Dons left jolted by a negative charge
THE news that midfielder Lewis Ferguson has agreed a contract extension until 2024 is one of the few things to give heart to Aberdeen fans after an afternoon of such negatives.
Even then, the club hierarchy are unlikely to be too enamoured with his dad Derek, the former Rangers midfielder, spilling the beans on the radio.
Other than that, there was little to take from scrambling a draw against the bottom side in the Premiership, who picked up their first point in seven games.
The goals they conceded were cheap and needless. Their failure to make the most of decent positions feeding concerns over a run of home ties that has brought just one win in six, against Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup.
However, the worst moment of all came just before the interval when Tommie Hoban, in only his sixth game back after spending five months out after shoulder surgery, went down on the main stand touchline when seeing his studs of his left boot catch in the turf.
His screams were all too audible around Pittodrie. The news that the on-loan Watford defender has suffered an injury to his left knee are concerning, considering he spent the whole of last season out with cruciate ligament damage. It is a crushing blow for the unlucky 25-year-old and it did seem to affect Aberdeen’s players for a while.
Of course, it is a great point for St Mirren in the circumstances. Had Simeon Jackson shown a little more composure at 2-1, they might have taken all three. However, they stuck to their task pretty well with goalscorer Kyle McAllister’s display particularly encouraging.
He gave Saints that 2-1 advantage early in the second period with a glorious finish after Ferguson had cancelled out Duckens Nazon’s opener from the spot, but Sam Cosgrove pounced late on to take the wind out of their sails. Following a fairly bright start from the home side, the Buddies took the lead on 20 minutes.
Nazon won a corner and, from the flag-kick, referee Craig Thomson adjudged Cosgrove to have pulled Paul McGinn in the area.
And the Haitian stepped up to score from the 12-yard mark with a low shot that went in off Joe Lewis’ right-hand post after the keeper had dived the right way.
Visiting keeper Vaclav Hladky looked sharp to dive low at the feet of Greg Stewart as he endeavoured to move onto a through-ball from Cosgrove during one of Aberdeen’s better spells and it looked like they would move through the gears after the visitors’ resistance was finally broken just after the half-hour.
Gary Mackay-Steven’s corner was flicked on at the front post by Andy Considine and Ferguson was waiting at the back stick to nod the equaliser in composed fashion.
Niall McGinn should have put the Dons in front shortly afterwards when set up perfectly inside the area by a clever square ball from Stewart. However, the Northern Irishman leaned back and ballooned his attempt high and wide.
After Hoban had been taken off on a stretcher, Mackay-Steven looking particular anxious over the nature of the injury, his Pittodrie colleagues failed to emerge from the dressing room with the required energy and focus.
Just two minutes after the restart, Brad Lyons squandered a good chance for Saints when heading wide inside the area from a McAllister cross. Further slackness from the Dons would prove costly after the hour, though. Mikey Devlin gave away the ball to Greg Tansey just outside the centre circle and he moved the ball on quickly to Lyons.
Spotting McAllister racing into space on the right, he sprayed a lovely pass and the 20-year-old, back on loan at the Buddies from Derby County, did the rest.
He cut inside past a floundering Considine to move to the edge of the area and his curling left-footed effort, beautiful and clinical, gave a flatfooted Lewis no chance.
Jackson, on for the perplexing figure of Nazon, almost made it three when holding off Devlin on the left and flashing an effort wide of the far post. The row that ensued between Lewis and Devlin pointed to a team at sixes and sevens, but they regrouped sufficiently to rescue a point.
Stewart forced a spectacular fulllength save from Hladky before Cosgrove popped up with his 17th goal of the season and his 15th in 14 outings.
Graeme Shinnie produced an excellent low cross from the left and the big centre-forward met it with his instep. In truth, he could have won it late on.
Stewart picked Cosgrove out in the area with an inch-perfect cross. His header, though, dipped over the crossbar and Saints, reduced to 10 men with McAllister off with cramp, held firm in the face of intense pressure at the end.