County pile pain on Dons as Robson bids farewell
A VISITOR tasting Scottish football for the first time would have had difficulty distinguishing which of these sides finished second in the Ladbrokes Premiership as Aberdeen suffered their second worst defeat of the season.
Ross County’s dominant display was more than just a surprise. The ease with which they drilled four goals — a Brian Graham penalty followed by efforts from Alex Schalk, Liam Boyce and Martin Woods — past Derek McInnes’s side was really quite shocking.
Barry Robson wore the captain’s armband for the day for the hosts and received a guard of honour before kick-off. It was a clear indication that he will not be invited to remain at Pittodrie now that his contract has come to an end and he conceded afterwards that he is likely to give up football altogether after such a comprehensive thrashing.
Robson, who was replaced on the hour-mark by Joe Nuttall in his final game, plans to continue as a coach, but this was not the farewell he wanted.
“I am definitely retiring,” said the former Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland midfielder. “The boots are nailed to the wall now after that performance. I have had a good innings.
“I am 38 this year and somebody said I had played over 650 games, so now is the right time. I didn’t want to drop down levels, but I will stay in football.”
It was left to the Ross County pair of Woods and Schalk to compete for the man-of-the-match award. Manager Jim McIntyre was critical of how the former has been treated by the club’s supporters, however, who have something of a Marmite approach to the midfielder. “Martin takes some stick from a small element of our support and I think he is under-appreciated, but not by his teammates and that is why he is one of the first names on our teamsheet,” stated McIntyre. “I’m delighted to have him at this club. Some of our supporters need to get a grip, especially at home.”
McIntyre is also hoping to see Boyce force his way into the Northern Ireland squad ahead of the European Championship finals in France next month.
“It was great to see Liam Boyce get his 20th goal of the season,” he said. “To finish the season with back-to-back goals along with what he has done earlier in the season will be enough to get him in the Northern Ireland squad. “It has been a great season for us.” Ex-Queen’s Park Rangers goalkeeper Aaron Lennox got his Dons debut and found himself at the centre of the incident that presented the visitors with the opening goal on 23 minutes.
He was left exposed by his poor defence as Schalk broke into the area and dived at the Dutchman’s feet in an effort to get the ball, a manoeuvre that left the County player sprawling and a penalty awarded. Graham converted and Lennox was shown a yellow card.
If the Aussie keeper thought it couldn’t get any worse, he was sadly mistaken. When a County throw-in was headed across goal by Graham, Schalk’s scissor-kick looped into the goal.
A Willo Flood header, touched on to the bar by County keeper Scott Fox midway through the second half was as close as the hosts came before Boyce headed a third from a Graham cross.
Martin Woods fired a stunning 25-yard strike 11 minutes from time to spark an exodus of home fans.
“The season hasn’t ended the way we wanted,” said McInnes. “I hope some of the young players will be better for this experience.”