Main man ends Dons’ drought
Goal drought finally over as Aberdeen cruise to victory and take heat off McInnes
DROUGHT broken, curse lifted, unwanted piece of history avoided. Not a bad night’s work, all in all.
Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes, under pressure from disgruntled supporters and in dire need of something special, had all his wishes granted on a cold and blustery night in Hamilton.
In this least glamorous of settings, goal heroes ranging from the unexpected to the unlikely stepped into the glare of live TV to deliver a handsome 3-1 victory over their shell-shocked hosts.
Nobody expected this. Probably not even McInnes himself. Not after the miserable run of bloodless form the Dons had been enduring.
Their first goal from open play in 654 long, troubled minutes, courtesy of surprise starter Curtis Main hitting the net for the first time since November, put the visitors ahead after quarter of an hour.
And a Niall McGinn strike less than ten minutes later had the 423 travelling fans rubbing their eyes in joyous disbelief.
Could that team in the shiny gold jerseys really be the same guys who had struggled and spluttered when within sight of the penalty box for so long?
Yes, it could. The same men who would go 3-0 up deep in first-half stoppage-time, Connor McLennan effectively putting the game beyond doubt before the interval.
In half-a-game’s worth of effort and intent, this slightly surprising starting XI — with top scorer Sam Cosgrove excluded — had avoided becoming the first team in Aberdeen history to go six games without scoring.
Victory also took them up to third in the table. A fine reward for rediscovering that killer touch in the penalty area.
At kick-off last night, remember, it had been 639 minutes since they had last scored from open play. And a staggering 454 minutes without a goal of any description.
A bar back in the Granite City had seized upon this dry spell in a time of widespread flooding, offering punters a free pint of lager in the event of the Dons bagging even a single goal from open play.
Among some of the more longsuffering sections of the support, there was plenty of comment about how the landlord could offer vintage malt chasers and treble measures of the finest brandy without suffering any dent in profits. There’s none more cruel than your own fans, right?
In need of a goal, McInnes (below) took the bold decision to bench his top marksman, leaving Cosgrove — scorer of 21 this season — among the subs.
If few would have chosen Main, with his one goal for the campaign, to start ahead of the established line leader, well, that’s why McInnes earns the big bucks. Against an Accies side who had lost four and drawn one of their last five, a starting XI showing just the even half-dozen changes from the home loss to Rangers, the visitors didn’t take long to bare their teeth. Twice in the opening quarter of an hour, they broke on the home team with a pace and intensity that should have produced efforts on goal. But Funso Ojo’s driving run through the middle was followed by a pass that Niall McGinn just couldn’t control, while a piece of Matty Kennedy brilliance on the left wing ended with Main unable to make good contact with the cut-back. The breakthrough came just moments later, starting with a ball down the inside left channel from old trusty Andrew Considine. Main bent his run to beat the offside trap, gained control and produced a sublime finish, dinking the ball over advancing goalkeeper Luke Southwood. It still seemed to take an age for his effort to bounce into the net inside the far post.
For Dons fans who had waited for the best part of 11 hours, however, why not savour the moment?
Football being the least logical of sports, that long-awaited opener was virtually guaranteed to be followed by a quickfire second.
And so it was that, with 23 minutes on the clock, McGinn applied a truly gorgeous low finish from a sumptuous little back-heel lay-off from Lewis Ferguson.
Hamilton lost skipper and defensive stalwart Brian Easton with a shoulder injury soon after.
And, four minutes into the six added on for Easton’s treatment, they were effectively eliminated from this contest.
Once again, Considine was the provider, recycling the ball from a throw-in on the left and delivering a curling cross that was headed powerfully across goal — and in at the far post — by McLennan.
Accies threw on a couple of subs at half-time, desperately seeking a way back into this one.
And they deserved their late consolation, Marios Ogkmpoe finishing from substitute David Moyo’s low cross.
But the Dons could have added to their tally, Ferguson seeing a thumping shot tipped over and Main hitting the back of the net again, only to be flagged for offside.
With Celtic up next at Pittodrie on Sunday, keeping a goal or two in reserve — even on a night of free-scoring excess — might not have been the worst policy.