Aberdeen's resilience in win at Inverness impresses boss Derek McInnes

Published 20th Nov 2016

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes hailed the resilience of his players as they came from a goal down to beat Inverness 3-1 in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Lonsana Doumbouya gave the home side an early lead but Kenny McLean equalised and an Adam Rooney penalty put the Dons ahead by half-time.

A second from McLean on the break rounded off the scoring and McInnes was pleased with how his side responded to going behind.

I was delighted with the way we started but it was a poor goal to lose from our point of view,'' said McInnes.

The response of the players was excellent, though, the free-kick was quality from Kenny McLean and then the penalty kick from Jonny Hayes' good play.

The game was never over until the third goal near the end but I felt it was well deserved.

Inverness are in good form, they will win a lot of matches here, so coming here to score three goals is positive.

We played some good football, stopped the opposition and scored good goals, so we're happy.''

His Caley Thistle counterpart Richie Foran pulled no punches in his assessment of his own side's performance, believing they were second-best all over the park.

Doumbouya had his best game for the club and Owain Fon Williams played well - but no other players received pass marks from the Caley Jags boss.

Our overall performance was very disappointing. Nearly all over the park we were second best - I take only Lonsana Doumbouya and Owain Fon Williams out of that,'' said Foran.

Lons was excellent - his best game for us. Everywhere else we were very poor.

Anticipation from Aberdeen, winning second balls, was excellent from start to finish. They have players of the calibre of Rooney, Hayes and (James) Maddison, who was excellent.

They looked a far better team than us today. Full credit to them.''

Foran declined to elaborate on the performance of referee Kevin Clancy, despite there appearing to be a couple of questionable calls going against the home side.

I think it was a free-kick on Brad McKay,'' he said.There was no intent from Graeme Shinnie, he was just a little bit late - but he's hurt Brad.

We never got a free-kick from that which I thought was a very strange decision.''