Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes wins Scottish Premiership manager of the month for March
Friday 7 April 2017 18:36, UK
Derek McInnes wants Aberdeen to cement second spot in the table with victory over Rangers on Sunday after being named the Scottish Premiership manager of the month for March.
The Dons won all four matches last month and continued that good run with a 1-0 win over Inverness during the week to open up a 12-point gap over Rangers, who visit Pittodrie on Sunday, live on Sky Sports 2.
McInnes' side also have a Scottish Cup semi-final to look forward to against Hibernian later this month, and the former Rangers and West Brom player thinks his award highlights the good work being done throughout the club.
"Obviously very pleased, I think any award that players get or managers get is always a good reflection on everyone's efforts at the club and it is no different with this one," he told Sky Sports News HQ.
"The players have been on a really strong run of late, I think 15 wins out of the last 17 games, I think shows the level of performance that we have been getting.
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"It is a fair reflection, not only on the players' efforts, but also the support staff, from the footballing staff to the medical side of it; everybody plays their part to get a team winning on a Saturday."
Rangers have drawn their last two Premiership games, slipping further behind Aberdeen in the race for second spot and, while McInnes knows it will not be easy, he believes his side can go a long way to securing the runners-up position with victory over the Gers this weekend.
"We recognise we are up against a team who have got good players, they'll see this as an opportunity to get closer to us in the league and pull us in. We see this as an opportunity to try and cement second spot," he said.
"If we can win on Sunday then 15 points clear with six games to go would make it very difficult for Rangers to catch us. But we respect that they have got good players and we respect that we've got work to do and hopefully we can be good enough on the day to have a winning performance."
Gers boss Pedro Caixinha has said in the run-up to the game that he has been told going to Pittodrie is like "going to hell" because of the rivalry between the two sides.
McInnes, whose team have notched 10 successive victories at home with eight clean sheets, was happy with the thought that sides encounter a daunting atmosphere when they visit the Granite City.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far, obviously, but I think through translation he is trying to infer it can be quite an intimidating place and I quite like the thought that he thinks it is an intimidating place to come," he said.
"There was a lot of build up to the last game here when Rangers came in September. While it was a full house and the fixture hadn't been played for a few seasons it passed without any incident.
"Once the game starts it is all about the game and hopefully it is something similar, that we are talking about the game after it and hopefully another winning performance from ourselves."
