‘STAY CALM,’ McINNES TELLS DONS FANS

The Dons followed up their Betfred League Cup Final 3-0 loss to Celtic at Hampden by slipping to a 2-1 Premiership reverse against Rangers at Ibrox at the weekend.

McInnes insisted a return to fortress Pittodrie this evening will see them get back on track against Kilmarnock.

He said: “I’m quite relaxed about the criticism. Sometimes we can get too much praise when things go well and sometimes the criticism can be too strong when things don’t go well.

“We’ve lost two games in Glasgow in the space of a week when we’ve gone there with high expectations, but, at least, we can say we are going there with those expectations now and that’s why the defeats feel so bad.

“We’ve lost at a team who are unbeaten at home for a long, long time and we’ve lost a Cup Final to Celtic. There’s no huge panic to losing those two games, but it is disappointing as we expect more of ourselves and want to do better.

“There are still a lot of good things going on here, I know people are disappointed.

“The fans have had a tough nine days or so and I get that and feel for them.

“But it is important that we all stick together and get some wins on the board and come out of December in good shape.

“We’ve only lost once at home this season and that was to Celtic and we haven’t played at Pittodrie since October.

“We’re always confident, especially at home, as we expect to go and win games here.

“I said before we played them earlier in the season that I expect Kilmarnock to do better this season as Lee Clark has done a good job.

“He’s got pace and experience in the right areas and, although we beat them 4-0 at Rugby Park, it was an excellent attacking performance from us and if we can reach that level again we will, hopefully, win the game.”