Flashpoint sours Arbroath friendly

ARBROATH 1 ABERDEEN 4

Aberdeen eased to a comfortable victory in a friendly which was soured by a flashpoint midway through the second half when Dons star Peter Pawlett and Lichties new boy Jimmy Scott were dismissed after coming to blows.

Pawlett had opened the scoring in the 30th minute with a simple tap-in after Lichties defender Michael Dunlop could only divert a Wes Burns cutback into the Dons midfielder’s path.

The home side fell further behind four minutes later, Jayden Stockley bursting through to slot beyond Ricky Gomes.

Gomes then pulled off a great save to deny Scott Wright.

At the other end a Dunlop effort came off the top of Neil Alexander’s bar before Stockley extended Aberdeen’s lead on the stroke off half time.

With both sides down to 10 men, Steven Doris forced Neil Alexander into making a great save to prevent the Lichties from reducing the deficit.

The Dons went four ahead nine minutes from the end, Miles Storey grabbing his first goal for the club after his summer move to Pittodrie.

Shortly afterwards David Gold headed home a consolation for Arbroath.

Gayfield boss Dick Campbell said: “I thought Aberdeen paid us a lot of respect by the way they went about their job and their quality shone through, although every one of their goals came from defensive errors.

“But I’m not too unhappy as I’m not going to judge our performance against a quality full-time side like Aberdeen,” he said.

“I’m really disappointed in the sending off, and we’ve dealt with that in the dressing room.”

Picture: Alan Richardson. Referee Craig Charleston deals with an incident that ended with Aberdeen’s Peter Pawlett and Arbroath’s Martin Scott being sent off.