IT’S FLYIN’ HEDGES
Ryan soars for Glass as Dons edge towards top six
RYAN HEDGES sprinkled some magic to lift Aberdeen out of their rut and take them within touching distance of the top six.
The Wales international netted the opener and put on a man-ofthe-match display to help see off limp Livingston at Pittodrie.
Hedges, who is out of contract in the summer, may have added an extra few pounds to his contract negotiations or even some bigger offers coming from elsewhere.
David Bates sealed this welcome win for Stephen Glass’ team, who had lost their last three to Dundee United, Motherwell and Celtic.
Yet, after this one win their outlook looks a whole lot rosier.
They’re now level with sixthplaced Hibs, although their rivals have two games in hand. Glass will have to build on this when St Mirren head north on Saturday.
As for Livi, they were poor and will hope it is a one-off because if it isn’t, they could be in for a long, hard fight for survival.
The Dons had won the first clash of the season against Livi in rather fortuitous circumstances after a late Max Stryjek error.
The Aberdeen manager had been sent off against Dundee United and decided to take an automatic one-match ban.
He had to watch on from the stands as they looked to bring an end to their three-game losing run.
Livi hadn’t won in their last four, although three of those had been draws.
It still left both sides in the bottom six.
The Dons are already well off the pace for the European slots and for much of this term, even the top six looked a stretch. It has been a season of change at Pittodrie but also one of massive underachievement.
Glass has been well backed on the recruitment front but too many question marks remain over too many of his signings.
Christian Ramirez and Scott Brown have made an impact but too many have either disappeared off the radar or not been given much of a chance.
Yes, Glass has had to address major injuries and other issues but this team should still be higher up the table than they are.
The Pittodrie board have every reason to believe they should be getting more bang for their buck than they are.
The budget has already been pushed and surely there will have to be a few exits next month as this squad needs more quality than quantity in certain areas.
Big things were expected from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas but after a promising start he has failed to take off at Pittodrie.
He was handed a recall last night, his first start since midSeptember, with Glass hoping the incentive of impressing against his former employer might see him finally take flight.
Injured Dylan McGeouch missed out while Jack Gurr also dropped out with Funso Ojo and Emmanuel-Thomas coming in.
Livi boss Davie Martindale made changes to his side after the Rangers’ defeat, with Jack McMillan and Cristian Montano making way for Jackson Longridge and Ayo Obileye.
Aberdeen knew with back-toback home games against teams
around them, it was a chance to start climbing. They did come out with a genuine attacking line-up and intent.
Lewis Ferguson found captain Brown on the edge of the box but he fired just over.
The Dons remained on the front foot and as snow started to fall from the north east sky, the performance on the pitch certainly heated things up.
Ferguson found Hedges and his cross appeared to hit the hand of Jack Fitzwater but the home howls fell on deaf ears.
Aberdeen continued to go at Livi and got their reward in the 23rd minute. Emmanuel-Thomas gave the ball to Ramirez and his pass up the inside right channel released Hedges before he thrashed the ball low past Stryjek at his near post. It was no more than Aberdeen deserved.
There’s been a lot of speculation about Hedges’ future and he would certainly have added to his growing list of admirers on last night’s showing.
He showed his quality again with another sinking run. He took the ball off Ramirez, jinked past a defender and went for the same spot as when he scored, only this time Stryjek read it and made a fine stop with his foot.
Livi would have been glad just to go in one behind at the interval.
Martindale knew his Lions had failed to snarl, never mind roar.
He sent on McMillan and Andrew Shinnie for Obileye and Bruce Anderson at the break.
In all honesty, the manager could have changed his entire team without any complaint.
Livi’s cause wasn’t helped when Longridge picked up two bookings in the space of 14 minutes and was sent off.
The first was for a foul on Ojo and the other was late on Hedges, although the Livingston camp felt the second was never worthy of a yellow card.
There was also time for a bit of humour from the Red Shed with chants of: “How s**t must you be? We are winning a game!”
Livi did go more direct but never really caused many problems with Odin Bailey firing well wide at the near post.
There was always a danger as long as there was only one goal in it, no matter how toothless Livi were.
Aberdeen managed to blow away those fears when they got a second thanks to a Hayes’ free-kick that was knocked home by Bates at the back post in the 75th minute.