There may be no Stevie May for the Aberdeen defence to worry about but Dons manager Derek McInnes is refusing to underestimate Saturday’s opponents St Johnstone, despite their poor start to the season.
The Perth side were beaten 1-0 by newly promoted Hamilton Accies last weekend and have failed to score in their previous two matches following the ÂŁ800,000 sale of May to Sheffield Wednesday.
The Dons won 2-0 on their last visit to McDiarmid Park with wonderful goals from Peter Pawlett and Niall McGinn, but McInnes remains wary of the club that defeated the Dons 2-1 in last season’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
He said: “St Johnstone will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing result last weekend.
“They are a team that normally responds quickly whenever they have a bad result, which I think is a sign of a good team. Games between St Johnstone and ourselves have been close. We went down there last season and won 2-0 at McDiarmid Park thanks to two quality goals.
“Hopefully we can produce enough quality to win the match again on Saturday.
“We know it is going to be a big ask to get a result but we put that demand on ourselves. We know we will face a St Johnstone team eager to return to winning ways, especially at McDiarmid Park.”
McInnes was thrilled to see forward Declan McManus net a quick-fire hat-trick in Morton’s 5-2 victory against Berwick Rangers in the Petrofac League Cup on Tuesday night.
The Dons loanee found the back of the net three times in the space of 12 minutes in extra time to earn Jim Duffy’s side a place in the quarter-finals.
McInnes said: “Declan puts pressure on himself to score goals. They will get good performances from him but the goals have certainly been a bonus over the past couple of games. He has scored five goals in two, which is a very good return.
“He will take a lot of confidence from that and hopefully there is a lot more to come from him and he has a really successful impact.”
The Dons have no fresh injury worries ahead of this weekend’s trip to Perth with Russell Anderson and Clark Robertson both set to return after missing the 2-0 win at Kilmarnock.