Driven Dons dish out the pain to Killie
Euro exit and Celtic jibe fire hosts
ABERDEEn fed off two sources of motivation — responding to Europa League elimination a nd John Collins’ inflammatory statement about the abilities of Celtic’s Premiership challengers — to join the champions and Hearts on maximum points at the top of the table yesterday.
Graeme Shinnie’s first goal since moving to Pittodrie on a free transfer from Inverness Caley Thistle and Adam Rooney’s first of the season, from the penalty spot, secured the win against struggling Kilmarnock.
The victory was much more comfortable than the scoreline suggests as Derek McInnes was able to enjoy an eighth straight victory over the Rugby Park side since taking over as Aberdeen manager.
His pleasure at the strength of performance was enhanced by the way his team responded to last Thursday’s setback of exiting continental competition at the third qualifying hurdle for the second successive season.
However, Coll i ns’ wi del y - publicised claims on the morning of the match that Scottish teams don’t have clever enough players or quick enough thinkers to punish Celtic would have played into that enjoyment, too.
Of course, Ronny Deila’s men won all four meetings between the teams last season but there is now certain to be an added frisson when they clash at Pittodrie in the middle of next month with the signs clear that Aberdeen can pose more of a threat this time.
For example, McInnes had the luxury of being able to bring back Paul Quinn, Willo Flood and Rooney from the start yesterday in an effort to freshen up the side following the crushing disappointment against the Kazakhs.
The Aberdeen players were clearly shattered by their failure to eliminate Kairat Almaty but that lost chance did little to hamper the fluency and pace of their play until late in this game.
It helped that they faced a Killie side which must have been hurt by the previous home hammering from Dundee, and certainly started with a determination to avoid a repeat.
However, as t he first half progressed, anxiety over their discipline and concentration levels simply intensified.
First, Aberdeen’s niall McGinn was allowed to burst forward in a central position and get a shot away from 20 yards which Jamie MacDonald pushed away for a corner. The set-piece then caused more problems.
Quinn cuts a substantial figure, so it is inexplicable that he wasn’t spotted in the area. Kilmarnock had the crossbar to thank for keeping the central defender’s free header out of the net.
MacDonald then had a chance to show why boss Gary Locke was happy to let Craig Samson leave during the week with a stunning reflex save to keep out a closerange Shay Logan header.
The right-back’s opening came from another bit of lax defending from a set-piece but it was the lack of discipline that made a crucial contribution towards Aberdeen f i nally taking the l ead their ever-increasing pressure deserved. Kallum Higginbotham was yellow carded in 25 minutes for a scything challenge t hat l eft McGinn sprawling on the turf. More significant, though, was the booking handed to Darryl Westlake that was to prove Killie’s undoing.
The full-back was finally booked for persistent fouling in 22 minutes and the danger of seeing a second yellow clearly played a part in the moment when the visitors’ fragile resistance was broken.
Jonny Hayes intruded at the edge of the penalty box but Westlake’s unwillingness to t est r eferee Steven McLean’s patience with another robust challenge was feckless instead.
That allowed the ball to break into the path of Shinnie, who produced a sublime f i nish f rom an acute angle into the far corner of MacDonald’s net and effectively settled the match after 37 minutes.
By contrast, Killie’s only real in the first half came when Scott Robinson found Higginbotham on the left but the player signed f rom Partick Thistle lacked the confidence or guile to get beyond Ash Taylor. The roles were reversed after the break as Higginbotham set up Robinson, who should have done better than guide a closerange header wide. But, before the Ayrshire side could build on that, they were two down. Locke’s ambition to get his team further up the park played right into the hosts’ hands as they proved with a thrust forward that finished with Flood floored in the penalty area by Lee Ashcroft. Rooney stepped up to the spot to send MacDonald t he wrong way and score the first goal in his quest to match the tally of 28 that made him Scotland’s top marksman last season.
Locke could have been excused for focusing on damage limitation but he put on Josh Magennis and Greg Kiltie in an attempt to claw something back and they did carry an occasional threat.
Young Kiltie looked willing to take the ball, take opponents on and create chances, one of which the previously solitary Kris Boyd failed to direct on target.
It was slight consolation for Locke, whose side have now lost 10 of their last 11 league games stretching back to mid March and it doesn’t get any easier as Celtic travel to Rugby Park on Wednesday.
‘We knew it would be a tough start, with Aberdeen at Pittodrie and then Celtic in the midweek, but we have to show confidence in ourselves and try to get the win we need,’ he said.
Failure to do so quickly will certainly turn a drama into a crisis.