McInnes says Campbell will learn the lesson of his red card

Posted Sunday, February 23, 2020 by PA

Derek McInnes insists teenage midfielder Dean Campbell will learn from his sending off after 10-man Aberdeen fell to a late defeat against Ross County, despite having led through Curtis Main’s strike just before the half-hour.

Campbell’s red card came for a second booking less than five minutes after the goal, for obstructing a free-kick, and Billy McKay netted late in either half to earn the points for the visitors.

McInnes said “When you go so long with 10 men, you’ve got to make sure there’s enough resilience to see it out and given the circumstances it would have been a brilliant point.

“Everything became more difficult with 10 men, and it’s a learning curve for Dean. Once he’s on a yellow card he should be keeping his nose clean and staying out of bother.

“Maybe another referee looks at it differently given the circumstances and it’s very harsh on him but it doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 36, you keep out the way of the referee.”

Steven Ferguson, the Ross County co-manager, was a pleased man after watching his side win just their second away game of the season.

He said ”We felt a monkey on our back regarding our away form, and to right a wrong in winning the game today was big for us as a group.

“We try to improve on everything we do and we’ve had two performances against Aberdeen this season that we definitely needed to improve on, and we felt we got that today which ultimately gave us the chance to win the game.

“We’ve said often enough that if we can provide chances for Billy McKay he will take them and that’s what he did today. With both goals there was a really small margin for where he could put the ball and he managed to hit that target, so credit to Billy for that.”