Derek McInnes highlights a Rangers issue and reveals change he was planning prior to winning goal

Derek McInnes saluted his Rangers team after they reached the League Cup final following a hard-earned victory over Aberdeen.

It was all about the result rather than the performance for the Ibrox manager, who is bidding to win his first trophy at the club just six months after joining from Hearts.

He could be facing his old side in the final. They face an Edinburgh derby against Hibs at Hampden on Sunday afternoon.

McInnes was relieved his own team overcame a perhaps stronger-than-expected challenge from struggling Aberdeen, whose manager Stephen Robinson has surely earned himself a stay of execution at the very least.

Rangers manager Derek McInnes (centre) celebrates with players Findlay Curtis and Olwethu Makhanya at full time after the 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Hampden. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

“We have done the job, I’m very pleased,” he said. “I am just delighted with the players in the main for their perseverance, for keeping going.”

Ryan Naderi’s winner with eight minutes left, when he steered home James Penrice’s cross after ghosting into the six-yard area, proved the decisive moment.

“I have been involved in semi-finals with lots of clubs, I have been involved at Rangers at semi-finals with a far bigger and more talented squads when we’ve struggled to get through a semi-final,” McInnes continued. “Semi-finals are not easy to get through, particularly when we play the way we did in the first half. We were ponderous when we needed to be quicker. When we needed to be calm in the final third, we snatched and made poor decisions. To have 75 per cent possession and 25 shots, it’s not good enough to only have five on target – that needs to be said.

“But that’s for another day. Today was all about getting through to the final, it’s so important for this group of players and supporters to look forward to a final. We need to keep arriving at Hampden, we need to keep arriving in cup finals and get the job done to win trophies. That's the job.”

Rangers still need to complete the mission on 13 December. McInnes knows it won’t be seen as good enough simply reaching the final.

Rangers striker Ryan Naderi scores the winning goal against Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

“We'll get six weeks between now and then where we need to get better at things I just spoke about,” he said. “The players who are in the team at the minute need to play well to stay in the team if they want to be in the cup final, and the players who are not in the team need to keep performing and doing all they can to get in the team.”

Naderi seems certain of his place, fitness permitting. He has now scored a winner at Hampden as well as Parkhead and is establishing himself as a big-game player. McInnes revealed he had been considering replacing Kevin Kelsy with Bojan Miovski just before the winning goal. Kelsy’s lung-busting run up field following an Aberdeen attack led to the goal.

“I was just about to bring Bojan on for Kelsy because I thought we were going to need a wee bit more penalty-box action, and I just thought Bojan might be the guy," he said.

“I've always said that Ryan, if you give him service - even through all the pre-season work, through training, bounce games and all the rest of it - he's always in the middle of the goal for when the ball gets into good areas,” he added. “But a lot of the time we don't feed him enough. We don't put the ball in there enough and we make too many bad decisions. We were waiting on the net bulging a few times, but I love those types of goals. It's the bread and butter for No. 9s.”