Derek McInnes: Aberdeen fans should be optimistic for future

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes praised the contribution of Scott Wright after the young winger notched a hat-trick on just his second competitive start for the club.

Derek McInnes, right, looks on as Scott Wright, left, celebrates with Graeme Shinnie. Picture: SNS

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Wright put the Partick Thistle defence to the sword with his trickery and direct running as the away side ran out 6-0 winners at Firhill.

However, McInnes insisted he was not surprised at the 19-year-old’s level of performance.

“Wee Scott Wright has just played the way he’s been training the last wee while,” said McInnes.

“Every day they’ve got an opportunity to show me and Scott had an opportunity today, starting the game, and he was fantastic.”

With Niall McGinn set to leave the club in the summer, McInnes suggested that Aberdeen could have an immediate replacement in Wright.

“I’m going to be losing McGinn, and I’m going to be losing one or two others, but the likes of Scott Wright give you real optimism for the future,” he added.

“We think a lot of him and it’s been all about trying to get him into the team.”

Ryan Jack and Peter Pawlett came through the second half unscathed after coming off the bench, and McInnes emphasised that they will be available for Saturday’s Scottish Cup final against Celtic.

He said: “Both him (Ryan Jack) and Peter (Pawlett) trained on Friday. I didn’t think they trained great in terms of the quality, in terms of the movement they seemed a bit restricted.

“But their training yesterday gave me the confidence to get the two of them 45 minutes. That was always the intention.”

Meanwhile, Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald thanked his club’s supporters for sticking with his team throughout the whole 90 minutes despite a disappointing result, with Ryan Christie’s double adding to Wright’s efforts and Jonny Hayes also on target.

“They’ve been great. It just leaves a bad taste the last couple of games. It’s hard to have a go at them because they’ve been so good over the course of the season.”

Archibald bemoaned the injuries which have left him with a depleted side in the final stages of the campaign.

He said: “We’re 10 players short and I think it showed. Two called off this morning and we’d already done our shape yesterday, picked our team and we had to change it.

“You could tell that with some of the guys playing out of position.”