what the managers said

From PA Sport

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes hailed his side after Nicky Low’s second-minute goal against Ross County proved decisive.

The Dons missed a golden chance to double their advantage 10 minutes later as Scott Vernon saw his penalty saved by County goalkeeper Michael Fraser, but were otherwise kept largely quiet by the defensive-minded visitors.

McInnes said: “We came here to win and we won the game well. It’s the most comfortable 1-0 victory we’ve had.

“We were the dominant team. I really enjoyed watching them play today, especially in the first half when we were really forcing the issue as we knew we had to.

“The crispness of our passing and the movement was outstanding. The penalty was obviously an important point in the game. We’ve been punished for missed penalties and are grateful it’s not come back to bit us today.”

He had praise for goalscorer Low, who came into the team in place of Barry Robson.

He added: “It was a quality goal. Nicky was really influential, especially in that first half, and in the second he did a lot of good unseen work without really catching the eye.

“There’s no fluke in the free-kick. Barry Robson practises and he always has done since he was a wee kid, but after every training session Nicky takes at least 50 free-kicks and he always backs himself in that situation.

“He’s merited his opportunity. His standard of training lately has been superb, so he earned his chance and he took it.”

Ross County manager Derek Adams revealed he would look to buy in January in a bid to lift his struggling side in the new year.

Although pleased with the defensive aspect of his side’s performance, Adams said “We’re finding it hard to get a victory, but that’s just the nature of the season we’re having. We’ve got to keep on plugging away and wait until we get reinforcements in to help move us up the league.”

One the early goal, he added: “I never feared the worst because I know how well we can defend. Aberdeen had a lot of possession but never opened us up and between the two goalkeepers, neither really had a save to make.

“We did very well defensively and kept Aberdeen down to virtually nothing in the game. They scored the free-kick and, apart from Michael’s penalty save, he’s not really had another save to make.

“We’ve had games where we’ve had a lot of the ball and not really done anything with it and I think that was the case for Aberdeen today. They didn’t really open us up and you could hear the crowd were frustrated and think they should beat a Ross County side by more than they did.

“Aberdeen have had a really good start to the season and have won with a free-kick today. We lost two set-pieces against Hibs and today we lost to a set-piece that probably wasn’t a free-kick in the first place.”