Dons boss: We were murdered by Hibernian
Derek McInnes admits Aberdeen are in a dogfight for second place after crashing to Hibs.
The Dons were outfought by Neil Lennon’s men on a day when victory would have seen them stretch their lead over Rangers to six points.
Instead, the Gers can now overhaul McInnes’ side this afternoon with a win over Hamilton – and the Reds boss accepts the battle is now on.
“Without doubt we’ve got a fight on our hands,” he said.“I said at the start of the season Rangers were huge favourites to finish in second spot, and I think Hibs will push us for third spot.
“But we don’t want to give up that second spot, we want to finish as high as we can, we want to go on the type of run we are capable of going on.
“That was an isolated performance in the second-half, we don’t get too many of them.
“But when you play a good team like Hibs you need to be so much better than that. We needed a far better performance to get something from the game.
“When one team needed to step it up, Hibs stepped it up and we go away with nothing,
“It’s only three points but we can’t have too many days like this if we want to finish second.”
“I can sit and say what I want, but they murdered us in the second,” he said. “They were the better team, hands-down.
“Neil will say that was their best performance of the season and, as the opposition manager, it’s not always about my team playing poorly, but they were miles better than us in the second half.”
Dons stalwart Andy Considine echoed his manager’s sentiments, and admitted the absence of suspended captain Graeme Shinnie – who will also miss next Sunday’s clash with Celtic – was a big factor in their performance.
He said: “When you’ve got Shinnie in the midfield he’s the first one snapping into challenges and getting in people’s faces.
“But with the way the manager’s recruited we’ve got enough players to fill that gap. The boys should be able to handle that.”