McInnes : speculation may have affected Aberdeen

Derek McInnes has admitted the speculation over his future may have affected his Aberdeen players in recent weeks.

McInnes was approached by Rangers with a view to taking the vacant manager's position at Ibrox before committing his future to the Dons last week.

They had suffered a disappointing run of form with just one win in five games amid the speculation but following McInnes' decision to stay at Pittodrie, his players have responded with successive wins including a dominant 3-0 victory at St Johnstone on Wednesday.

Although he does not think it was the sole reason for a drop-off in form, McInnes admits it may have been a factor.

"It's an easy thing to assume and you may well be right,'' he said. "But I felt we were really convincing at Kilmarnock.

"It was a very Aberdeen-type performance but we followed it up with two disappointing results against Rangers, who played very well, especially at Ibrox.

"But when you don't win games its easy to assume the focus is on something else, like the speculation.

"But the players are taking responsibility for the game. You'd need to ask them if subconsciously they are in a better frame of mind but the work we've been doing is the same.

"Over the last few years we've raised the standards and been used to winning so when wins don't come so freely it can be seen as something dramatic.

"We are not used to that so it's good to get back to winning ways.''

Goals from Adam Rooney, Kari Arnason and Ryan Christie secured a comfortable and impressive three points for the visitors at a place McInnes knows can be a tough place for away sides.

He said: "To get three goals and a clean sheet at such a difficult venue is a good night's work. You can't be much more pleased.

"You always expect St Jonstone to come back so we reminded the boys at half-time their work was not done.''

Tommy Wright was left to contemplate another poor performance from his players that sees them without a win in Perth since September 23, and he was less than impressed with the way his side contributed to their own downfall.

He said: "We have too many defeats this year, Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen twice now and Hearts, who are all big clubs but they used to hate coming here.

"We haven't done the little things well tonight. You can't say Aberdeen ripped us apart, you could say we probably ripped ourselves apart by giving the ball away too cheaply at times and then the way we finished the first half, you think we can play a bit.

"But too often this season we've not done the basics well enough and not to take anything away from Aberdeen - they're a good side - from my point of view we didn't do the basics well enough.'

• Northsound Sport