Motherwell 0

Aberdeen 3

ABERDEEN manager Derek McInnes declared himself delighted with his players after watching them demolish Motherwell at Fir Park.

The hosts were heavy favourites going into the match having won five of their last six games. And with Aberdeen having failed to win in their previous three outings, and having a number of players missing due to injuries and suspensions, the smart money appeared to be on Stephen Robinson’s men.

With just four minutes gone, the home side were awarded a penalty after Joe Lewis brought Christopher Long down in the box. However, Lewis redeemed himself with a superb save from James Scott’s spot kick and eleven minutes later, Aberdeen were in the driving seat in spectacular fashion.

With Motherwell down to ten men after an injury to centre back Peter Hartley, Greig Leigh played the ball through to Sam Cosgrove with the striker scoring his fifteenth goal of the season with a delightful chip over Motherwell keeper, Mark Gillespie.

Motherwell stayed within touching distance until eight minutes into the second half when Niall McGinn found the top corner from the edge of the box. And with Zak Vyner securing victory for Aberdeen just eight minutes later with a stunning long-range effort, McInnes admitted he could not be happier.

“I’m delighted with what the players gave us today,” said McInnes of his side, who moved to within a point of Motherwell in third place.

“Clearly we have problems in terms of injuries and suspensions, we had a real shortage of natural midfielders and we were playing against a team that has started well, but our performance levels were really good.

“This performance augers well for us and I’m confident we’ll have a good season.”

McInnes singled out scorer of the opening goal, Cosgrove, for particular praise, with the striker one of the on-form players in the country. And for someone who cost Aberdeen only £25,000, the Englishman has been one of the bargains of the year.

“I showed him his goal after the match - having the confidence to do that was quite something,” McInnes said.

“When he first came here, he would have put that ball out of the stadium.

"Other people can try to take credit for his progress but it's been down to him.

"I played with number nines who strutted about as if they could do wrong and he is giving us that just now.

“We depend on him but it’s good to see others playing their part. He is carrying the mantle of being Aberdeen’s number nine at the moment and that’s not an easy task.

“Morelos is worth millions, Edouard is worth millions. And we signed Sam for £25,000. We took a punt on him and he is worth much more now. We won’t big him up too much though as we want to get through January with him still here.

“We’re just lucky we have got a boy who is hell bent and enjoying being a full-time footballer. He feels loved and important.”

In contrast, Motherwell manager Robinson was disappointed to see his side's winning run come to an end. Having felt that his side were on top during the first 45 minutes, he rued the individual errors that cost his side, as well as the lack of firepower his frontmen showed.

“Key moments in the game went against us. We dominated the first half, missed a penalty at the crucial time which gave them a lift, and they took advantage when we were down to 10 men, then our centre-half makes a poor decision," he said.

“Allan (Campbell) was caught for the second goal but you look at the Aberdeen team and there wasn’t too many lacking experience out there for them.

“We could have been playing for the next 20 days and not scored. It was one of those games.

“We had very young boys who made individual errors but they will learn from it."

However, with Motherwell still in third position in the league, Robinson was keen to look at the positives ahead of their visit to Ibrox to face Rangers next weekend.

“We haven’t lambasted our lads. We’ll just get on with it and keep doing what we do," he said.

“(Sam) Cosgrove scored a brilliant goal for them and he is a massive handful.

"He’s a great outlet for Aberdeen when they go long and you can see why teams are interested in him.

“We were ten to fifteen percent down and we played too much in front of Aberdeen."