Derek McInnes gave reaction to the Europa League draws this afternoon to RedTV from the club’s St Andrew’s training base:
“Obviously we do not know a lot about Fola Esch just now, but within the next 24 hours or so we will get working and become a bit more familiar with them. I think by and large it is a draw into the unknown, but hopefully we can have a better opinion and knowledge of them when we have studied them.
“With the Latvians a couple years ago it was clear after the warm up watching them that the game might be a bit easier than anticipated and watching the Macedonians last year we thought that it was going to be a lot harder than anticipated.
“So at the moment it is a bit of the unknown.
“Overall we are happy with the draw but again I will be happy when I get a chance to see them then I will be more confident in saying that.
“I’d like to think of all the teams we could have got that travel wise I think it is a decent draw for us.
“That is probably how you would quantify a tough draw or easier draw maybe through distance a lot of the time.
“I think that we will be professional, we will do our work, we will get to see them tomorrow and get back out to see them again on Saturday and have a better idea of the standard of the game and the team we are facing.
“We do not want to look too far ahead, but at least we do know who might lie in wait if we get through the first round. We can do a bit of work on that in the background, but that’s not for me and the immediate staff, we will just concentrate on dealing with Fola Esch and hopefully we will have the second tie to look forward to, but as you would expect we will not get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Aberdeen this afternoon played a bounce game for the second year running against Welsh Champions The New Saintsin St Andrews. The Dons ran out 3-0 winners over TNS in what was a very useful exercise for both sides.
“Very pleased with how the game went. It was quite hot down here as well so that was another demand on the players, but they looked very strong. Delighted we came through it, a wee knock to Jonny Hayes, but we don’t think it’s too serious. By in large it was a good performance by everyone that goes on the pitch. It was good to get a win. Although it is never too important about the results in pre-season, but a clean sheet and getting a few goals doesn’t do any harm.”
“Neil Alexander played in goals. Both he and Joe Lewis will play one game each this week. Jayden Stockley scored the first goal and did very well. Callum Morris came on second half and did absolutely fine as well. It was a strong performance from the players, the young lads did well. Lawrence Shankland got amongst the goals and Danny Harvie scored towards the end. By and large it was a very pleasing performance.”
Finally, the manager spoke about Niall McGinn, who could miss the Dons opening European games if Northern Ireland advance to the next stage of the European Championships.
“We will assess Niall when he comes back and joins us. You would never want Niall not to make the most of the tournament, hopefully he will do well tomorrow. I think Niall has had that little bit of impact on the tournament what we had hoped for. Hopefully he starts tomorrow and if he doesn’t then then I’m sure he will be ready to show what we all know in how good a player he is.”
“We will assess Niall when he comes back and joins us. You would never want Niall not to make the most of the tournament, hopefully he will do well tomorrow. I think Niall has had that little bit of impact on the tournament what we had hoped for. Hopefully he starts tomorrow and if he doesn’t then then I’m sure he will be ready to show what we all know in how good a player he is.”
