Aberdeen 0 – 3 St Mirren

Aberdeen’s wretched Scottish Premiership form continued unabated as the Dons fell to their ninth defeat in the last 13 league matches against a clinical St Mirren side.

The home side were the better for most of the game, but poor defending from Slobodan Rubezic cost them two first-half goals, Toyosi Olusanya scoring the first and setting up the second for Mikael Mandron. Mandron added a third late in the game to secure the 3-0 win.

The Dons, who did pick up a morale-boosting Scottish Cup win against Elgin City last week, made five changes from that side.

The visitors, themselves having lost the last four in the league, handed a first start to Callum Penman for one of two changes from the team which beat Queen of the South.

The Buddies were ahead after just seven minutes as Ross Doohan came to the edge of his area to meet Richard Taylor’s long ball, but Rubezic headed the ball past the oncoming goalkeeper and Olusanya picked up the loose ball to slide home from close range.

Aberdeen reacted well and Pape Habib Gueye, on his first start after four months out through injury, was denied from point-blank range by Zach Hemming after good work on the left by Jeppe Okkels.

Okkels himself was denied by Hemming before Topi Keskinen saw a low shot blocked by the hand of Richard Taylor, prompting a VAR review for handball which ultimately decided against a penalty.

Debutant Penman was forced off through injury 10 minutes before the visitors doubled their lead, Rubezic again failing to deal with the pace of Olusanya who shrugged off a weak nudge from the defender before cutting back for Mandron to guide the ball home from six yards.

Rubezic signalled to the bench and was replaced by on-loan Tottenham defender Alfie Dorrington immediately after the goal.

The Dons brought on Ante Palaversa at the break and he almost had an immediate impact as Alexander Jensen’s cross fell to him on the edge of the box, but his shot went over the crossbar.

Aberdeen were finding some joy on their left flank and Okkels put in another cross for Gueye, which the striker headed narrowly wide.

Hemming was forced to push a deep Palaversa free-kick, which evaded everyone in the penalty area, around the post and substitute Kevin Nisbet clipped the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick as the hosts continued to search for a way back into the game.

Nisbet was denied by Hemming from close range with the Dons’ best chance of the match and Jensen saw his follow-up effort drift narrowly wide of the far post as the Buddies goal led a charmed life.

But any hope of an Aberdeen comeback was extinguished when another long ball, this time from Alex Gogic, found Mandron in acres of space and he lashed home a delightful effort from the edge of the area.

What the managers said…

Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin: “It is tough today.

“We are on this run of games and before the game we feel like we are looking better and better in training sessions and
the team looks better and better, and then you get the result like that.

“It is challenging for everyone, for me and the supporters. I, as the manager, am responsible and I have find a way to balance the team in a different way so we don’t get so exposed to the situations.

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson: “We’ve had lots of good performances in recent weeks, but what was the big plus for me was our defending from set-pieces. Zach [Hemming] was dominant in the air.

“The strikers will get all the plaudits, rightly so, but for me as a manager, the reason we’re not higher up the table has been our defending from set-plays in the second phase.

“We defended for our lives today, we rely on Zach to come and dominate and that’s what he’s done, and that gives us a platform to play from. And then some of the quality from the front two, they dominated the game and caused real, real
problems for Aberdeen.”

What’s coming up in the Scottish Premiership?