DONS AND HEARTS KEEP THEIR GAZE FIRMLY ON THE PREMIERSHIP SUMMIT
ABERDEEN are a team under scrutiny. The spotlight is on strong and, so far, they show no sign of wilting. In Scottish football, one step forward is often followed by two back. A team win some games, pinch a few headlines and, within months, their best players are gone.
Yet Aberdeen have lost no one of any consequence. They are stronger.
Last season’s runaway leading scorer Adam Rooney now starts games on the bench and the squad has a quality of player only Celtic can eclipse.
The real tests will come in bear pits like Parkhead and Tynecastle. A goal down after five minutes at Fir Park, Derek McInnes maintained a quiet confidence. He always expected his team would recover to win the game. Ebbe Skovdahl or Steve Paterson could never have said likewise.
Niall McGinn and defender Ash Taylor scored the goals that salvaged a 2-1 win, which means the Pittodrie side have now won their first three league games. The last time they did that was 1991.
‘I think we are a better team than last season,’ said Taylor after heading a disputed winner.
‘We have spent a year together now and have also added some more good players. There is experience and we feel a lot stronger.
‘We just want to maintain a level of performance and see if it takes us further. If that means getting more points and closer to Celtic, that’s what will happen. Seeing Adam Rooney on the bench just goes to show the type of squad we have.
‘Keeping a guy who scored 27 or 28 goals for us last season out of the team is evidence of the strength in depth we have.’
No one disputes Aberdeen have goals in them. In the final third, they have width and menace — and Saturday’s winner came from their threat at set-pieces.
The questions, if there are any, lie in defence. They were cut apart in the fifth minute f or Motherwell’s opener. It was a cl assic breakaway goal.
The visitors should have taken the lead when Shay Logan headed McGinn’s cross straight i nto the arms of Connor Ripley from nine yards.
The keeper launched a move straight up the other end, Lionel Ainsworth f i nding time and space on the right flank to roll the ball into the path of Scott McDonald. He tested Danny Ward with a rasping shot, but t he keeper’s parry fell invitingly for Marvin Johnson to guide a bouncing effort into the net for 1-0. Immediately, there was a terrific pace and energy to the game.
Yet Aberdeen’s equaliser had a touch of fortune, McGinn sliding a speculative, inviting, low ball towards the back post.
David Goodwillie tried to connect and missed. But that was enough to leave keeper Ripley confused and flat-footed, the ball sneaking into the net off the inside of the post.
Motherwell will reflect on the glorious chance debutant loan midfielder Jake Taylor had to put them back into the lead in 33 minutes, but he blazed his shot from 16 yards over the bar.
When Rooney replaceed Willo Flood — a victim of ankle-ligament damage — at half-time, Aberdeen’s intentions became clear. Goodwillie should have headed the visitors in front straight away, placing his effort straight into the keeper’s arms.
But they took their chance in 62 minutes when McGinn won a free-kick close to the corner flag, took the set-piece himself and swung over a cross which keeper Ripley came for before colliding with a teammate. It allowed Taylor a meat- and- drink header i nt o t he corner of the net. ‘Ash Taylor has driven Louis Laing back and eventually pushed him into Connor Ripley,’ claimed Motherwell boss Ian Baraclough. ‘ I’ve j ust spoken to Louis, he will be a top player but, in situations like that, you just have to go one versus one with your man and make sure he doesn’t get to a dangerous area.
‘Taylor should never get to that position.’
For Taylor, the end justified the means. ‘I got five goals last season and I wouldn’t mind getting my head onto some more this term, but the most important job for me is to keep clean sheets,’ he said. ‘Goals are just a bonus.’
As Motherwell pressed for an equaliser, Aberdeen threatened to pick them off. McGinn came close to a third in 81 minutes, feinting inside Josh Law and smacking a low, leftfoot shot against the base of the post. Rooney blazed over with his left foot when a goal looked certain.
‘We managed to do the job,’ said Taylor. ‘The team spirit ensures we never know when we are beaten.’
However, as 1991-92 proved, the way a team ends a season is more telling than how they begin it.
After winning their opening three league games back then, Aberdeen lost at home to St Johnstone in the fifth, crashed out of the League Cup to Airdrie and sacked a manager for the first time in their history when Alex Smith paid for continued poor results with his job.
There is nothing to suggest the current team — or manager — will suffer a similar fate. But now, as then, the Dons are expected to sustain some kind of title challenge. With every win, expectations grow.
‘It’s early to be talking about title challenges,’ said Taylor, ‘ The ambition is to go that bit further and improve season to season.
‘Taking maximum points is a great way to start from the first three games, but it’s about our overall performances and we have to keep them going.’ MOTHERWELL can see another season of struggle stretching out before them. An opening-day victory in Inverness has been followed by three successive defeats in the Ladbrokes Premiership. Last season’s survival depended on a two-legged play-off victory over Rangers. Yet winger Lionel Ainsworth still sees signs they can avoid a similar dog fight this season after competing strongly with Aberdeen for long spells. ‘I don’t think we are far away,’ he said. ‘Winning at Inverness was good and we lost at home to Dundee United. ‘Hearts were better than us and we competed here with a team who were second in the table last season. ‘They’re strong, but we outplayed them and gave away silly goals. There are plenty of positives.’ It was hard to find many in the way they conceded Aberdeen’s winner. Ian Baraclough pointed fingers at his centre-half Louis Laing for allowing scorer Ash Taylor to pull him back and nudge him into keeper Connor Ripley. ‘I don’t know if it was a foul,’ said Ainsworth. ‘I just saw Connor on the floor. But we shouldn’t be giving free-kicks away in those areas because they’re a big side and dangerous from set-pieces. ‘When you play against Aberdeen, it’s always going to