IT seemed almost sacrilegious to invoke his memory, but in his home town of Paisley yesterday it was a case of anything Sir Alex Ferguson can do, Derek McInnes can do better.
The Aberdeen boss watched his side rack up their eighth successive league win, equalling any run achieved by Ferguson during his trophy-laden stint at Pittodrie, but with the added accolade of managing to do so without conceding a single goal.
The last Aberdeen manager to achieve eight victories in a row was actually Alex Smith a quarter of a century ago, while the all-time record belongs to Eddie Turnbull's team in 1970-71, who racked up 15 consecutive wins but still didn't win the league.
But in conditions which were the polar opposite of those being experienced yesterday by Ronny Deila and Celtic in Gran Canaria, two quick-fire first-half goals from Niall McGinn and Shay Logan moved Aberdeen four points clear of the Parkhead side at the top of the SPFL Premiership.
St Mirren, on the other hand, slumped back to the bottom on goals scored, with Ross County's match postponed due to power cuts in the Dingwall area. While the champions sunned themselves in foreign climes - the Dons also took a one-week break from league fixtures earlier in the campaign - intermittent flurries of snow, gale-force gusts and some serious wind chill proved the backdrop to the latest instalment of Aberdeen's unlikely title charge.
As it turned out, the wind only assisted their efforts. McGinn's opening goal came from a deep, floated cross which caught a breath of wind, and, with Mark Ridgers distracted by a stream of bodies in the middle, reared up and deposited itself in his top corner.
Intentional or not, it was a great moment for the scorer, cheered throughout by the visiting support in defiance of the recent controversy which saw him pictured in the Celtic end at Kilmarnock with Anthony Stokes and their respective children. The view he has on the Parkhead side this morning is looking down on them from the table.
"I don't know if Niall was any more determined, he always is," said a delighted McInnes, already setting his sights on Saturday's home meeting with Dundee. "Any time you get this sort of run, it is very unusual, it doesn't happen very often. The record books will tell you that.
"The challenge now is to go and try to win nine in a row and we have an opportunity to do that next week. But I am enjoying watching my team at the minute, there is good maturity and focus from them and in those eight games I think we have deserved to win every single one."
The first half hour of the match was evenly contested, but it took just 90 seconds more for Aberdeen to double their advantage. The excellent Jonny Hayes whipped over a driven cross from the left this time and Logan stabbed the ball in at the far post.
McInnes named an unchanged team, although there was no sign of Willo Flood on the bench. Kenny McLean was pressed into action as a false No 9 and Jeroen Tesselaar deputised for the suspended Marc McAusland at centre-half for the hosts, who saw a bid from a four-man UK-based consortium rejected this week.
Substitute Thomas Morgan came closest to giving St Mirren a route back into this match late on, with a left-footed effort which was palmed over by Scott Brown. But in truth Aberdeen managed their lead well and could easily have added to it, with close-range chances for Adam Rooney, Andrew Considine and substitute Lawrence Shankland.
St Mirren's lack of firepower was evident and Gary Teale said afterwards that the club hoped to have two new strikers on board before Saturday's relegation red- letter day against Ross County.
"It was the same old story," the caretaker manager said. "We competed reasonably well in the game, there was nothing in it, but we lose a goal and then we lose our composure. I'm not naïve, I know we have to bring in players and that's what I'm working on."
Aberdeen departed with distinct instructions not to get carried away with it all. "We'll see where we are come the last game of the season with five minutes left," said Hayes.
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