The manager’s reaction
Derek McInnes was delighted with his young side who beat Falkirk 5-0 this evening. The Dons starting XI had an average age of 22. At one point in the second half there were seven players on the field at the same time who had come through the AFC Youth Academy.
He told RedTV “The players deserve so much credit for that performance. There was some good play, some good goals but at the heart of it all was an appetite to work. Every player worked extremely hard. Once we got the third goal there was a real element of control. That made things difficult for a young Falkirk team. Saying that, we also had a young team out tonight with an average age of just 22.
“We got what we did tonight from our work rate, our desire to close Falkirk down. We know they are a side that like to the pass the ball, Gary (Holt) has got them doing the right things but we did not let them settle at any point.
“It is also our 5th clean sheet in a row and we take a lot of pride from that as well.
“We passed up quite a few opportunities but no manager can be annoyed with their team after they score five goals away from home.
“Scott Vernon was always going to come on at some point but he maybe got a bit longer that he anticipated. He was unlucky not to start as he was in a good place again after his goal against Inverness but I did not want to make too many changes. We were forced to make a change with Andrew Considine being out and I made one with Nicky Low coming in for Gregg Wylde.
“He got on after what I thought were a lot of poor decisions against Calvin Zola but we did not want to run the risk of him getting sent off. Scott therefore had enough time to get a hat-trick and we are all delighted for him. Four goals in 80 minutes, he is averaging a goal every 20 minutes so he has to be pleased with that. As I have said before he is a very popular player in our dressing room. A goal can do so much for a striker and Scott now has a real spring in his step.
“Every team in the draw for the Quarter Finals will feel they have a chance. We just have to concentrate on what we are doing regardless of what the draw throws up. Ideally we would like to be at home but whoever we draw we will just have to deal with it. It is important we go into the next round with some good league form behind us, like we did tonight.”
The manager confirmed that Andrew Considine missed the game with a thigh strain but it is hopeful he will be back for the game on Monday against St Mirren. The manager had said previously that he is also hopeful that Niall McGinn, Russell Anderson and Barry Robson will be available for selection on Monday.
