MAGIC MADDISON
Dons on fire as teen ace leaves Killie bewitched
AFTER an inauspicious start to the season in which they won just one of their opening five fixtures, Aberdeen have surged into second place in the Premiership thanks in no little part to the sumptuous skills of James Maddison.
They battered Kilmarnock at Rugby Park yesterday to make it four consecutive victories in all competitions. Maddison was once again to the fore and the 19-year-old English midfielder has made a match-winning contribution in three of those four matches.
After his recent goals against Dundee and Rangers, he tore the Killie defence to shreds in this comprehensive victory — assisting three of Aberdeen’s four goals.
Granted, the opener came from a hugely controversial penalty decision in which he was directly involved, but that should not detract from how impressive Maddison and Aberdeen were and, similarly, how utterly abysmal Kilmarnock were.
With 25 minutes on the clock, Maddison gave chase to Adam Rooney’s through ball. Goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald rushed off his line and got to the ball first. Maddison went down under the resulting contact and referee Willie Collum deemed it to be a spot-kick.
Rooney stepped up to send MacDonald the wrong way and Collum achieved what few would have thought possible; a status of greater unpopularity than director Michael Johnston inside Rugby Park. It was a position from which Aberdeen would never look back.
‘I thought it was almost a perfect performance from us,’ said Dons boss Derek McInnes. ‘It was possibly our best performance of the season.
‘I haven’t seen replays of the penalty incident, but MacDonald didn’t seem like he dealt with it well and it looked like he pulled Maddison down. I might be totally wrong, but the fact is we were still the dominant side regardless of that.
‘Maddison was unplayable at times. He’s a technician in midfield, picking holes in the opposition with his vision and passing.’
McInnes made two changes to team that beat Rangers last Sunday. Ash Taylor replaced Mark Reynolds in central defence, while last week’s match-winner Maddison displaced Peter Pawlett in midfield.
Maddison was pulling the strings in the early stages. Operating fluidly between a position on the left wing and the No 10 role behind Rooney, the little playmaker was a bewitching, slippery presence which Kilmarnock simply could not get to grips with.
Jonny Hayes had a great opportunity to open the scoring in five minutes, after Maddison’s through ball had split the Killie defence in half, but MacDonald made a good save.
Killie were boosted by the return of Greg Kiltie in midfield, but they rarely threatened Aberdeen. They would have felt a legitimate sense of injustice about the earlier penalty award, but that should not mask just how awful they were.
Once again, Kris Boyd was left far too isolated up front. Anthony O’Connor, who looks a bulldozer of a centre-half, relished the physical battle with Boyd, and Killie’s long-ball ploy allowed the Aberdeen stopper to dominate his opponent.
The match was effectively ended as a contest just five minutes after half-time. Killie failed to deal with Maddison’s corner, the ball broke loose and Andy Considine rifled it left-footed into the top corner.
Maddison’s hat-trick of assists was completed on 67 minutes. From his corner, Taylor came rushing in at the back post to thump a volley past MacDonald and high into the net.
The score could have been anything from that point. Rooney missed two great chances before he finally doubled his tally for the afternoon by converting Hayes’ through ball.
The only mercy for Kilmarnock was that the final scoreline did not turn out to be heavier than 4-0 and manager Lee Clark admitted that it simply was not good enough from his team.
‘The first goal is always important,’ said Clark. ‘But whether it changed the game in the fashion that it ended up, I don’t believe so.
‘What’s the point in me having a go at the referee — I’ll probably just end up losing a few quid by being fined. But it was a strange one, that’s all I’ll say.
‘We never performed in the second half and I take full responsibility for that. We’ve ended up taking a heavy defeat at home, which is never nice.
‘It has been men against boys in the past two matches and I accept responsibility for that. It became too easy for Aberdeen.
‘We have conceded 10 goals in our last two games, which is horrendous.’