McInnes applauds Dons comeback as they maintain long unbeaten run at Kilmarnock

Posted Thursday, March 05, 2020 by PA

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes applauded his side for overcoming what he believes was a harsh penalty award and battling back to draw 2-2 at Kilmarnock.

The Dons trailed Killie 2-0 in the Ladbrokes Premiership but stormed back to clinch a point and extend their unbeaten run at Rugby Park to 17 matches. Their last defeat at Kilmarnock’s home patch was in December 2011.

Kilmarnock opened the scoring through an Eamonn Brophy penalty after Ash Taylor was penalised by Alan Newlands for handball but McInnes was adamant the referee got the decision wrong.

Greg Kiltie doubled Killie’s advantage midway through the first half but Niall McGinn pulled a goal back before half-time and Connor McLennan grabbed the equaliser five minutes into the second half.

McInnes said: “Any time you’re 2-0 down and you get a point you have to be grateful for it.

“I know there were spells when we got the second goal that we could go on and win it but territorially Kilmarnock had the better of the last 20 minutes and responded well.

“The penalty against us isn’t a penalty. I’ve seen it again and it hit Ash on the side of the back. The referee was too quick to give it.

“There was a sense of injustice there but I was raging at the second goal because we should’ve dealt with that so much better by denying the space.

“It left us with a mountain to climb. McGinn’s goal was a shot in the arm and it was then a brilliant equaliser, which was no more than we deserved.

“It says a lot about our resilience to come back from two goals down.

“At two goals down away from home, a lot of teams could go under in that position. But I always feel my team are competitive.”

Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer was frustrated at seeing his side squander a two-goal lead.

Dyer said: “That was two points dropped.

“We were in control of the game and winning comfortably but we let them back into the game before half-time and then they started the second half well.

“Once it got to 2-2, though, we were fine again and played some good stuff. I’m just annoyed we didn’t go on to win it when we should have done.

“We should have done better defensively, though, in terms of man-marking and just stopping crosses from coming in.

“The players are old enough to have learned that by now and we should have killed them off.”