LIFE is good down Pittodrie way. With a nine-point cushion over Rangers in second place in the Ladbrokes Premiership, it would be unsurprising if the Ibrox supporters were looking in the direction of the Granite City for the answer to the current managerial malaise which has engulfed their club.
Derek McInnes has punched above his weight in his four years at Aberdeen, producing meaningful progress on a significantly lower budget than is available to whoever his counterpart at Ibrox happens to be at any given time.
But Kenny McLean, who was instrumental in McInnes's side's 1-0 victory over Ross County on Saturday, insists there is no peering over their shoulders at Rangers, who the previous night had gone down 2-1 in Inverness.
"Nothing was mentioned in the dressing room after Friday's result,” McLean said. "I don't think it needed to be. Last week was the opposite; we played first [a 2-1 win at Kilmarnock] and we knew winning would put pressure on Rangers. This time it was the other way round and it has gone our way again, which is great.
"It's all about what we do and we have a huge incentive to go to Hamilton and, if we get the three points, it may put pressure on them again. But we have to keep looking at what we are doing as it is working for us at the moment, and long may it continue.
"We've shown we are worth our lead. There's been a bit of criticism going Rangers' way but we've been excellent to a man in the squad. The gap is there but we cannot take our eye off the ball at any stage and the run-in is going to be tough. Every game will be important and we're just looking to tick them off and keep getting the results.”
The victory over Ross County at Pittodrie may have fallen short of offering a spectacle, but the result was as deserved as it was hard-won, courtesy of Adam Rooney capitalising on a hesitancy in the County defence and finding the net in the 69th minute.
If the game lacked talking points, there was the issue of the playing surface which, like too many in the Scottish game, was disappointingly rutted and sluggish.
“We do what we need to do but our pitch is not great at all,” McLean admitted. “We'd love to be playing on a better surface than we are here but there's nothing the players can do about it.”
For Ross County, without a win in the last six games, the future is less clear. They sit perilously close to the foot of the league table on 24 points, just three above bottom side Hamilton.
Yet, they are just six points off sixth place, currently occupied by Dundee, all of which is indicative of the vagaries of the campaign outside the top four.
The game was Michael Gardyne’s 307th appearance for the visitors, surpassing Scott Boyd’s previous record. But the Dundee-born winger’s pressing concern centres on helping County relieve themselves from the relegation mire they find themselves in.
Hearts, another team without its troubles to seek, await them at Tynecastle on Wednesday as Gardyne examines the enormity of that task.
“We’re thinking that if we get a couple of wins we can maybe still get in that top-six,” the County midfielder said.
“There’s seven games before the split and five games after that, so there’s plenty of games coming up. There’s still a great spirit so I think we just need a bit of rub of the green.
“The whole focus this week will be on Hearts, and how they’re in a bit of a slump as well.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel