Team spirit key to late goals, says McInnes

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were possibly the bestknown team for snatching late goals in crucial games.

There is no doubt Scotland’s most successful manager would take great pride in the way his former side Aberdeen have displayed a similar persistence during their Europa League game so far.

Jonny Hayes netted two minutes from time on Thursday to earn the Dons a 1-1 draw against Maribor in the first leg of a finely poised Europa League qualifier.

All eight of Aberdeen’s goals in the Europa League this term have come in the final third of the match, with three deep in stoppage time.

Dons manager Derek McInnes said: “I think there are loads of reasons for the late goals.

“You could say it is down to the quality of the bench or the fitness of the players, but I think it is probably more down to the attitude of the players. The mindset of the players is to go the full way, and they never know when we are beaten.

“It would have been easy to write the game off in the last five minutes after Maribor scored, but we kept creating chances and got the goal.

“We also created one or two more chances before the end.

“It is a great thing to have as a team. It is something we have always had, and that team spirit is important. I was delighted with the players’ response. That can get you an extra 15 or 16 points during a league campaign.”

After an away goal at Pittodrie, Maribor will start as favourites to progress to the Europa League’s play-off round when the sides meet in Ljudski Stadium in Slovenia on Thursday.

However, the Dons proved during an impressive first leg performance they were capable of troubling a Maribor side more comfortable in attack than defence.

McInnes added: “They are a team used to defending really deep and they take protection from the midfield in front of them. We bypassed them a lot by playing a little bit more directly and created chance after chance.”