News

News

Derek McInnes | Easter Road Quotes

17 February 2018
Author AFC Media Team

What the manager said in the press conference after the game.

“In the first half the teams matched up and there was a bit of cancelling each other out. We had some good spells in the that first half an hour, some good passages of play but there was not a lot happening. Kenny was unlucky with his strike, it was a good save from their goalkeeper. At that stage I thought it was just a case of us needing to nullify their threat and trying to impose ourselves on the game.

“It is difficult. Hibs are a good team. They have good players. I said at half time that towards end the half we were getting too deep and there were signs there that we needed to take more responsibility to get on the ball, more responsibility to press the ball, more responsibility to squeeze the game and stop them from working. We spoke about that at half time and we made the change with Stevie coming on for Adam. That gave us an opportunity to get it in behind. We had an opportunity to do that right at the start of the half, we failed to do that, and then they break on us and get the first goal which gives them that lift.

“I can sit here and say it was 2-0 but they murdered us in the second half. Absolutely murdered us.

“They were the better team hands down. Neil will probably say that was their best performance of the season or say it was up there, and as an opposition manager it is not always about my team playing poorly. They were miles better than us in the second half. I thought their better players had an influence on the game and we did not react the way I would have expected, certainly when the second goal went in. There was plenty of effort from the players but there was not enough responsibly, and I thought we were second best the whole of the half.

“We were outfought. They won more of their tackles. We missed our captain today. Shinnie normally turns the ball over for us and gets us going that way and gives us that impetus. I don’t think we won nearly enough tackles. We picked up enough yellow cards but I am not kidded by that. There was not enough proper tackling from us.

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes

“Hibs had a good day today. Similar to when we won 4-1 at Pittodrie, on the day we were hands down miles better than them. We were saying it was one of our best performances and Neil was saying it was one of their worst performances of the season. It was revenge for Hibs today. Although it was only 2-0 we were lucky to only get away with two.

“There is no doubt we have a fight for second spot. Rangers were huge favourites for second place and I think Hibs will be pushing us for that third spot. We don’t want to give up second spot, we want to finish as high as we can, we want to go on the type of run we are capable of going on. That performance in the second half was in isolation really.

“We don’t get too many of them. The result was disappointing but when you play a good team like Hibs you have to be so much better than that.

“It had to be a far better level of performance to get something from the game. At 0-0 I was looking for more from us. When one team needed to step it up, Hibs stepped it up and we did not. And we go away with nothing.

“With eleven games to go you cannot not have too many days like today if we want to finish second.

“Whoever plays next week, we want to see an improvement in performance. Without doubt it is the toughest fixture when you play Celtic. We normally get a response and hopefully we can see that. The players are hurting. It is very unusual for us to be second best as we were in that second half. It can happen in periods of the game but not for 45 minutes. it is tough to take that but that is the reality and we dust ourselves down and go again next week.”

Tagged

Refresh