McInnes: It's time to move on from Aberdeen's Covid kicking

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes wants to look to the future after the club’s recent troubles – and he sees the signing of Ross McCreorie as the perfect lift for everyone at Pittodrie.

The team has been forced to miss their last three fixtures after eight players broke coronavirus rules by going out in the city centre to a restaurant and bar. That brought criticism from the Frist Minister, Scottish FA charges for the players and SPFL action is being taken against the club.

The team are now preparing for a return to action against St Johnstone on Thursday night and McInnes says it’s time to put the incident to one side.

“We’ve taken a kicking the last couple of weeks,” he said. “I’m still going to get asked about the last couple of weeks when ideally you want to be talking about football.

“But hopefully that can be the narrative now. I think there’s been enough comment, enough criticism, enough apologies made and there comes a time when you have to draw a line under it.

“It was our turn. We took it, we dealt with it and we now move on.”

The manager will be able to pick four of the eight players who were forceed to self-isolate, after they rerturned to traiing and will also have new signing Ross McCrorie in the squad to face St Johnstone.

He said the capture of the young midfielder from Rangers was a huge boost.

“I think it’s been a brilliant week for us. I think we need to applaud the club for helping me to bring Ross in,” he said.

“He’s been on every list of young Scottish players we’d like to work with for the last couple of years.

“When we knew we had no room for error and that he might go elsewhere, I’m glad we got support from the board.

“So it’s been a real shot in the arm for me. The general atmosphere has been lifted and I’m now looking forward to what is a very important game.”