McGinn pulls strings as Dons down plucky Queens
ABERDEEN called upon the nous and imagination of Niall McGinn to penetrate a courageous and stubborn Queen of the South and book their place in the last eight of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
The Northern Ireland international, a secondhalf replacement for theineffective Stevie May, produced a strike within two minutes of coming on after the interval, then delivered the crosses that brought two further goals – from Andrew Considine and Sam Cosgrove – before the latter rounded off a satisfactory performance with a penalty to take his season’s tally to 16. McInnes said: “The improvement and those stats are great for Sam and for his confidence. We had a striker here for many years in Adam Rooney who would always get to 20 plus and score penalties and Sam has looked comfortable, as Rooney did.
“What Sam is doing is testament to his hard work, he’s listening and improving and looking like a proper centre forward and he’s getting goals to match his performances.
“When you’ve got that it’s important to enjoy it when you have it but I joke if he hadn’t waited that long to start scoring we might be top of the league by now.”
No one in the 7,857 crowd, which included 351 hardy souls from the other end of the country, was surprised that the energy and fitness levels of the Dons delivered incessant attacks on visitors who, themselves, expected nothing less.
However, that it was Joe Lewis who was the first of the goalkeepers called into serious action as he dealt with a 30-yard thunderbolt from Jordan Marshall, the Doonhamers’ left-back, by touching it over the bar, spoke of their determination not to be overawed. And Alan Martin ‘s diving save of Max Lowe’s strike seconds before the break was Aberdeen’s initial shot on target, highlighted just how stubborn the visitors proved in that opening 45 minutes.
McInnes would not have been the only Pittodrie spectator to recognise his team required creativity which was the cue for McGinn’s introduction and it took just two minutes to repay his manager’s faith by reacting to Cosgrove’s flick in the area and punish Queens with the opener.
You could sense the satisfaction and relief in the home dugout, but both were wiped away within three minutes, Stephen Dobbie grabbing his 38th goal in 32 games in stunning fashion.
Who would have thought that when he gathered the ball, took a couple of strides then pulled the trigger, it would have been a leadingcontender for goal of the season as it flew past the helpless Lewis?
“We made Aberdeen a little bit angry with that equaliser,” said Palmerston manager Gary Naysmith. “Over the piece they deserved to win but for 60 minutes we more than matched them.
“We were playing against a top team which struggled in the first half to get into their rhythm until Derek brought on McGinn who was involved in all the goals.”
‘‘ They deserved to win but for 60 minutes we more than matched them