McInnes targets winning start

Published Apr. 19, 2013 3:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

Derek McInnes cannot wait for his "long awaited" debut as Aberdeen manager against Hibernian at Easter Road on Monday night.

The former St Johnstone and Bristol City boss was appointed on March 25 but Craig Brown was allowed to stay in the post up until the SPL split.

The Dons had last weekend off as the Scottish Cup semi-finals took place but McInnes wants to get his career at Pittodrie up and running properly.

He told RedTV: "It has been long awaited.

"The last couple of weeks have been beneficial but we are here to play matches.

"You learn more about your team when the games start.

"We have had a friendly and a couple of practice matches and have tried to create that intensity in training.

"I feel ready for it and I feel the players are ready for it and I want to get off to a winning start."

McInnes watched Hibs come from 3-0 behind in last week's semi-final against Falkirk at Hampden to win 4-3 and book a place in next month's showpiece occasion against Celtic.

He said: "I went to the Hibs game last Saturday and at half-time they were all over the place, down and out.

"It was the worst case scenario but a huge effort and good decisions from Pat Fenlon helped turned the game.

"It was a young, tired Falkirk team at the end but that bit of quality from Hibs got them to the final.

"Hibs are on a poor run of form of late but they have a cup final to look forward to so you would expect them to be a bit buoyant and the crowd will be a bit happier about things.

"So I think we go and play a Hibs team in a good frame of mind."