McINNES SALUTES HIS BRAVE TROOPS

against a side that last season finished seventh in the cash-rich playground of the English Premier League. In fact, the Dons scored the best goal of the contest when teenage midfielder Lewis Ferguson cancelled out Chris Wood’s early strike with a stunning overhead kick. Aberdeen did have to count on a number of brilliant saves from goalkeeper Joe Lewis, who was inspired in the second period as the home side pressed for a winner. And their superiority finally told in extra time when first Jack Cork and then Ashley Barnes from the penalty spot eased the Clarets into the next Europa League qualifying round. ‘I am proud of my players but disappointed to be out of Europe because they put so much into both ties,’ said McInnes. ‘But there’s no time for us to be disappointed. We have to move on to Rangers on Sunday and we can’t afford a hangover from this game. But maybe the Rangers game is the perfect one to be involved in after this. ‘It was harsh that someone had to win this tie and someone had to lose, but Burnley got the important psychological blow in extra time. ‘I felt if we had gone 2-1 ahead, we would have won. But I felt 3-1 was harsh on us. ‘But I want to congratulate Burnley. Both ties were fantastic.’ Hailing the performance of young Ferguson, the Dons boss added: ‘It was a brilliant goal to equalise. ‘He epitomised a lot of my team. He’s so young and he’s up against good players. He will learn quickly. He’s an outstanding young man. Nothing fazes him. He lit up the game and he took his goal fantastically well.’ Meanwhile, Dyche said: ‘It was great credit to Aberdeen. There were a lot of questions about this, that and the other, but I thought they played excellently in both legs of the tie. ‘I thought the Aberdeen keeper was outstanding tonight. We had to keep probing to break them down and, when we did break them down, he pulled off some fantastic saves.’