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Derek McInnes | Post Match Reaction

16 January 2021
Author AFC Media Team

 

The Dons didn’t have their troubles to seek at Dingwall this afternoon, for as Derek McInnes revealed after the game, defeat to Ross County wasn’t the only bad outcome of the afternoon.

“The bottom line is we should be better than that and it was a horrible afternoon for us. As well as the result, we lost three players to injury as well. We’ve got Ross leaving the ground on crutches as well as Ash and Jonny coming off, so it doesn’t look good.

“Ross has got an issue with his ankle, the bottom of his leg. He couldn’t move the last ten minutes but we’d used all the subs so he had to carry on. That had a bearing on the third goal, he couldn’t get off the ground to jump for the ball at the corner to challenge with Draper. Hopefully things turn out to be better than it looks, but we do fear the worst. Jonny rolled his ankle on the surface, he’s left on crutches too so we’ll have to see how that settles and Ash had a back spasm early on.”

Aberdeen were rocked on their heels by conceding after just 34 seconds and the manager was frustrated at the way the game went in the opening phase.

“It was a really poor opening. The way you start a game is so important and we didn’t start at all. It’s clearly not good enough to go behind after less than 40 seconds. It gives the team at the bottom of the league real encouragement and from there, their front three caused us some problems.

“Then we conceded another poor goal, then Ash goes off, but I thought we actually looked better when we changed the shape and went to a back four. But we shouldn’t need to be doing that because the shape has worked well for us this season but they imposed themselves on us in that period and got their reward. Ross County deserve credit for how they played, it’s not just about it being a poor defensive performance from us.

“Saying that, it was clear it was a tricky pitch today, so we needed to be a lot more savvy, look after the ball better and to be far more aggressive in our work than we were. The first goal was disappointing and the second was a poor one. The only positive at that point was we still had 70 minutes to turn it round and I thought we created enough chances to do that, but we didn’t take them.

“When we changed to a four at the back, we were instantly better and I felt we played well in the last 20 minutes of the first half. We moved the ball from side to side, created opportunities, but for all that their goalkeeper has made good saves, we should be scoring those chances.

“We got one back just before half-time which gave everyone encouragement and I was looking for more of that in the second half. I felt we started it well, in similar fashion, but for us to have one goal from the chances we created isn’t disappointing. Losing Jonny was a real blow and we never quite got going again from that.

“It was a really bad afternoon for us, you can’t hide from that but we’ve been pretty consistent all season and we move on. If we win our games in hand it takes us third, there’s loads to play for but today was a lesson, not in terms of effort or attitude, but that you’ve got to defend situations better and you have to be more clinical in front of goal. There aren’t any real positives to find today but we get ready for next Saturday and look to get a positive result and get moving forward again.”

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