Templeton’s timely rocket thwarts Dons
THEY have a funny way of motivating their players at the Superseal Stadium. But it does seem to work.
In publicising a fireworks display to be staged inside the ground at teatime tonight, the tannoy announcer chose to advertise the opportunity to come and see ‘all the bangers and rockets that aren’t on the park’.
Maybe in the midst of that six-game losing run that had another relegation battle looking inevitable, such acerbic asides would have resulted in knowing nods rather than chortles.
With five points from three games since, however, the revival continues and no one could deny Martin Canning’s little sparklers the draw that puts them a handy four points clear of trouble.
David Templeton made up for some wasteful finishing earlier in the game by snatching a late equaliser shortly after Greg Stewart and Kari Arnason had threatened to render Dougie Imrie’s terrific opener meaningless.
As Accies open up some daylight at the bottom, it also begins to show at the top. Aberdeen are now three points adrift of Celtic, with Hibs and Rangers now breathing down their necks. They had their chances, too, in this game, but they should not feel hard done by.
They were ragged in the early stages and could easily have been 3-0 down within 26 minutes. To then let things slip so soon after getting their noses in front really was criminal, with Arnason quick to hold his hands up.
‘The pitch is horrendous, but that’s no excuse,’ he said. ‘We should have done better, especially when we got the lead.
‘We should definitely have kept a clean sheet from there and been far more compact and harder to break down. They scored their equaliser from a ball straight down the middle to the centre-forward’s feet with a lay-off and then a shot.
‘That’s not good enough for us. We weren’t good enough in the first half either. We know how good Celtic are and our emphasis was to keep touch-tight with them at the top of the table.’
Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes conceded there had been ‘some really good moments and some moments of sloppiness’ from his side, with no sustained period of play good enough to merit the win.
However, he felt referee Nick Walsh could easily have punished Accies forward Antonio Rojano for a foul on Shay Logan in the defensive wall before Imrie made it 1-0 in the 19th minute through a powerful free-kick with a low trajectory, which goalkeeper Joe Lewis got a hand to, but could not prevent from hitting the net.
‘I heard their dugout shouting for him to get the block and I think it was Rojano who totally barged Shay on the edge of the wall,’ said McInnes.
‘My first impression was that the ball had gone over the wall, but, having seen it again, it went exactly into the space where Shay was barged.
‘We didn’t do enough to win the game, although I thought there were a lot of positives in our second-half performance.’
Aberdeen were certainly unable to bring any fluency to their play in the first half. Their defence, in particular, was all over the place.
Templeton’s first miss came 23 minutes in. A long ball from Greg Docherty was misjudged by the visiting rearguard and Templeton was left clear to race through on goal.
Lewis had come well off his line, but was never going to get to the ball in time, leaving the Accies forward with options when he got it under control.
He opted to try to dink it over the keeper, but Lewis spread himself well whilst jumping and managed to block.
Templeton was the villain again just minutes later when sending a volley with his instep wide of Lewis’ left-hand post after being given space on the left side of the area to move on to a great cross from Docherty.
It is on such moments that games can turn and, sure enough, within a minute, McInnes’ side had got themselves back on level terms.
Shinnie played a clever through ball to leave Stewart straight through on goal and he showed real composure to clip it over the diving Gary Woods and into the net to open his account in Aberdeen colours.
If anyone had expected the Dons to go on and strangle the life out of the game, though, they had another thing coming. It charged
from end to end with chances aplenty.
A glancing header from Stewart forced a good reaction save from Woods.
At the other end, Templeton fired wide again after being released on the counter-attack by a clever pass from Rojano and Darren Lyon took the ball too wide on rounding Lewis before hitting the side-netting.
When Arnason produced a magnificent run and jump to head home a corner from Stevie May at close range with 16 minutes remaining, it was tempting to think that the home side’s brave resistance was to be in vain.
Templeton, however, finally got his act together. Rojano rolled the ball into his strike partner’s path on the far left of the area and he took a touch before sending a low, angled drive into the far corner.
‘I thought it was just going to be one of those games where I couldn’t score,’ said Templeton.
‘I came in apologising to the boys at half-time because we could have been 2-0 or 3-0 up if I had taken my chances.
‘The gaffer told me to keep my head up, though, and I am just glad I managed to get that one in the end. I’d say it is two dropped points, though, because I felt we were the better team.’