ABERDEEN midfielder Dom Ball has expressed hope sectarianism can be eradicated from Scottish football in future after his manager Derek McInnes was once again targeted for abuse by Celtic supporters.

McInnes watched his side’s Ladbrokes Premiership match at Pittodrie on Saturday from the stands after being handed a one game touchline ban at an SFA disciplinary hearing at Hampden on Thursday.

The former Rangers player had made a gesture at supporters of the Parkhead club after being called a “sad Orange b******” during the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final last month.

He was subjected to the same chant as his men were beaten 3-0 at home by their Parkhead rivals at the weekend.

Ball, who is on loan at Aberdeen from Rotherham once again this season, believes bigotry tarnishes the game in this country and is hopeful that more can be done going forward to drive it out.

“I didn’t hear it, but it’s disappointing,” he said. “I’ve always said Scottish football is full of passion. It’s different to down south and there is a passion that makes every game fun. The sectarianism is something that brings it down a bit and hopefully, as we go forward, that disappears.

“I think things will change. It’s like down south with the racism at Raheem Sterling. As players we have to try to ignore it and play our football.”

Aberdeen dropped to fourth place in the Premiership table on Saturday when they lost 3-0 to Celtic and Kilmarnock later defeated Hearts 1-0 at Tynecastle.

However, Ball remains confident that his side, who are only behind the Rugby Park club on goal difference, can finish third and secure automatic qualification for the Europa League in their final two games against Hearts at home and Hibernian away.

“It’s disappointing because when we’ve played Celtic at times this season they’ve been the better team but, if we had taken our chances in the first half, we could have been 3-0 up,” he said.

“We’ve created those chances. We’ve played well, passed it and (James) Wilson had his chances. On another day, we score them.

“But it’s the other way round and they won 3-0. In both boxes they were a lot better than us. We’ve got to learn from it and we’ve got two big games coming up and hopefully we can get two wins.

“It was a great result beating Kilmarnock, but we’ve not won in the last two games. If you compare that to last season, we didn’t lose a game post-split and conceded one goal. We’ve conceded five in the last two games.

“We have to put that behind us because the next two games will define if we’re in Europe or not. It has been our aim since the start of the season.”

Ball, who spent a spell on loan at Rangers in the 2015/16 campaign, believes Celtic are worthy winners.

“They weren’t at their best on Saturday, which is worrying for us because we’ve done alright,” he said. “In both boxes they were better, that’s why they’ve been champions for the last eight seasons. They defend, don’t concede and score three goals like that.

“The goals weren’t amazing. (James) Forrest and (Callum) McGregor haven’t run through players and smashed one into the top corner. It’s been from some of our mistakes. For an Aberdeen team, it’s not something we should be giving away. We’re looking at ourselves and taking responsibility because the next two games are so important for us.”

Asked about his own future beyond the end of the 2018/19 campaign, Ball said: “I want to focus on getting Aberdeen into Europe first before anything and that’s all I’m thinking about.”