Dons out to impress new manager as Hayes
STEPHEN GLASS will begin his reign as Aberdeen manager this week and his new side were out to impress as they edged passed St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park yesterday.
A Jonny Hayes second half strike was enough to hand the Dons three points as they visited Perth in the opening game of the top six fixtures.
The Pittodrie outfit closed the seven-point gap on thirdplaced Hibernian with victory over their Perth rivals and interim boss Paul Sheerin was delighted to finish his stint in charge with a win.
“Normally when you come into a club it’s struggling in terms of league position, but we are in a strong position to get into Europe like we have been in previous years,” he beamed at full-time.
“We have a great group of players who work hard. It can only be a good thing coming in at this stage and I’m sure the new manager will soon see that.
“It’s pleasing because this is always a tough place and there are not many classics between the two teams. We started poorly, we overplayed and invited too much pressure.
“I asked them to play a certain way and they maybe took that too literally but in the second half we got the ball forward more.
“When you score it takes the shackles off a little bit but then late on St Johnstone threw a lot at you, so we had to be strong defensively. I thought they were excellent to a man at the back.”
It was the home side who started the brighter with Callum Davidson’s side opting for a high press from the off. Aberdeen were determined to move the ball out from the back and they were almost caught out when Callum Booth seized possession in the final third after just three minutes.
The left-back delivered for Rangers loanee Glenn Middleton, but his volleyed effort was deflected behind for a corner.
Saints continued to put the pressure on and Craig Conway almost got on the end of a Shaun Rooney through ball just moments later. The alert Dean Campbell did well to sniff out the danger, though.
Chris Kane, who replaced Stevie May in the St Johnstone starting XI, then had a huge chance with 15 minutes clocked. The striker failed to find the back of the net with volley from the centre of the box following a Conway free kick.
The Perth outfit were then made to pay for missing their opportunities when Aberdeen broke the deadlock shortly after half-time.
Former McDiarmid Park forward Matty Kennedy cut open the home backline with a defence splitting pass for Hayes who calmly slotted home, despite pressure from the retreating Shaun Rooney.
Saints had chances to equalise late in the game through Rooney and Ali McCann, but ultimately they couldn’t break down an impressive Aberdeen backline.
“I’m frustrated we didn’t make more of the first 20 mins. When you play a team of Aberdeen’s quality you have to take your chances when they come along,” said Callum Davidson. “We put them under pressure early in the game and when you do that you’ve got to score. If Kano [Chris Kane] had taken his chance in the first half it would have been us controlling the game. But the first goal is so important and when they scored it allowed them to play on the counter attack and we had to leave ourselves more exposed.
“The final ball was the one criticism I had of the players today, we got ourselves into good positions but it just wasn’t good enough. But I have to credit the players’ attitude.”
He continued: “We have achieved top six and won a cup this season so it would have been easy to take the foot off the gas. But they haven’t done that and the attitude was excellent.”