..to victory over Shelbourne
After the match, Derek McInnes gave his reflections on the game but first commented on the injury to Calvin Zola-
“I think he’s going to be alright. The physio and the doctor are quite confident that it’s nothing too serious but I just felt with the nature of the pitch and everything else that it wasn’t worth taking any more risks. We were really concerned when we turned up today. I was at the game here last night and I need to say I was concerned about the pitch then- the baking hot sun hasn’t helped it and you are always running the risk. It wasn’t ideal- it was as poor a surface as you’ll see.”
On the 2-1 victory-
“I think the boys deserve a lot of credit. They [Shelbourne] were making a lot of changes and bringing a freshness to it but we tried to stick to the plan where we kept the boys going through the 90 minutes. I thought the tempo and the enthusiasm in the second half especially was terrific because the pitch was like concrete and it wasn’t easy- the conditions weren’t great. But they rose above it and got the result that was needed. Two very good goals and we passed up loads more. I thought their keeper was different class- I was delighted when he came off after an hour. He was pulling off save after save! We were a bit careless at times but it’s better to be that way in pre-season and get it dealt with.
“I thought there was far more urgency and tempo about our play. It was a tempo that we can play at and they can’t and that’s what differentiated the level. The first half was played the way the way game should be in these conditions. But we are professionals and we wanted to get the job done and we got the job done second half- the players deserve all the credit for that. They worked and worked and worked and even when they were passing up loads of opportunities they never gave up and made sure we won the game. “
On Niall McGinn-
“He’s in a good place. He’s scored all different types of goals and he’s looking sharp. He was a strong performer especially in the second half like the rest of them. I thought it was a strong team performance but obviously you need people to finish off the good work and the way Niall is at the moment he is very confident of doing it.”
Reflecting on Chris Clark’s injury, the manager confirmed that Chris will undergo a scan on Monday when the squad return to Aberdeen while he also confirmed that it will be a strong team that heads to Peterhead on Tuesday night.
Niall McGinn also gave his reaction after the victory over the Irish league outfit-
“The most important thing was to get the win. I thought the first half we were very poor- we didn’t really pass the ball about as well as we would have liked. To be fair to Shelbourne, they had a lot of young boys out and they played very well in the first half but we came out in the second half all guns blazing. The manager made us aware that he wanted a good performance and I think we did that in the second half.
“For me personally it’s nice to get on the score sheet- on my birthday as well- so it rounds off a great week and it’s definitely been a worthwhile trip to Ireland.”
