Proud Mcinnes seeking a semi-final springboard
● Aberdeen boss expects his team’s league form to lift ahead of Hampden
Aberdeen manager Derek Mcinnes hopes that his team continue their trend of picking up form after reaching the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-finals.
The Dons made it nine semifinals in seven seasons under Mcinnes when they defeated St Mirren 2-0 in a professional display in terrible conditions in Paisley on Saturday night.
Aberdeen started well and Lewis Ferguson gave them the lead with a brilliant seventhminute finish. The midfielder curled a delightful shot with the outside of his right boot high into Vaclav Hladky’s net from around 20 yards.
St Mirren improved after the break but rarely troubled Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis, and substitute Sam Cosgrove killed off the tie when he won and then coolly converted a penalty in stoppage time.
“Hopefully we can go into the semi-final in good form because the inconsistency has been driving me mad,” said Mcinnes. “Hopefully the performances of the players can be good individually going into it.”
Aberdeen are currently in a battle with Motherwell for third place in the Premiership, with Hibernian and Livingston closing in. “Having the focus of the semi-final normally allows our league form to improve,” added Mcinnes. “Whenever we have had a
Scottish Cup semi-final, our league form has normally improved.”
Mcinnes was delighted with his side’s commitment and defending on Saturday as they frustrated their hosts.
“We know the importance of the cups,” said the Dons boss, whose team travel to Kilmarnock on league business on Wednesday night.
“I knew from day one in the job here how important cup football was to the club and the supporters.
“We have been in umpteen semi-finals and finals and shown we are a very good cup team.
“We showed a lot of spirit against St Mirren. We weren’t at our best but with the conditions as they were, we showed enough good moments and the spirit we showed at Rugby Park [in a 4-3 replay win in the previous round] to get the job done.
“Sometimes you can win games through brilliance – Fergie supplied a bit of that – and sometimes you do it through sheer tenacity and will.
“I thought my team were very good. To get a clean sheet against a team I have a high regard for and win 2-0 was a brilliant result.”
There was one significant setback in Paisley, though, when Aberdeen defender Scott Mckenna hobbled off seven minutes into the second half. Mcinnes confirmed afterwards that his centre-half had sustained a hamstring tear but will only find out today how serious the tear is. Scotland manager Steve Clarke will also be waiting anxiously on the news given that his Scotland side take on Israel in a Euro 2020 play-off semi-final at Hampden later this month.
“I don’t know how significant it is,” said Mcinnes. “I won’t know until Monday, until we get him imaged, and see what the damage is but I think it’s some sort of tear of the hamstring.
“It depends on the grade of the tear. Hopefully he can get back for us before then and if he does he can be there for Scotland as well.”
For St Mirren, the priority now is trying to secure Premiership survival, with a home match against St Johnstone to come on Wednesday.
Manager Jim Goodwin said: “It’s hard to take positives right now because I genuinely felt we had a great opportunity, coming up against a team that’s a little bit fragile at the moment, not in great form.
“I felt we were in decent form going into it, I was confident we could progress again. But the fact of the matter is the goals are terrible.”
“Hopefully we can go into the Scottish Cup semi-final in good form because the inconsistencyhasbeen driving me mad”
DEREK MCINNES