Dons finally shake off their travel sickness
THERE are moments in football that take you by surprise. Sometimes, the unthinkable can happen. Yes, Aberdeen are capable of winning on the road at a ground that isn’t McDiarmid Park — and Kevin van Veen doesn’t always score against the Dons.
Coming into this match, Jim Goodwin’s men had the unwelcome record of having won just two of their previous 23 away matches in the Premiership, with both of those triumphs being 1-0 victories at St Johnstone.
Motherwell striker Van Veen has also turned into a Dons destroyer in this fixture in recent memory. Aberdeen had lost four of their last five matches against the Steelmen, drawing one, with the Dutchman having netted five times in those games, including in the 3-2 win at Pittodrie earlier this season.
All of that changed yesterday as the players in red delivered a victory that must be repeated around the country if they really are to make any significant progress this season.
VAR, naturally, played its part on the first weekend of it being rolled out in Scottish football. Bojan Miovski’s fourth-minute opener was initially flagged for offside. But, after waiting around 90 seconds, the decision was reversed.
Luis Lopes soon had an effort ruled out — but he was offside, according to the new system. However, the Dons attacker did have his goal and it proved to be the winner with a neat header in the second half to send his team up to third spot.
Motherwell had equalised 10 minutes after the interval thanks to Stuart McKinstry’s strike to bring them back into this contest.
But Fir Park is proving to be an unhappy home for Steven Hammell’s men. They’ve recorded just one victory here in the league all season and, overall, only tasted a win in one of their last eight games in all competitions.
We didn’t need to wait long for VAR to take centre stage — four minutes, in fact.
All drama aside, it was a lovely goal. Connor Barron played the ball through Motherwell’s defence for Miovski to face Liam Kelly one-on-one. The Macedonian striker chipped the goalkeeper to find the net, but the linesman’s flag was quickly raised.
You know what happens next. Referee Euan Anderson put his hand up to his ear as he conferred with VAR Andrew Dallas. After nearly a minute and a half, the decision was overturned and the Dons were in front.
There was a sense of deja-vu ten minutes later when Aberdeen saw another goal ruled out. Lopes’ effort was saved by Kelly but he knocked in the rebound. Again, the offside flag was raised but this time VAR ruled the correct decision had been made.
Having barely got going, Motherwell were almost level when Dons keeper Kelle Roos made a mess of holding onto the ball in the box and Van Veen (below) pounced. Unfortunately for the striker, his effort from a tight angle went wide. The hosts were screaming for a penalty and a little VAR intervention of their own on the half-hour mark when Ross Tierney went to ground on the right side of the box under pressure from Ylber Ramadani but Anderson was unmoved.
A few boos greeted the half-time whistle from the home fans as frustration grew at Fir Park. Their moans and groans almost went up a notch three minutes after the restart when the Dons wasted a chance to double their lead.
Jayden Richardson looked like he had been fouled on the right side of the box but quickly regained his balance and crossed for Lopes, whose header at the far post went wide.
Aberdeen’s failure to capitalise came back to haunt them when Motherwell equalised on 55 minutes. McKinstry controlled the ball and fired an effort from just inside the box into the bottom-left corner.
And the game almost turned around completely when McKinstry fired the ball to the feet of half-time substitute Connor Shields, whose first-time pass set up Van Veen 10 yards out but Roos dived low to save his side-footed effort.
However, there was another twist when the Dons regained the lead on 68 minutes. Aberdeen possess pace in the wide areas but their distribution had been lacking. This time, though, Jack MacKenzie delivered a terrific cross from the left to Lopes, who stooped to steer his header past Kelly for his seventh goal of the season.
MOTHERWELL (4-2-3-1): Kelly; McGinn (O’Donnell 77), Johansen, Lamie, Penney; Slattery (Cornelius 72), Goss; McKinstry, Tierney (Shields 46), Spittal; Van Veen. Subs (not used): Oxborough, Mugabi, Maguire, J Morris, Miller, Ferrie. Booked: Lamie, Goss, Spittal. ABERDEEN (3-1-4-2): Roos; McCrorie, Stewart, Scales; Ramadani; Richardson, Barron, Clarkson (Besuijen 84), MacKenzie; Lopes (Kennedy 77), Miovski (Watkins 85). Subs (not used): Lewis, S Morris, Duncan, Milne, Ramirez. Booked: Lopes, Miovski. Referee: Euan Anderson. VAR: Andrew Dallas. Attendance: 5,486.