his men to be more clinical in front of goal after Jack Milne’s early strike proved decisive against Raith.

Milne bundled the ball over the line from a ninth-minute corner as the Dons laboured to beat William Hill Championship opposition 1-0.

Leven said: “We saw some big names go out (on Saturday) so the most important thing was to get through. We started well, scored the goal from a set-play which I was delighted with.

“I thought we were good from set-plays, in both boxes, defensive and attacking. There were a couple of sloppy passes in the first half and we lost a bit of confidence, became a bit nervy which is understandable with where we’ve been, but again we’ve got to score more.

“It’s that little sloppy pass and then people not working hard enough to get on the ball, making the wrong decisions. The second half I’ll take a lot from, but we need to be more clinical.

“Jesper Karlsson could have had two or three goals, but we have to be clinical in our decision-making, that extra pass or an earlier shot at goal, but I’m just pleased to get through.”

Raith manager Dougie Imrie was pleased with the effort his side put in, but challenged his players to produce similar performances when on league duty.

“The frustration obviously is the set-play we lose,” he said. “The message was clear, the first 20 minutes whenever you go to a Premiership team it’s important to get through that period. Unfortunately we never, we lose a poor goal. Josh makes a great save but they’re there for the rebound.

“I thought from there it could have gone one way or the other but the boys were excellent. We went for Aberdeen. On another day something falls for you and you get a goal.

“In the end we never just did enough to give (Dimitar) Mitov any issues.”