Mcinnes backing May and Cosgrove to boost goal tally

Aberdeen manager Derek Mcinnes feels the goals will follow if Sam Cosgrove and Stevie May replicate their midweek approach.

Mcinnes demanded more from his strikers ahead of Tuesday’s visit of Livingston and Cosgrove delivered as the 22-year-old former Carlisle player netted his third goal of the season in a 3-2 win.

Aberdeen moved back into the top six of the Ladbrokes Premiership and could conceivably move three points off the top if they win away to bottom club St Mirren today.

Mcinnes is encouraged by Cosgrove, pictured, ahead of the trip to Paisley. “Other than his sending-off here against Celtic, which was clearly a rush of blood on his debut, I think Sam has been very smart with his work and I’m not going to let the red card at Ibrox start to get this stigma reputation that he’s someone who’s going to accumulate a lot of yellow cards,” explained the Dons boss.

“He’s not that for me. He’s smarter with his work and his performance the other day was very good in terms of a big, old fashioned, English centre-forward.

“He gets a hold of it, gets it wide and gets in the box and contributes. It’s so important that Sam and others from the other night build on that performance and that becomes the new normal for them.” May has only scored once this season but Mcinnes has assured him that more performances like Tuesday will help that tally improve.

“Sometimes when a player goes on to the park and they say ‘he needs to score’ or ‘we need to win’, it only adds to the tension and doesn’t allow them to give that real natural performance,” Mcinnes said.

“I wouldn’t say the word ‘need’, but it would be a reward for Stevie to score and it’s something he’s clearly searching for.

“He got himself into some good positions and I’m fine with any striker missing chances.

“For me it’s no big deal, but what I have to see is strikers in positions to score goals and give themselves the best opportunity to score a goal.”

St Mirren are sitting rock bottom of the table – level on points with Dundee but with a poorer goal difference – and their striker Simeon Jackson believes the team require a “bit of cuteness” if they’re to climb out of danger. Jackson, who signed from Walsall in September, insists that he can see signs of progress. But, on reflecting on last week’s 3-1 defeat by Livingston, when the Buddies let a first-half lead slip, he believes there is still one missing ingredient.

“I think a bit of cuteness at times to make sure we get a result,” Jackson said. “We have gone ahead in games. The Hibs game was a really clever game, we managed it well but we didn’t do so well against Livi, going one-nil up and letting them back into it.

“It is just about getting that consistency and being cute at the right times.”