McInnes admits Dons fell short in Europa rout

ABERDEEN boss Derek McInnes admitted his side were not good enough in their defeat to Rijeka in the Europa League third qualifying round.

However, McInnes felt the early sending off of midfielder Funso Ojo – while other players escaped censure for similar challenges – had a part to play.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, McInnes needed his side to put in a big performance but they were well short of the mark and lost this second leg by the same scoreline thanks to goals from Stjepan Loncar and Antonio-Mirko Colak.

The Dons boss said: “Up until the sending off we were not good enough.

“We were a bit excitable with our possession and we needed to settle down in the game.

“We made poor decisions, and the first goal comes from our corner kick.

“After the sending off, the game is effectively done. I thought it was an awful decision to deem those two challenges as yellow-card offences.

“There’s other challenges going on out there that were deemed not yellow-card offences, and there were Rijeka players with five challenges not getting booked.”

Sam Cosgrove was a surprise name on the Dons team-sheet having been publicly ruled out in the build-up to the match.

However, McInnes confirmed he was fit, adding: “He’s fit. I wasn’t totally honest yesterday but I wanted their (Rijeka) first knowledge of Sam being in the team when they saw the team-sheet.

“We took him off early to avoid any more risk ahead of Sunday.”