Aberdeen boss McInnes delighted with second-half turnaround against Kilmarnock

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2018 by PA

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was full of praise for his side’s second-half performance after they came from behind to beat Kilmarnock 3-1.

Despite a bright start, they fell behind to a fortunate Kris Boyd goal, but emerged triumphant thanks to second-half strikes from Adam Rooney, Scott McKenna, and Niall McGinn.

“Half-time came at a good time for us,” McInnes said. “I think we started the game really well – we got into good areas and had plenty of crosses. We had a number of corners and looked quite threatening, but never got the goal.

“We lost a poor goal and lost our way for a 15-minute spell towards the end of the first half. I think we were guilty of giving them encouragement to counter-attack on us.

“The players needed reminding of what we were trying to do and we made a little tweak tactically in putting McGinn through the middle and Kenny McLean out wide. Niall’s movement in the central area dragged the Kilmarnock back four around a lot more.

“I thought we were magnificent in the second half. We got good goals and it was everything I wanted in terms of intensity and motivation.”

McInnes reserved special recognition for McGinn, making his first start since returning to the club after a brief spell in South Korea.

“With every good performance, you need star players within them,” McInnes continued. “I thought McGinn did that (on Saturday). You can only hold somebody of that quality back so long, so we just asked him to give us everything he’s got, and he could still be running now which is a credit to him.”

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke was left to rue the individual errors and bad luck that led to the loss.

“It took us a little bit of time to get into the game, but once we were in it I thought we were decent,” he said. “We got ourselves in front, perhaps a little fortuitously, but I certainly couldn’t see the game panning out the way it did.

“Alan Power was struggling from early in the game and he’s a big player at set-pieces, which was why I brought Lee Erwin on slightly out of position. We got done for the first goal from a corner which took a deflection off Lee, funnily enough.

“That was compounded by an absolute worldie, which you have to take on the chin. We did that but then Gary Dicker was caught in possession for the third goal and 3-1 is hard to come back from.

“You can’t win every week. We’ll go away and look at the good bits of the game and try to take those into the Celtic match next week, while eradicating the mistakes that cost us at least a point.”