DON GO GAFFER
Lethal Logan fires late winner then urges McInnes to ignore Gers talk
Shay Logan helped keep Aberdeen’s Scottish Cup dream alive – and he’s hoping the Dons can hang on to gaffer Derek McInnes as well.
The Pittodrie defender fired a late winner against Ross County to send the Reds marching into the quarter-finals. But the talk in the Aberdeen end was all about concerns over their manager’s future. McInnes has been linked with the Rangers job and opted out of speaking to the media after the match. The party line was that he didn’t want to def lect attention away from the result by fuelling Ibrox speculation. It could be seen as doing the opposite – but Logan insisted the man in charge will not be distracted. The goal hero said: “The manager is always going to be linked to the Rangers job. “It’s no surprise to see his name linked but, of course, we want him to stay here. “He’s one of four or five managers who are being linked with it so we’ll see what happens. “I’m sure his focus isn’t on Rangers, it’s on Aberdeen and the team here. “We are going in the league, we’re still in the Cup. All he’ll be focused on is keeping us going and the performances up. “It’s not something we are taking too much notice of.” Logan admitted McInnes is a huge reason for the Aberdeen success story. He said: “The gaffer is a very big part of Aberdeen. “He has been excellent with me about my family staying down in Manchester. “He’s a top gaffer and I have so much respect for him. He shows faith in the players and gets that back. There are no bad eggs here and that’s down to the manager bringing in the right people.”
Logan let f ly with just three minutes left when it looked like a replay was on the cards.
County keeper Scott Fox made a string of saves, keeping out a Jonny Hayes free-kick in the first half before smart stops denied Niall McGinn, Ryan Jack and Andy Considine in the second.
Aberdeen were camped in the Dingwall side’s box at times and it took some frantic defending to keep the Dons at bay.
The Staggies looked to have seen out the siege though until Logan cut inside towards the end and his fierce drive took a nick off Kenny van der Weg and cannoned in off the post.
The full-back was thrilled to dig out his acrobatic celebration on a happy hunting ground.
He said: “My somersault hasn’t been out for a while but it’s a lucky place for me up here because I’ve scored in the last three games.
“I wasn’t going to do it but my little boy always likes it so I just thought I would.
“I don’t score many but when I cut inside getting the shot away was the only thing on my mind.
“It took a little deflection but I’m not bothered about that, the important thing was someone scoring for the team.
“We left it late but that meant they didn’t have much time to launch a fightback. We created a lot of chances and their keeper had a very good game.”
County rode their luck at times but dug deep in an scrappy Cup clash. They rarely troubled the Dons however – apart from causing a panic right before half-time when Michael Gardyne scampered through on goal after Logan had misjudged a hoof up the park. Joe Lewis raced from his goal to wipe out ball and man.
Aberdeen were in charge for most of the second half and the hard graft paid off when Logan finally made the breakthrough.
But the job wasn’t done yet and it took a decent save from Lewis at the end to deny Jay McEveley at the death.
Staggies boss Jim McIntyre said: “We felt like we weathered the storm.
“We knew we weren’t playing particularly well but we were battling away.
“We didn’t do enough to win but I felt the game had 0-0 written all over it. It looked set for a replay so to lose that goal at the end was a sore one.”