McInnes needs Dons to move out of unfamiliar territory

BY the first weekend in November, Aberdeen under Derek McInnes have traditionally made their intentions for the league season abundantly clear.

Three times they have filled second spot hunting down Celtic. In 2015/16, the Dons were in third, only four points behind.

Poorest position was fifth — all of three points adrift of the summit scaled by, would you believe it, Dundee United in 2014.

So this is unfamiliar territory. The Dons are in eighth before their first game of the month — away at Kilmarnock — and 11 points shy of leaders Hearts.

Their four wins have come over the top flight’s quartet of strugglers below them — Motherwell, St Mirren, Hamilton and Dundee.

Now comes the time for Aberdeen to find some much-needed Premiership momentum by striking a blow against one of the league’s better sides.

However, McInnes believes there is no shame in a slow start amid injury and suspension issues in this of all leagues, potentially the most competitive he has encountered in his managerial career.

‘We’re into November now and only played 10 games,’ reasoned McInnes. ‘It has been really stop-start and our results have been somewhat similar.

‘If you look at each game in isolation there have maybe been reasons why we’ve lost. Hearts and Celtic beat us fair and square.

‘But the Kilmarnock game here, we were down to 10 men after three or four minutes, in circumstances you feel a bit aggrieved by.

‘But our level of performance needs to improve. I’ve said to the lads we need to get on a winning sequence. But every team will find it harder to get those winning runs going this year.

‘I know what the league table is but I don’t look at it too much because I don’t see it really panning out until Christmas, New Year, when we’ve been through two rounds of games.

‘Hopefully we can knuckle down and clock up points as we go along — and go into the cup final in good form.

‘We’ve got three league games to deal with. It’s important we concentrate on that and keep churning out victories. The last couple of wins won’t do us any harm.’

Kilmarnock’s 2-0 win at Pittodrie on September 1, with some help from Mickey Devlin’s fifth-minute red card, is one of a trio of defeats to the top three in the section.

But a mighty Betfred Cup semi-final success over Rangers last Sunday could be the spark to the season.

‘You want the hype and the momentum to carry on off the back of such a good win,’ said skipper Graeme Shinnie.

‘We then dealt with the Hamilton game well but it was weird to come off the park after winning 3-0 the other night and someone saying: “We’re still in eighth”.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been in eighth place since I got here! Livingston and Killie have started the season so well and they’re the teams we now have to look to catch and overtake.

‘So we need to start winning these ones. The gaffer has most of the squad to pick from and that sets us up well to put a string of wins together.’