DoubletroubleforDonsastheystruggletocopewithSteelmen

When Derek McInnes made two substantial bids for Louis Moult this summer, he probably imagined that he might be the season’s top scorer in Aberdeen matches. Turns out he was right.

With a second double in a second chasteningly comprehensive Motherwell win, Moult has netted as many times in front of the Dons fans this season as their own leading marksmen, Adam Rooney and Ryan Christie. He has handsomely, and damagingly, confirmed McInnes’ high opinion of him. His weight of goals is putting trophies – and maybe his own future recruitment – beyond Aberdeen.

The Dons have simply had no answer to the aggressive pairing of Moult and Ryan Bowman. Through them, Well have become this season’s nemesis: that annual opponent against whom Aberdeen match up terribly, to whose physicality and shape they have no resistance.

It is a creditable, unpretentious turnaround by Stephen Robinson that this team, which conceded seven goals to Aberdeen earlier in 2017, allowed them only three shots at goal. They asserted dominance from the outset.

That corresponding fixture last season was the last time Graeme Shinnie was unavailable for selection, when his colleagues performed so stunningly that he was unable to force his way back into the side for the subsequent visit to Kilmarnock. No such worries in Ayrshire this weekend. If there were four of him, McInnes would pick them all.

At the end of a week in which Niall McGinn admitted defeat in his move away from the broken up Dons side, this was a humbling indication that it hasn’t been a smooth transition for the club, either.