McInnes sees rejuvenated Niall revving up campaign
DEREK McINNES last night backed his on-form and fit-again talisman Niall McGinn to play a huge part in Aberdeen’s quest for Scottish Cup glory and European qualification.
The Northern Irish striker’s second-half double secured a 3-1 win over Motherwell as the Dons won their first home league match since December.
And McInnes believes McGinn being back to his best after overcoming a hip injury could not come at a better time.
The Dons boss said: ‘Niall McGinn is in good goalscoring form for club and country right now.
His second goal tonight, in particular, was from the top drawer. ‘Niall’s had a hip issue and we’ve had to manage that. But now he’s on top of that and he’s back to his best.
‘Niall will be an important player for us during the rest of the season. ‘Tonight was an important win for us for a lot of reasons.
‘It is so important for this club to get back into Europe next season.
‘Hopefully, we can gain more momentum on Saturday at Dundee before looking forward to our Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic.’
Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson watched his side’s top-six hopes die but vowed his players won’t down tools.
He said: ‘The reality for this football club is we want to stay in the division.
‘The fact that we were still in contention for top six in the last two games before the split shows how good our form has been since the turn of the year.
‘Now we have to finish the season brightly. We won’t let the season fizzle out. ‘The fans pay good money to watch us and we will be fully committed to finishing as high up the table as possible.’
Motherwell lost goalkeeper Mark Gillespie to injury in the second half but Robinson hopes that he may be back in time to face Rangers at Fir Park on Sunday.
‘Hopefully, the injury to Mark is not too bad,’ said Robinson. ‘We are hoping it is just a dead leg.
‘I was actually going to put three attacking subs on at the point Mark got injured but we could have put on a few subs tonight and still not scored.
‘I felt that our decision-making was not what it should have been in the second half and we probably got what we deserved in the end.
‘I’m frustrated because I felt like we dominated large parts of the game and we scored a very good goal by Jake Hastie.’