ON THE ROPES

McInnes says his side must raise game for final as Steelmen run amok

UNLESS this was some kind of elaborate rope-a-dope deception by Aberdeen, the engravers can start inscribing Celtic’s name on the Betfred Cup tomorrow morning.

On the evidence of this depressing display, they don’t even have a puncher’s chance in the final at Hampden a week today.

Manager Derek McInnes took time to compose himself before facing the media afterwards; if only his players had adopted that approach on the pitch then they’d be returning to the national stadium in better shape.

McInnes didn’t raise his voice, but his words were well chosen and, again unlike his players, he was right on the money.

‘It was an awful performance and a total contrast to how we’ve been of late,’ he claimed.

‘We’ve shown resilience, kept plenty of clean sheets and restricted our opponents — but today we were well beaten all over the pitch and two of the goals we conceded were calamitous.

‘To lose a goal 10 seconds after winning a corner is something you cannot legislate for and, at the second goal, we missed Mikey Devlin.

‘We lacked some size at the back but you could see Danny Johnson wanted to get on the end of the ball to put it in the back of the net more than we wanted to keep it out.

‘I looked for a response but the substitutes never offered much to change the game. The third goal came from a ricochet but it was no less than Motherwell deserved and we have a lot of work to do ahead of the cup final.

‘It’s not worrying, though, because I know we are capable of better and we’re a good team. That’s why we’re in the final but we weren’t a good team today.

‘We need better performances individually and we need to be less gracious in giving opportunities. Our result was self-inflicted.’

Indeed it was and yet, for the first 20 minutes or so, there was no sign of the imminent collapse.

Mark Gillespie, making his first league start in goal for Motherwell after Trevor Carson was diagnosed with deep-vein thrombosis, was called into action early on to beat away a drive from Stevie May.

However, the visitors ought to have opened the scoring in the 21st minute when Max Lowe’s cut-back found captain Graeme Shinnie unmarked and 12 yards out. Unfortunately, the midfielder was forced to take the opportunity with his right foot and he sliced it wide.

They paid the price for that miss when more sloppy play saw the hosts take the lead four minutes later.

Niall McGinn’s wayward pass on the halfway line was intercepted by Johnson, who raced towards goal and held off a feeble challenge from Dons full-back Shay Logan to fire a shot inside Joe Lewis’s left-hand post from the edge of the box.

Lowe was Aberdeen’s main threat and his low cross fell to James Wilson, who spooned his shot over the bar from 12 yards.

Gael Bigirimana then forced Lewis into a fine save from a free-kick and from the resulting corner, the same player sent in a delivery which was flicked on by Curtis Main and headed home by Johnson from close range as the Dons defence stood still.

Gillespie saved his side again four minutes from the interval, pushing away a piledriver from Lowe which he saw at the last second.

Aberdeen left the lacklustre Wilson in the dressing room at half-time and the Manchester United loanee could have had no complaints. However, his replacement, Sam Cosgrove, proved to be equally ineffective and the visitors fell further behind due to more comedy defending.

Lewis Ferguson saw an attempted clearance rebound off Main and fall perfectly for David Turnbull to beat Lewis with a composed finish.

The Dons goalkeeper immediately made a beeline for the wretched McGinn and gave him a stern lecture before play resumed.

It was one of the few displays of passion from Aberdeen and Peter Hartley ought to have punished them further but sent his free header from a corner wastefully wide.

Lewis at least kept the scoreline respectable, diving to his right to keep out a netbound 25-yarder from Liam Grimshaw.

‘It was a good performance and a good reaction from what happened against Rangers (7-1 defeat) a few weeks ago,’ beamed Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson. ‘I thought we were well-organised, physical when we had to be, but we had the quality, too.

‘We’ve worked with Danny and we knew he was a goalscorer. We wanted to improve his game and he’s done that. We can’t spend £9million on a striker. We have to bring them in and develop them; bring in players who want to learn.

‘Danny is one of them but I believe he can get even better — and that was his best performance for us.

‘And you won’t fluster David — I don’t think even an earthquake could do that. He’s the most calm boy around.

‘We need to try and get 90 minutes at that intensity from him. We’re really pleased with David but there is more to come from him.’