Double doubles put on-form Dons back into top six
ABERDEEN 4
Watkins (7, 43), Ramirez (9, 71)
ST MIRREN 1
Tanser (42)
Aberdeen put on a show at rain-soaked Pittodrie and sent out a message to their cinch Premiership rivals that the bad times are behind them.
The Dons, crisp and concise with their play, hit St Mirren with four goals – two each from Marley Watkins and Christian Ramirez – as they forced their way back into the top six and left their opponents chasing shadows and second best in every department.
It was a five-star display that, along with a midweek win over Livingston, has lifted the gloom at the club, and though they still show only four wins in 18 competitive games this season, manager Stephen Glass said he felt good going home having achieved that result.
“It’s difficult to analyse,” Glass said. “We scored a couple of quick goals and the game became messier than I would have liked.
“St Mirren are a good team and they didn’t give up which made it a bit dangerous. But we were very professional in the second half.
“Our use of the ball was a lot better and the pressure was a lot better too. Any time we went forward with control we looked dangerous.
“They have been on their game over the last couple of matches.
“It feels better going home on Saturday night after that, of course it does, but the challenge is for it to continue.
“The players know that, as we have been here before. People saying we are doing all right and then it can tail off for a couple of weeks.
“You can get caught up pretty quick if you don’t keep riding the wave of being up there.
“It’s important that we do.
“We know what we feel like when it doesn’t and what comes with it.”
The opener, in the seventh minute from a set-piece on the right, saw Saints keeper Jack Alnwick produce a super stop low at his left-hand post, only to be beaten as Watkins pounced on the loose ball to prod it home.
Then, with St Mirren still trying to regroup, Aberdeen struck again two minutes later. Jay Emmanuel-thomas scooped a clever ball across the area from the right and Christian Ramirez hooked his strike past Alnwick, once more low to his left.
Yet, the visitors were not cowed by such a stinging start and twice they forced Dons keeper Joe Lewis into acrobatic saves; the first from Matt Millar’s shot, the second from a close-range effort from Joe Shaughnessy.
It may have been unsurprising that the Buddies pulled one back three minutes from the interval with a stunning Scott Tanser strike as Millar placed a clever ball from the right in to space for his team-mate to run on to it.
But the Reds regained their two-goal advantage in dramatic fashion, straight from the kick-off.
Ryan Hedges sent Watkins free through the centre and the former Bristol City man delivered with a shot that Alnwick couldn’t reach.
The home side, should have extended their lead as Ramirez’s header from Funso Ojo’s perfectly-weighted ball into the area missed the target by a whisker.
However, after they weathered a period when St Mirren pressed hard for a second, it was the American who took the steam out of them with 20 minutes remaining as he stabbed home his second – and eleventh of the season – following good approach work by Teddy Jenks, an early second-half replacement for Emmanuel-thomas.