Recap
It was a frustrating afternoon at Pittodrie after the Dons failed to take advantage of results elsewhere to close the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership following a 2-2 draw against St Mirren.
Aberdeen made two changes to the side that defeated Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup fifth round on Sunday. Shay Logan was out with an ankle injury, who was replaced by Mikey Devlin and Niall McGinn started at the expense of Stevie May who was on the bench,
Aberdeen had the opening chance in the 10th minute, when Niall McGinn’s corner kick found Lewis Ferguson racing in at the back post but he headed the shot wide from eight yards out.
It was long after that until the Saints were awarded a penalty after Sam Cosgrove tugged down Paul McGinn in the box – a foolish mistake as it was so obvious. Duckens Nazon stepped up to take the spot kick, who fired it in off the right hand post.
The Dons equalised in the 32nd minute from a corner from Gary Mackay-Steven, which was flicked on by Devlin to the back post for Lewis Ferguson to head home from eight yards.
Aberdeen had another opportunity through Greg Stewart and Niall McGinn without success.
The unfortunate Tommie Hoban was stretchered off with a knee injury, only having just returned to the starting line-up following his shoulder injury earlier in the season.
The Red Army were further frustrated after some sloppy play when trying to move the ball out of defence, the opportunity was taken by St Mirren with Lyons racing up the field who found McAllister who fired in a shot from just inside the box into the far corner.
Sam Cosgrove levelled the scoring in the 75th minute, his 17th goal of the season having slotted the goal home from 14 yards out.
The closing stages of the match the Dons piled on the pressure but couldn’t find goal leaving us third behind The Rangers in the Scottish Premiership on 47 points.
Derek McInnes told the club website: “In terms of the game we gifted St Mirren two goals and we played our own part in our failure to win all three points today.
“It’s not a new thing for us for teams to come up here and frustrate and we’ve had to contend with a lot over the years. The onus is on us to break them down and believing we’d score. Two should have been enough today, but it wasn’t.
“I felt in the first half, we gave a team who have a lot of resolve and determination, and gifted them a penalty kick and that was so disappointing.
“We got the equaliser and looked to push on in the second half I felt there was a goal in us.
I felt a goal would come and it may not have come as quickly as some people would have wanted, but it did come from Cosgrove. Unfortunately for us it’s an equaliser because we gifted the second goal. It’s still a nice finish from McAllister, but we gave the ball away in a poor area and we played our own part in losing that goal.
“St Mirren have not been used to getting results recently and are fighting for that extra bit of adrenaline.
“We ran out of time today and there’s no doubt if we had another five minutes we’d have had a chance to get the winner. We’ve allowed that situation to arise and I’m disappointed we’ve not took all three points today when two goals should have been enough.
“I’m not bothered about other results, I’m just bothered about the fact we’ve not picked up three points from a game where we should have been good enough in all areas to do it.
“We missed chances and we can pick the bones out of that but ultimately two goals should have been enough today. I know we had defensive problems, but the goals they get shouldn’t have happened. We’ve played our own part in allowing that to be one point rather than three.
“We’ll dust ourselves down and move onto the next one.”
He commented on Tommie Hoban’s injury, “It’s a knee injury of some sort we don’t know exactly what yet.
“We’ll get him scanned on Monday and I’m hoping it’s not as serious as it appears and hopefully there’s some justice for him with the amount of injuries that he’s had. It would be too early to speculate, but he’s in a bit of discomfort with his knee. I was speaking prior to the game how good a player he’s been for us and how he deserves an even break just to go knuckle down and get the games in. It’s a real disappointment losing Tommie.
“We had to make those adjustments as we were without Logan and McKenna and I don’t think that helped matters.”
Derek also cleared up the position on the new contract for Lewis Ferguson: “He’s not signed one (a new contract), but we’ve got it agreed. Hopefully we’ll announce that, even though it’s not a secret, during the week.
“It’s no more than the boy deserves and it’s in recognition of his performances and improvements. We gave him a contract when he came in with an opportunity to improve and prove himself and he’s done that. He’s been such a key player for me and is without doubt deserving of a new contract. Hopefully the contract we give him is a reflection of how pleased we are with him.”
