Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has warned Daugava Riga that his Reds will not take it easy in the second leg of their Europa League first-round qualifier.
The Dons stormed to a 5-0 win in Thursday’s first leg at Pittodrie, meaning next week’s match in Riga should be nothing more than a formality.
More than 15,000 supporters turned out at Pittodrie to watch the Dons in a bruising encounter against an ill-disciplined and tough tackling Latvian side that was reduced to nine men after having two players sent off.
Peter Pawlett limped off with an ankle injury and is a doubt to feature in the second leg but McInnes has said he will resist the temptation to play a weakened side in Latvia in order to avoid any more injuries.
He said: “I may make a couple of alterations but I wouldn’t anticipate making wholesale changes.
“We want to be professional and complete the job with a bit of confidence.
“Our approach will be the same. We prepared thoroughly for the first leg, although we had expected them to play with a back five but they turned up with a back four. However, we were confident we could get the job done and there was enough good play to get the goals that we merited.”
The Dons will make the short trip to Peterhead tomorrow for a friendly match against Jim McInally’s men at Balmoor ahead of Thursday’s second leg at Daugava Stadium.
McInnes felt his side’s clinical display against the Latvians vindicated his decision to hold his nerve in the transfer market until after the first-round qualifier.
But the Aberdeen manager will be keen to bolster his squad ahead of the second round qualifier against Dutch side Groningen, who will pose a much sterner test than Daugava.
He added: “I have said before that we want to bring in one or two players who can help us this season. It is a long season. We felt we had enough in the squad to come through the tie and, hopefully, that proves to be the case.
“We don’t want to just jump at certain things that we could have done for the sake of just getting them in for these games. We can take stock and maybe make better decisions on who we bring in over the next week or two.”