Del sends for the Doc

Derek McInnes last night swerved Aberdeen’s post-match presser as speculation over his Dons future intensified following Rangers’ defeat.

Pittodrie No.2 Tony Docherty appeared in front of the media after the Reds went down 2-0 to Motherwell.

Interim Ibrox boss Graeme Murty saw his chances of landing the job on a long-term

basis dented yesterday as a 2- 0 defeat to Hamilton foiled hopes of a third straight win for the first time in 2017.

Louis Moult’s double in the Granite City saw McInnes’ men succumb to the same scoreline with Docherty admitting Aberdeen failed to live with the windy conditions.

The Reds assistant said: “It was a very uncharacteristic Aberdeen performance – it was a bad day.

“Motherwell changed their system, which threw us a little bit. But once we got to grips with that we couldn’t get going. We have no excuses.

“Obviously conditions were difficult but if anything Motherwell coped better with them than we did.

“There are no excuses though and we had an honest chat in the dressing room. We have an honest group of players and have the players to have done better. We worked on how to play Motherwell but didn’t impose our game plan on them.

“I don’t think it was a great spectacle. I don’t think Motherwell had to be great to get their goals, which is very disappointing.

“It wasn’t like us to give goals away like that. The first one is a free header. We didn’t get the line right and were not in a position to get to Moult when he went for his header.

“We pride ourselves on defending set-plays but we didn’t do it properly.

“You have to be bang at it in this league but we were not that.

“Things didn’t click for us but in the players’ defence it doesn’t happen often.

“We will pick the bones out of this now, go away and work hard then hopefully bounce back with a better performance in the next game.”