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Scottish Cup Rd4 | Manager Post Match

20 January 2018
Author AFC Media Team

What Derek McInnes had to say to the press after the game.

“It was a potentially tricky tie for us today there and the reason the TV cameras are here is because they maybe seen it as possible upset.

“I totally understand that because of the way the way St Mirren have been going in their own division. They’re a very good side going the right way, so we had to overcome that challenge, but I thought we were very clinical in the first half.

“But I also felt there were moments of sloppiness, which gave them too much encouragement for my liking. I think throughout it all there were some very good performances.

“We had good spells in the game, some fantastic goals and an experienced second half performance got the job done.

“I never felt we were in any danger of letting it slip. I think St Mirren did well and their support were a credit to them as well and even during the second half they stuck with their team. They looked like a team that’s going to go on and finish their own campaign well, but from our own point of view it’s just great to get through the tie and we look forward to whatever the draw brings us for the next round.

“St Mirren play quite expansive and their three behind their striker are busy and bring good energy, but we wanted to make sure our wider players had an effect on the game. Greg Stewart got the penalty by running in on the left back and Gary was a constant threat on the other side.

“In the second half after Gary scores a fantastic goal, you’ll not see many better goals this season, Niall McGinn and Stevie May get minutes on the pitch. There’s clearly going to be some rustiness there and we’re trying to get them where they need to be so all in all it was a good performance.

“Last season we keep back from a three-week break and we had a quite straightforward game against Stranraer which we won 4-0 here. That game set us up for the league campaign and I think today there were moments in the game where we were a bit sloppy in decision making. I think we’ll be better for having the game, so I’m pleased with our work. I think the players deserve a lot of credit to overcome what is a good St Mirren team and I think they’ll go on to prove that’ll they’ll be a Premiership team next season.

“We pulled Ryan Christie in on Thursday and talked about his goal return as he’s been getting into good positions. It’s good for him to get the goals and I thought both goals were nice and calm. We worked on the type of finishes from Gary’s cutback cross, but he’s still got to tuck it away. He is a real influence for us and you can see how energetic he is and does everything at 100mph.

“Sometimes you need him to slow down in that last wee bit just to get that calmness of a finish, but he brings good energy and I thought him, McLean and Shinnie helped make the game go our way. They stopped St Mirren getting any real control in there. They usually feed Morgan and Magennis in there and it was important we got on top of it early and I thought Ryan played a big part in that. He took a bang on the back of the knee so he has got a bit of fluid on it, but hopefully it’ll settle down. At that stage of the game we weren’t going to take any risks on it.”

 

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