Recap
Aberdeen made it three wins out of three after a win against Ross County in Dingwall on Saturday.
Andrew Considine made his 499th appearance for the Dons and rounded it off with a goal, alongside goals from Niall McGinn and Ryan Hedges.
Andrew returned to the starting line-up after being dropped to the bench against Kilmarnock as did Craig Bryson.
Curtis Main was on the bench and Zak Vyner didn’t make it into the team through injury.
Aberdeen went behind with just five minutes on the clock through a questionable penalty award, when Alan Newlands awarded a spot-kick when a Michael Gardyne cross struck Lewis Ferguson’s arm. Ferguson’s arms were at his side and tight into his body when the ball hit him.
Josh Mullin stepped up to take the penalty and slotted it low beyond Joe Lewis to put County ahead.
Moments later Shay Logan had a chance from the edge of the box from a Greg Leigh cross, but he shot it straight at Marcus Fraser.
Niall McGinn curled a fantastic effort wide of the four man defensive wall from his free kick that was awarded in 22 yards out, to put the ball into the back of the net in the 10th minute to equalise.
Aberdeen continued to have chances through the remainder of the first half with efforts from Ryan Hedges and a couple from Sam Cosgrove – but the shots didn’t hit their target.
After the break, it didn’t take long for the Dons to get a grip of the game when a free-kick shot by Ryan Hedges went beyond everyone in the box and into the net at the far post.
County had their chances. Sean Kelly had a 22 yard shot in the 58th minute that was saved by Joe Lewis.
Aberdeen went 3-1 ashead in the 70th minute thanks to Andy Considine – curling his 22 yard drive past Marcus Fraser which made up for the calls for a penalty on Sam Cosgrove moments before.
Lewis Ferguson nearly came close with another amazing goal when he fired in a powerful 30-yarder only for it to crash off the crossbar – it was close.
All-in-all another successful afternoon for the Dons that puts them up to third in the Scottish Premiership ahead of the international break.
After the match, Derek McInnes told the club website: “I was a bit bewildered really [for the Ross County penalty]. I didn’t feel as if there was a huge claim from Ross County.
“I felt as if the decision came out of nowhere and having seen it back again the ball hasn’t travelled any real distance. Lewis has turned his back and put his arm up to protect his face and it has hit the top of his shoulder, but I feel as though the distance is too short for that to be a deliberate handball. I think it is outside the box as well.
“If you are going to go behind you want to go behind in the first few minutes of the game rather than the last few minutes of the game. We still had enough of the game to deal with the decision.
“Thankfully we did that.
“I thought that the pitch was a bit tricky for the players today, it was a bit slippy underfoot.
“We get a great equaliser from Niall with the free-kick. It is top quality; he has done that time and time again for us.
“I thought we were the team asking more questions going into half time. I do think the introduction of Curtis helped us with them being 4-4-2. It was about how our centre backs dealt with their front two better than their centre backs dealing with our front two.
“I thought our front two caused them no end of problems.
“It helps we score right away from Hedges free-kick.
“I felt we were worthy of the victory, if not by a few more goals.
“When Andy gets the third goal for us it puts a fairer reflection on the game. I felt as though we were guilty of missing opportunities, but I would have taken any sort of victory coming here today to get that three wins in a row.
“The players deserve so much credit.
“They have taken a few blows, but they have just had to knuckle down, stay quiet and get on with the job in hand.
“It was a good afternoon’s work for us.
“I have had it thrown at me that ‘Andy isn’t a left back; he can’t play left back.’
“He gives us an extra bit of size. We have that trust and dependability wherever we play him.
“With Zak Vyner’s shoulder popping- we hope he is going to be okay. We will get the scans on Monday, we wanted Greg in the middle of the park to give us that bit more power in there. Andy was the obvious one to slot in at left back.
“I thought it was a penalty before he scored, I will need to see it again.
“It was a lovely calm finish from big Andy. Like every season I have been his manager he has been first class.
“Zak picked up his injury in training. He just went in with Connor, it was pretty innocuous, but I think it might be his AC joint on the top of his shoulder. It has just slipped out of the joint but thankfully it went straight back in.
“We are hopeful that he is going to be back for the next game.
“It was always my intention to take Bryson off, we knew he didn’t have 90 minutes in him.
“I toyed with the idea of making a change at half time and getting Curtis on because I felt as though the way the game was being played I didn’t think that they had a lot of protection in front of their centre backs, Spence and Henderson are more forward thinking players.
“I felt as though having two strikers occupying two centre halves was the right decision. I took Bryson off a bit earlier than what we planned but it was just to make sure that we implemented what we wanted.
“We have just done our bit, wherever we are third or fourth going into the international break it is just pleasing that we have got those nine points.
“The only negative was not getting our third clean sheet in a row, but I think that was more down to the penalty decision.
“Rangers and Celtic are in such a good place at the minute. You see the results they have got, beating Lazio and Porto, they are fantastic results. It shows you the level that they are playing at the moment.
“For us we just need to concentrate on ourselves. Our points tally is pretty much up there with where it normally is at this stage of the season.
“Regardless of where you are in the league it is just important you get as many points as possible. I think by the turn of the year you get an idea of where you are after a couple of rounds of games.
“A trademark of our team has been going on unbeaten runs. Hopefully we can continue this one for as long as possible.”
