It’sIt three and easy as Dons find their touch
Curtis Main, Sam Cosgrove and Scott Mckenna got the goals that mattered as Aberdeen cruised passed injury-hit Kilmarnock.
That completed a satisfactory few days for Derek Mcinnes after last weekend’s humiliating 4-0 defeat against Celtic that had some Dons fans calling for his head.
Most recent events included the opening of a £12.5m stateof-the-art training ground but it was wins against Hamilton and surely their favourite opponents that was most pleasing.
The Aberdeen manager has now picked up 60 points in 23 league meetings with the Rugby Park side and this had the look of a team back on track.
There were plenty of positives with Main getting his first for the club, Mckenna his first this season and Cosgrove an incredible 16th in 19 games.
However, it was the performance of Lewis Ferguson that really had his manager purring afterwards.
The midfielder returned from a two-game ban to score the winner against former club Hamilton in midweek and was hugely influential in this comfortable win.
Mcinnes claimed Ferguson showed exactly the qualities lacking in too many against the champions.
He said: “When we went 4-3-3 you could see his power, drive and tenacity, which is key for me and the team.
“You forget his age at times but he keeps getting better and better. I don’t think we’d lose in the manner we did to Celtic if he is in the team.
“He is aggressive, cares and makes tackles but we try to get the balance right between his work with the Scotland Under-21s.”
All that was lacking was a goal to mark Ferguson’s allround display.
To be honest the game was over as a contest long before the interval on a day when Killie were without four centrebacks through injury and suspension.
That left Gary Dicker and youngster Iain Wilson to try to stem the flow but they had a torrid time throughout.
Dicker didn’t look too clever when Ferguson curled a cross over his head in 10 minutes, allowing Main to send a diving header into the net.
Of course it’s tough to match what Cosgrove has achieved so far and his latest goal in a highly productive season arrived in 27 minutes.
Wilson blocked his initial effort but from the resulting corner the former Everton youth player thumped home a header from around the penalty spot.
The only surprise was that it took that long as he was a constant menace until injury forced the big Englishman off after 66 minutes.
The bad news for Ross County is he will be fit for next week’s trip to Dingwall and would have travelled with 17 scored but for the width of a post in the second half.
Kilmarnock’s goal led a charmed life after the break with substitute Connor Mclennan going close twice among a string of chances to increase Aberdeen’s lead.
That stubborn resistance finally crumbled again when Mclennan swung over a corner from the left, Greg Leigh flicked it on to the back post for Mckenna to score.
That was nine minutes from the end of a one-sided match but Kilmarnock’s problems are not all at the back. They have only scored more than one goal on their travels in the league once in the last 12 months.
That was never likely to be improved on here and an Alan Power shot in the second half that forced Joe Lewis into a superb reflex save was the only real threat they posed here.