Aberdeen's McInnes 'hates pre-season'

His side drew with West Brom 1-1 in their final friendly before the first leg of the second qualifying round.

The Dons will play on July 26 at Pittodrie.

Aberdeen entered the Europa League last season, and McInnes is looking to lead his side to a strong start this season.

McInnes told Sky Sports: "I hate it, pre-season is there to serve a purpose but now we get a real ball out next Thursday and we'll be ready."

"We wanted the last game (against West Brom) to be as tough as possible, that was in the planning for pre-season."

"So I think that level of opponent sets us up great for the game but I'm just glad pre-season is over."

"We felt going in at this round last year we were a bit under-cooked not having had two competitive games."

"We feel that's always been a benefit in this round when we've had those first-round games, so we wanted it to be a tough game and we got that."

"Darren (Moore) was good enough to bring his team up, they've got a level of player there that can cause any team problems and we had to be fully concentrated."

Aberdeen have never played against Burnley before, but the teams will meet twice in the week.

The side will then have three days to prepare for their Scottish Premiership opening game at home to Rangers on August 5.