It wasn’t pretty but I’m happy, says Mcinnes
Derek Mcinnes admitted Aberdeen played percentage football against Livingston.
But while it wasn’t pretty, the Dons boss declared himself 100% satisfied with his side’s victory.
Aberdeen moved up to third in the Premiership after grinding out a 2-0 win in West Lothian.
They were nowhere near full strength in terms of personnel.
Yet the way his players dug deep delighted the Dons gaffer, even if it made for a tough afternoon’s viewing.
“We came here to do a job,” said Mcinnes. “We knew what to expect and we fought fire with fire. There’s a reason not many teams win here.
“Livingston ask questions of you and we put out a team that could answer them.
“The narrative before the game was all about injuries and how we lack experience and certain types in some positions.
“So we had to stand up to that and play a certain type of game at times to keep the threat away from us.
“In the SPFL, when you go away from home in particular, the opposition is always going to get a couple of moments to score. Thankfully we’ve managed to stop those via good defending and our goalkeeper getting a clean sheet.
“Two bits of quality – the delivery and movement for the first goal, and Nial Mcginn’s weighted pass for the second – have won us the match.
“Some games you will play brilliantly and don’t get what you deserve. Sometimes you just need to come and know what to expect.
“The pitch was particularly awful today, when it’s dry like that.
“It was hard for both sets of players to move the ball quickly. At times you play percentages on that surface. You have to fight your corner.”
Mcinnes handed Curtis Main a start up front after top scorer Sam Cosgrove spent the second half of the week on the treatment table.
With a Betfred Cup semi-final against Hearts looming on Wednesday, Cosgrove is being treated gently.
Now his manager hopes it pays off.
“If we hadn’t had the midweek game then I might have thought more about it,” he said.
“But the truth is Sam was a doubt on Thursday and never trained, so while he was on the treatment table all week, Curtis was training and training well.
“With Sam having a strain on his groin we were trying to manage his minutes over the next few games and we always knew he would give us something off the bench.
“It was tough out there for everybody but hopefully there are no more injuries.”