Hulking Hoban unfazed
Derek McInnes last night hai led stand- in star Tommie Hoban for playing through the pain barrier to keep Aberdeen’s Euro dream alive.
The Dons boss revealed the on-loan 24-year- old was ready to come off with a calf problem at the start of the second half of their 1-1- draw with Burnley.
But the Watford defender – signed the day before – toughed it out because McInnes couldn’t afford to lose his physical presence from a defence coming under heavy fire in the last half hour.
McInnes revealed: “He only got the phone call to tell him he was playing at 5pm because Andy Considine pulled out with an illness but nothing fazed him.
“He was struggling a wee bit with his cal f 10 minutes into the second half but Burnley were getting bigger and bigger so he had to stay on.
“No matter how many times he looked over at me!
“When you see the size of Burnley we had to be equipped to deal with that and we never had any size on the bench.
“He acquitted himself really well.”
While losing the late goal was a blow to Aberdeen’s hopes, and leaves them needing to at least score at Turf Moor to progress on Thursday, McInnes was thrilled with Mikey Devlin and Lewis Ferguson on their competitive debuts for the club.
He said: “I thought Devlin was great and young Lewis, who had 12 games for Hamilton last season, was up against top players and didn’t look out of place.
“Sam Cosgrove is another who caused them real problems. The Burnley defenders will remember playing against Sam.”