Derek McInnes enjoys ‘trademark’ McGinn moment as Aberdeen hold St Johnstone

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was pleased Niall McGinn came up with another “big moment” when scoring his free-kick in the 1-1 draw against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

The Pittodrie side improved markedly after the break when they trailed to David McMillan’s opener, and they deservedly drew level in the 69th minute. Northern Ireland international McGinn lifted a free-kick over the wall and past Saints keeper Zander Clark for his first goal of the season.

McInnes said: “I said to him there that he scores one every 40 of them.

“Keepers are making good saves, he is hitting the bar, a couple of times he has hit the post of late but that was always a trademark of Niall, being able to come up with big moments in the game and score from these types of situations.

“It was a fantastic goal and just when we needed it.

“St Johnstone tried to stem the tide and they put another midfielder in there.

“Whether we did enough to win it, I don’t know.”

McInnes noted that his squad had been stretched ahead of the trip to Perth.

Defender Scott McKenna was back from a hamstring injury which kept him out for five weeks and he took over from the suspended Michael Devlin.

However, Lewis Ferguson, Tommie Hoban, Mark Reynolds, Greg Tansey, Scott Wright, James Wilson and Frank Ross were all missing.

Former St Johnstone boss McInnes said: “It is not the result we wanted, we wanted all three but we will take our point.

“We have eight players out, suspensions and injuries, probably four or five of them would be starting for me.

“Not many team outwith the Old Firm could cope with that level of injuries and hopefully we will get a couple back, certainly we will get Devlin back for next week and hopefully James Wilson and start to bolster the squad.

“When you take all that into consideration, a point at MacDiarmid Park isn’t the worst result but it is three we are looking for and hopefully we can go and get that next week.”

Saints boss Tommy Wright was happy enough with the outcome.

The Northern Irishman said: “It was a good point, we had to work hard for it.

“There were aspects of our game we could do better, we allowed them to counter by giving the ball away cheaply at times, but (it is) a good point against a good side who were obviously going to throw everything at us in the second half.

“I would have taken a point before the game.”

Wright revealed “words were said” at the interval when midfielder Liam Craig was replaced by debutant Ross Callachan and denied the substitution was because Craig had been booked in the first half.

He said: “No, because I am the manager. I will make a decision. There were a few words said at half-time. I am the manager, I decide, not Liam Craig.”