Rangers boss Derek McInnes finally gets to enjoy performance as Shankland penalty seals first league win over Aberdeen

Derek McInnes admits he finally got to enjoy a Rangers performance following their hard-fought 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

The Gers boss was under pressure after just two wins in seven matches since moving from Hearts in the summer, including exits from the Europa League qualifiers and Europa Conference League play-off.

McInnes has brought in 12 new players including debutant Kim Min-su, the 20-year-old South Korean winger signed from Girona on a four-year deal for a reported fee of around £8.5million, and he showed up well before he was replaced in the second half.

However, it was skipper Lawrence Shankland’s penalty after 69 minutes which proved enough to give the Light Blues their first William Hill Premiership win of the season.

Former Aberdeen boss McInnes said: “Probably for the first time this season, I’ve really enjoyed watching the team.

“There’s been moments of enjoyment. There’s been a couple of wins and some passages of play, but we know when you come here you can’t be sparkling for 90 minutes but you need to compete, and you need to bring quality, and I thought we did all that in abundance today.

“Strong performance, deserved win. I thought we were good in the game. I thought we looked like a team, a sense of the team that I would like us to be.

“I think the added bit of quality from Min-su at the top of the pitch was much needed. We’ve been looking for that for a while now, so it’s great that we managed to get him in.

“Any sort of win today was vitally important for obvious reasons. So the fact of the matter is we’ve won a tough away game, and deservedly so.”

Rangers have been strongly linked with striker Kevin Kelsy from Portland Timbers, while Belgium midfielder Nicolas Raskin was absent again amid ongoing speculation about his future.

McInnes said: “In terms of outs, I don’t think there’s anything imminent on that. There’s certainly not been any offers for Nico.

“Obviously, it’s normally the last couple of days of the window when things really crank up, so we need to be primed for that.

“We are really keen to get a striker in that we want.”

Aberdeen boss Stephen Robinson was unimpressed by referee Matthew MacDermid’s decision, at 1-0 down, to chalk off a goal by skipper Kevin Nisbet for a push on Dujon Sterling inside the Rangers box after a penalty claim for being thwarted by the Gers defender moments earlier had been ignored.

The Northern Irishman said: “If I could give my thoughts (I would), but the authorities make sure we don’t give our thoughts.

“You all saw the game and the only thing I can comment on is I don’t know who judges the amount of force.

“There wasn’t enough for Kevin to get a penalty and there was enough to disallow the goal. Someone has made that decision rightly or wrongly and it certainly affects the game.

“They seemed quite similar to me but I’m not a referee.

“I can only control the things that I can in terms of our performance. There was lots of good stuff with battling qualities and real desire and determination.”