McInnes calls for level heads and hard work

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes insists his team should be judged at the end of the season.

The Dons are fourth in the Premiership, four points behind third-placed Motherwell who they face at Fir Park on Saturday.

Aberdeen have been hit hard by injuries in recent weeks but with Scott McKenna and Andy Considine returning for the 1-1 draw against Hibs before the break and Craig Bryson in contention for a return this weekend the injury list is slowly improving.

However, the Dons will be without Curtis Main and Lewis Ferguson for the trip to Fir Park following their dismissals against the Hibees.

The Aberdeen manager said: “We’re trying to improve but the time to judge my players is in the summer.

“We clearly have injuries which will get better. We don’t have Funso Ojo fit until January. Craig Bryson didn’t have a pre-season and just as we were getting him up to speed he suffered another injury.

“We understand improvements have to be made but maybe it is not as bad as people think at times.

“It is important we keep a level head, continue to work hard and focus on our job of trying to keep getting results.”

McInnes believes the efforts of his side, which has been patched up at times during a tough September and October, should not go unnoticed.

He said: “We’ve always prided ourselves on having good winning unbeaten runs. We were five games unbeaten going into the Hearts game despite dealing with the situation we’re in.

“We’re all sticking together and getting on with the job in hand.

“We’ve still got a good team out there. Players have been getting opportunities and we’ve been finding out about one or two of the younger ones.

“When you have to adjust during the game as a manager you might not have the options you would always like but we have a team with a good balance that’s good enough to get a result.

“It is important that we don’t lose sight of what we’re trying to achieve and what we’re trying to do is to be far more competitive than we were previously.”