Goodwin admits Reds were too good for Buddies
Jim Goodwin conceded his team were never at the races yesterday as they succumbed to a heavy defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
And the St Mirren boss admitted it was the first time in a while that he could accept the Dons were by far the better team in a thriller in the rain.
Goodwin, who was booked by referee Willie Collum for protesting the Buddies h a d n’t been g i ve n a free- kick he thought they d e s e r ve d , said: “It was probably the first game in a number o f w e e k s w h e re I ’ ve been able to come out after and say we were comfortably beaten by the better team.
“The last five or six g a m e s w e’ve pretty much been in every one of them and possibly should have won two or three of them.
“But today we came up to try and have a go. It w o u l d have been easy to park the bus but we tried to press them high up the pitch and in certain situations it worked.
“But goals are what the game is all about and Aberdeen were a real threat all afternoon,” he added.
Goodwin praised the Dons’ front players who overwhelmed his team.
“They were outstanding” he said. “They looked a re a l danger every time they got near our goal and their movement was terrific.
“Would we have been better parking the bus? No, I don’t think so. When you look back at the goals we conceded, they were really poor from our point of view.
“We spoke about the importance of not giving away cheap free- kicks in and around our defensive areas because we k n ow the t h re a t that they carr y from set-pieces.
“The first goal was disappointing because I do feel Marley Watkins has pushed Matt Millar under the ball, if you watch it back he has two hands on his back. He wins the header and then reacts well to the second ball.
“The second goal, w e’v e ma d e two or three tackles that we didn’t really commit to and it’s a decent finish from Christian Ramirez.
“At 2-0 we get ourselves back in the game, and if we can get it to halftime at 2- 1 and maybe tweak a couple of things and stay in the game, maybe take it to the 80th minute at 2- 1, it would have given us the opportunity to get something.
“Bu t f o r Ab e rd e e n to get the third goal so quickly after our goal, I think that just knocked the wind out of the boys’ sails and from there on you’ve got a mountain to climb.”