DONS HAND SCHOOLBOY CELTS SPOT
From Back Page I’ll have a 16-year-old in Dean, who is still at school. There will be 17-year-old Seb Ross alongside Scott Wright and Frank Ross.
“The reality is we have a tight squad. We’ve said it all season and we’ve been fortunate with injuries, but we’ve picked up two and Ryan’s ineligible.
“We’re pretty stretched and we don’t have, even if I wanted to, the luxury of freshening it up too much.”
McInnes also confirmed that both Jack and Pawlett are racing to be ready for the Scottish Cup Final against the Hoops at Hampden in 15 days.
He said: “There was a little procedure needed for Ryan’s groin. We put a stitch in to protect him.
“Pawlett’s had a scan and we’re waiting on the results.
“We are hoping for some positive news as we have three more games to get through before the Final and we already have two boys extremely doubtful and Ryan is ineligible, so we can’t afford to be carrying injuries going into it.”
McInnes is adamant the outcome of tonight’s contest will have no real bearing on the Final.
But he does want a positive performance to take into Hampden and, having ended Celtic’s unbeaten record three years ago when Neil Lennon was manager, would cherish a repeat.
He said: “We want to be good enough to get a result but it’s important we let Celtic know we are there. If we can get a positive performance and maybe even a positive result, it may well help our players going into the Final.
“Even if we don’t, I’m still confident we’ll be good enough on the day to win the Cup. We’ve had good results against Celtic in the past couple of years, but we’ve found them a bit tougher to get to this season as have most teams.
“I’ve been pleased with parts of the games. Defensively we were excellent at Parkhead, although we lost 1-0 to a Dedryck Boyata header.
“A team like Celtic are always testing your organisation and making you think about getting the balance right between attacking and defending, more so than any other.
“Every manager will say that, so we have to try and play a way that suits us and brings our strengths to the game.
“Celtic deserve a lot of credit for getting to this stage unbeaten. They’ve been impressive in their work, but they’ll recognise they’ve still got work to do.
“We’ve got that performance in us that can beat Celtic. There’s no point turning up if we don’t think that and I genuinely believe that we can.
“Hopefully we can get the result, but some three points are more difficult than others and this is as difficult as they come.”
McInnes, meanwhile, refused to be drawn on his move for Hull and Scotland ace Shaun Maloney.
He said: “We’ve got to be careful that we’d be speaking about other teams’ players.
“When we sign players or we feel that we’re in a position to announce anything, then we’ll shout it from the rooftops, but we have work to do at the minute. There’s nobody signed here this week and we’re respectful to other teams’ players.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeen are on course to sell out their ticket allocation for the Cup Final.
The Dons have just 3,000 briefs left for the showdown with Celts, despite them having been on sale for only a matter of days.
Controversy erupted at the weekend when the Parkhead side released a statement that revealed they could potentially be handed 700 fewer tickets than the Pittodrie club.
Brendan Rodgers later added he was ‘staggered” by the decision although the SFA hit back and insisted the call was partly due to the “Celtic end” having fewer seats than the West Stand, the area of Hampden that will house Dons fans.
Aberdeen were given an initial allocation of just under 20,000 and a club spokesman said: “We’re confident of selling our share.”