COSGROVE BLOW FOR DONS AHEAD OF RIJEKA TIE—

DEREK McINNES says he will send Aberdeen out to blitz the Rijeka penalty box at Pittodrie tonight, despite losing goalscoring talisman Sam Cosgrove to injury. The Dons are looking for Europa League redemption as they seek to overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Croatia and secure a place in the play-off round. Revealing that Cosgrove — who hit eight goals in the first six games of the season — hasn’t yet recovered from a tight hamstring, McInnes (pictured) urged his forward-thinking players to throw numbers and nous at the Rijeka defence. ‘It’s going to take quality in the final third to get through,’ said the Aberdeen manager. ‘We always try to find a way to ask questions of the opposition and we will need to find spaces. ‘Once we get them, we will have to commit more bodies forward and make better decisions. ‘When we set up a team, we know the areas where we might get a bit of joy. ‘Rijeka are a disciplined team, so you need to try to find that space. ‘When we do get into those areas, we need to commit ourselves by getting more bodies forward — and making sure we get the right quality of crosses in and the right decision-making. ‘We have had a good couple of days in terms of players resting physically, although they have been in. We had a positive meeting this morning and the players believe (progress is possible). ‘I think 2-0 was harsh on us last week and the players feel that — but the harshness is in the reality! ‘It is 2-0 and we need to do something about it. The good thing is that we still have the opportunity to do that. ‘We need to get the next goal in the tie and, if we can score and ask the questions, then my players will respond even more.’ Cosgrove’s absence is undoubtedly a major setback. The 22-year-old striker had scored six goals in all four previous qualifying games — against RoPS Rovaniemi of Finland and Chikhura Sachkhere of Georgia — before missing out on the first leg against Rijeka in Croatia through injury. But McInnes says his team have produced strong performances and results before without key personnel, and says they should not be ‘solely reliant’ on Cosgrove. Current strike options include Curtis Main, who made his first start in last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to St Mirren in Paisley, and Stevie May, who has been linked with a move away from the club. Confirming Cosgrove’s absence, McInnes said: ‘Sam is out. His scan was positive in that it wasn’t the worst-case scenario for us but it was enough to rule him out. ‘He is a key player but as important as he is, we’ve got to cope without important players. We are still without (Craig) Bryson as well and we’ve shown we can get to a high level of performance in the past without key players. ‘We have enough attacking threat in the team that we shouldn’t be solely reliant on Sam. I felt my best players were defenders last week, this week it has to be the players middle to front. ‘This would be up there with a lot of the (club’s best) European results, if we turn this around.’ Warning his side there is ‘no room for error’ as they bid to progress to a meeting with AEK Larnaca of Cyprus or Gent of Belgium, McInnes said they should draw confidence from the recent home wins over Rovaniemi and Chikhura. ‘If we can replicate those performances, we’ll make it interesting,’ he said. ‘But we have got it all to do, we know that.’