McInnes rallies soft Dons after savaging
ABERDEEN 1 ST J’NSTONE 5
ABERDEEN boss Derek McInnes last night challenged his players to prove they are not soft touches after suffering a third consecutive defeat in a shock 5-1 home reverse to St Johnstone.
The Dons retain a four-point lead at the summit of the Ladbrokes Premiership but a Celtic win against Hamilton today will cut the deficit to a single point going into the international break.
McInnes admits he welcomes the opportunity to work hard with his players over the coming fortnight, particularly on the art of defending set-pieces, and concedes he must come up with a stronger formula before his squad travels to Dingwall to face Ross County a week on Friday.
He said: ‘We expect more of ourselves and the supporters expect more of their team.
‘The first four goals came from set-pieces, either in the first or second phase.
‘The team who stood up to the physical side of the game won today. Where they were strong, we were soft.
‘It’s clear we need to improve on this aspect. If I’m (Ross County boss) Jim McIntyre, I’m looking at that game and thinking: “Get the ball into the box, ask questions of them, apply pressure, be physical…”.
‘We need to find the answers so that teams don’t look at us and think: “That’s how you beat Aberdeen”.
‘It’s a good chance to put some work in now — and there’s work to be done. I’ve got a brilliant set of boys who know they had a bad day.
‘They’ve shown character before. We’ve always met that challenge and we’ll meet it again.’
After a half-hour post-match inquest, experienced Dons midfielder Barry Robson was sent to provide the view from the dressing-room and he disputed the suggestion that
ABERDEEN may retain the status of league leaders but their form is now in free-fall, with St Johnstone executing a brutally impressive victory at Pittodrie.
After last month racking up impressive victories over Celtic and Hearts as part of an eight-game winning sequence that seemed to herald a bona fide title challenge, the Dons have now succumbed to three defeats in a row.
Following a League Cup exit to Hibs and narrow reverse at Inverness, this was by the far the most worrying result of the season for Derek McInnes, who was left fuming at his side’s inability to properly defend set-pieces.
Two goals behind after 11 minutes, the Dons rallied briefly before falling even further behind and then having a feeble performance killed off by Steven MacLean’s headed double just after half-time.
This was Aberdeen’s first home defeat since Saints triumphed here on the final day of last season — a statistic that bears testimony not only to the impressive start made by McInnes’s side this term, but also the wonders that Tommy Wright continues to work with St Johnstone.
If 2014’s Scottish Cup triumph is the high watermark in the Perth club’s history, Wright’s ability to consistently get his team into Europe via their league finish has been equally commendable. If there was a criticism, it was that his teams were obdurate and difficult to watch. Not any more.
The Perth side have now scored 21 league goals this season — four more than the vanquished tabletoppers — and that is before taking into account their recent 3-1 win over Rangers at Ibrox.
Even so, it was hard to see this coming. A spate of injuries have caused Wright to continuously reshuffle his defence this season and the red card shown to Allan Mannus against Dundee United last weekend forced a change in goalkeeper with Zander Clark, who impressed on loan with Queen of the South last term, making his first start for his parent club.
Saints were also without forward Michael O’Halloran for the first time in 63 matches. Despite the mitigating circumstances — and the fact they had not picked up so much as an away point this season — the visitors made a perfect start.
Former Aberdeen full-back Joe Shaughnessy was pivotal in the opener, hurling a throw deep into the penalty area which was headed to apparent safety.
Yet Brian Easton, who has not scored for the Perth side before, grabbed the invitation, catching the ball as it dropped to volley a shot that looped over Danny Ward.
The Aberdeen keeper was beaten again six minutes later when Shaughnessy reacted quickest after MacLean’s header came back off the post.
So, for the second week running, McInnes’s men found themselves 2-0 down. Could they respond? Like last week, they grabbed a lifeline through Ash Taylor, the big defender powering home a header from Niall McGinn’s corner.
Although Adam Rooney twice went close, forcing a fine save from Clark and then shooting just wide, the next goal came at the other end.
A fine sweeping move involving five players had ended with Ward saving Liam Craig’s low shot, but the keeper was less assured as Craig shot again after the set-piece had only been half cleared.
The former Hibs man’s effort took a deflection but Aberdeen’s keeper looked suspect as the ball crept behind him and into the net.
We wondered what Aberdeen’s second-half response would be, but it was Wright who delivered the more effective half-time address to his players — rather than sit on their lead, St Johnstone came out and steamrolled their hosts. MacLean endured an unhappy loan spell at Pittodrie in 2010, but was enjoying this game to the full.
He glanced home the fourth with a header from Simon Lappin’s corner within three minutes of the restart and deserved extra credit for both creating and scoring the fourth.
His hold-up play and delayed pass allowed Graham Cummins to get round on the outside and, when the Irishman crossed to the back post, there was MacLean to nod in.
McInnes sent on David Goodwillie in an effort to find a goal, but Aberdeen toiled to create anything that might trouble Clark.
MacLean might have claimed his hat-trick but, when played through by John Sutton, he produced a weak finish that Ward gathered. He could be forgiven the miss at the end of a commanding performance.