McInnes sure Main will rediscover route to goal

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes has challenged Curtis Main to help Sam Cosgrove by rediscovering his way to goal with the Dons.

Main impressed in his first season in Scottish football, scoring eight goals in 21 matches following his arrival from Portsmouth in January 2018, although last season he found the net just six times in 37 appearances for the Steelmen.

That has not stopped McInnes from adding the 27-year-old to his forward line on a two-year deal.

The Dons boss is confident Main can make a major impact in the red of Aberdeen.

He said: “Curtis has done well against us and knows the league.

“It wasn’t his most productive season in terms of goals but to get someone with his ability, experience and potential on a free transfer was too good an opportunity to turn down.”

He continued: “We were overreliant on Sam last year and he maybe needed to come out the team at times, but we didn’t have another type and he was so important to us.”

Main is not the only player to arrive at Pittodrie with experience of Scottish football following Ashton Taylor’s return from a twoyear spell with Northampton Town.

McInnes has backed Taylor to strengthen his central defence and believes his aerial dominance will add more resilience to his backline.

He said: “Ash knows the league and the club.

“I didn’t want him to leave and we felt he made the wrong decision at the time, but he couldn’t be told.

“He went down to England and it hasn’t worked out as well as he would have hoped, but he was always a player who, if you strip it back, did really well for me and we feel we always like to have four centre backs. Getting Mikey Devlin, Ash Taylor, Scott McKenna and Andy Considine gives us good experience and physicality there.

“We lost too many goals last season from set plays in our own box, which was really unusual for us, and Ash will help give us a presence there.

“There are good options there for me and the benefit of Ash knowing the club and how we all work as a staff, once he had made it clear he was desperate to come back, we moved pretty quickly to bring him here.”