Derek McInnes says Aberdeen's win over Hamilton 'red hot' and 'wasteful'
Monday 7 August 2017 12:19, UK
Derek McInnes described Aberdeen's 2-0 victory over Hamilton on Sunday as being both "red hot" and "wasteful", adding the win at Pittodrie had helped ease the pain of their European exit in midweek.
Anthony O'Connor and Miles Storey were on target for the Dons in their opening fixture of the Scottish Premiership campaign, which followed Thursday's 2-0 second-leg defeat by Apollon Limassol in the Europa League in Cyprus.
The result ended their interest in this season's Europa League, while this weekend's three points came against a Hamilton side that had Xavier Tomas sent off for two yellow cards.
"We were certainly guilty of being wasteful in key moments of the game," McInnes said in a match which saw Xavier Tomas sent off for Hamilton.
"It's been disappointing not to score more from set pieces in the European run, so to get one like that today was good.
"When we were hot today, we were really hot, but we were also wasteful and it became a bit like a basketball game towards the end.
"I'd have liked to see a bit more control in there but certain bits of the game I was really pleased with.
"It took too long to get the second goal so I was delighted to get it, and I thought it was a fairer reflection of the game."
And McInnes was delighted with young winger Scott Wright, who is likely to get more chances in the first team now that Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn are no longer at the club.
He added: "It's been hard for him with Jonny and Niall being our wide players over the past four years or so, so it's been hard to get Scott in, and it's unrealistic to expect him to be at that level. He's certainly got the potential to be that and more.
"We think he'll improve with game time. He's got loads to do, but as a one-to-one wide player, he's very exciting to work with and to watch."
Meanwhile, Hamilton boss Martin Canning praised his team who played the final 28 minutes with just 10 on the pitch.
He said: "It was always going to be a difficult start against the side who were second in the league last year and will probably be up there again this year.
"Our work rate was excellent and we stayed in the game the whole way through, even when we went down to 10 men and we actually probably got better and kept the ball better."
