what the managers said

From PA Sport

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes watched centre-back Michael Hector fire in a stunning strike during his side’s 4-0 win over Partick Thistle and admitted he was surprised the on-loan Reading man had it in him.

Already leading through goals from Niall McGinn and Calvin Zola, Hector thumped in the Dons’ third goal before turning provider for McGinn to net his second of the evening.

And of the defender’s wonder-strike, he admitted “That wasn’t in the scouting report when we looked at it. It was a great strike, and it’s good to see players chipping in from all over the pitch.

“You’ve got to be delighted when you see your team win 4-0 at home. We worked extremely hard against the type of team who can frustrate you.

“Partick didn’t cause us too many problems in terms of creating chances, albeit they gave us a scare when Kallum Higginbotham hit the crossbar.”

McInnes felt his side showed enough quality all over the park to continue the fine form that has lifted them to second spot in the Scottish Premiership.

It was a fourth win on the spin, and the former Derek added: “I thought we showed a bit of quality at the right times, and the players deserve all the credit from it.

“It was another clean sheet, and I don’t think we’re getting credit for the number of clean sheets we’ve had this season.”

Partick boss Alan Archibald admitted the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, but having seen his side bounce back from a 3-0 defeat against the Dons at Firhill earlier in the season, is confident they can do the same again.

He said: “It’s a sore one to take. It’s not nice to lose any game 4-0, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

“I think Aberdeen were more clinical than us and made better decisions than us on the night. We kicked on after the last time we were beaten by Aberdeen and we’ll need to do that again after tonight.”

Archibald felt his side need to learn lessons from the defeat, adding: “We’ve learned lessons in terms of giving the other team too much respect and too much space.”

However, the free-kick that led to the Dons opener was perhaps on the soft side, and Archibald continued: “Goals change games, and Aberdeen’s opener came from a free-kick our defence didn’t really think was a free-kick.”