Boxing Day Win Pushes Dons Up To Third

Aberdeen had a Boxing Day boost after returning to third in the Scottish Premiership following our 2-1 win against St Johnstone at Pittodrie.

There was one change to the Dons starting line-up, Ross McCrorie was suspended, with Sam Cosgrove coming in to partner Curtis Main.

The howling wind didn’t help a game void of much excitement, with St Johnstone looking more likely to score in the first half despite losing Scott Tanser to injury just five minutes into the game.

David Wotherspoon’s effort in the 14th minute tested Joe Lewis, but it ended up just wide of the post.

Ali McCann put an effort past the left-hand post in a similar fashion following a Liam Craig corner, and Callum Booth also sent a shot wide from a similar distance.

It was only a matter of time for St Johnstone to make the breakthrough and it came it a comical fashion.

Liam Craig sent a free-kick from the left to the back post where Liam Gordon rose unchallenged to head the ball towards goal.  His header struck the ground and went over the top of Joe Lewis into goal.

It was in the final throws of the first half that Aberdeen levelled.

Sam Cosgrove went down under challenge from Jamie McCart, and Alan Muir pointed to the spot.  Sam slotted the penalty into the bottom left corner to make it all square at half time.

That helped the Dons to push on and claim a second in the 54th minute thanks to Ash Taylor who picked up a corner which wasn’t cleared by the St Johnstone defence and he volleyed the ball into the bottom left corner to make it 2-1.

From there on in, it was a bit of a drab affair, with both sides cancelling each other out.   The only other real moment of note was Callum Hendry’s sending off after getting a second yellow in the 90th minute.

The win puts us above Hibs into third in the Scottish Premiership after Hibs loss against Rangers in the lunchtime kick-off.

Derek McInnes said: “I’m as frustrated as Callum is going to be because I think it’s such a soft penalty to be given, but the penalty should have been given for the handball before that.

“It was tough out there for both sets of players. There’s no real enjoyment from the game, the enjoyment comes from the result, and it’s about doing all you can to get the result.

“It’s unfair to criticise the play when it’s as wild as that. You see how hard the pitch is with the ball bouncing over Joe Lewis from that kind of distance. We created that goal for them with untidy play and a needless free-kick.

“We asked the boys at half-time to be a bit more pragmatic and we scored a set play ourselves, and I thought we were the better team in the second half. The players really responded and dug deep to get the win.”