‘We still have a good squad’ – Derek McInnes plays down Aberdeen absences

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes is sure his decimated squad can still produce results.

The Dons will again be without nine players at Hamilton on Wednesday night.

McInnes had four young players without any first-team experience on his bench during Sunday’s 4-0 defeat by Rangers, and the five other substitutes only had one league start between them this season.

Scotland Under-21 trio Ross McCrorie, Lewis Ferguson and Connor McLennan dropped out because of Covid-19 issues while Scott Wright and Niall McGinn joined Jonny Hayes, Marley Watkins, Dylan McGeouch and Tomas Cerny on the injury list.

Wednesday’s trip to face Scottish Premiership bottom club Hamilton is the second of six away games in seven matches that the Dons face amid their selection problems.

McInnes said: “Even with the difficulties we have, it’s important we recognise we still have a good squad of players, we are still capable of picking up results. And hopefully we will start another unbeaten and winning run on Tuesday.

“We have obvious challenges, a lot of what has been good about the team has been speed, and arguably five of the best performers – McCrorie, Ferguson, Hayes, Wright, Watkins – if you take five key players out of any team then it will have an effect.

“The good thing for me is I know we have better players to come back.

“We have now given the opportunity to ones who have not played as much. It’s a chance for them to show their capabilities.

“And there is no doubt for me that with the personnel we have got available, we can still win games and navigate our way through the next few weeks until we get hopefully something like our strongest squad back.”

McInnes handed 16-year-old Ryan Duncan a debut off the bench at Ibrox.

“It was good to see young Ryan coming on,” he said. “We took him out of the youth bubble to supplement numbers and he has done particularly well over the last month or so training with the first team. A quiet lad but very confident lad.

“He is still young but he has a good frame about him and I do think he’s got the opportunity to be part of things going forward.

“But it’s only a start for him and hopefully next time he is playing in that first-team Aberdeen shirt it’s a winning performance, and hopefully he can be involved in that on Tuesday.”

Hamilton have lost five games in a row but McInnes urged caution after watching footage of their 2-1 defeat by Dundee United on Saturday.

“I have watched their game back and for me it was a very strong performance, I thought their performance merited something in the game,” he said.

“What I saw was a Hamilton team fully committed, difficult to play against. I think they will be annoyed with one or two of the goals because for the majority of the game they were very good.

“It was a team giving their club and manager absolutely everything, which you expect from Hamilton over the years. We have always seen that competitive element and I am still seeing that.”