Perth men pay harsh penalty at Pittodrie
AS IF now immune to managerial change, Aberdeen handled the late loss of interim head coach Peter Leven to an emergency surgery with aplomb.
They moved to within a point of Hibernian in the consolation competition to finish best of the bottom six thanks to Bojan Miovski’s penalty.
Leven is expected to return to his temporary post this week following a hip operation.
That will be a popular development in a dressing room that appreciates his efforts following the sacking of Barry Robson then abrupt exit by Neil Warnock.
Scott Anderson, helped by Craig Samson, Jonny Hayes and Stuart Duff, held the fort yesterday and teased enough of a tune out of the players to extend the unbeaten league run to six.
Aberdeen’s chaotic campaign is ending pain-free.
The agony for St Johnstone, however, goes on. Ahead of a derby trip to Dundee in early February, Craig Levein’s men had the chance to go into the top six with victory.
They’ve earned just seven points from 11 games since. Yesterday’s double whammy saw them drop into 11th place, two points behind Ross County.
Saints fans can only hope Levein’s confidence about escaping the relegation play-off berth over the final three matches is not misplaced.
They face relegated Livingston away next Saturday, County at home in midweek then Motherwell at Fir Park.
Levein said: ‘In this situation you need grit, you need determination, you need trust in each other.
‘And you need confidence, which is the thing that we can get back by winning one game.
‘That’s all it needs. And we’re going into a period where we have three winnable games.
‘I consider we’ve played the best two teams in the bottom six. The next three games, if we win all three, we will be fine.’
There was a purpose, more poise and a plan working to create chances that saw Aberdeen required to scrap to earn an impressive fifth clean sheet in six Premiership games.
Angus MacDonald’s terrific block denied Nicky Clark and his central defensive colleague Stefan Gartenmann topped that with a goal-line clearance from Benji Kimpioka.
Ryan McGowan’s header from the resultant corner scraped the top of the crossbar.
Aberdeen gathered themselves midway through the first half, Leighton Clarkson found space to create and started troubling Dimitar Mitov.
Dante Polvara was on the same wavelength as diminutive schemer Clarkson and St Johnstone’s defensive struggles started.
Miovski was surprisingly weak in the finish on two occasions where Mitov gathered.
But the chief culprit was centre-half Gartenmann who scored the winner against Motherwell last Saturday.
Junior Hoilett’s corner gave the Dane a free header that sailed harmlessly over.
On 65 minutes, Dons were gifted their route to victory with a spot-kick award deemed ‘soft’ by Levein.
Yet even he admitted he would’ve been hopeful of earning a penalty had it happened at the other end.
The slightest of Connor Smith touches on the back of Nicky Devlin forced the Dons defender into Andy Considine then onto the turf.
Chris Graham had no doubt and, after a check for an offside earlier in the move, VAR rubber-stamped the call.
The delay failed to trouble Miovski who sent Mitov the wrong way with a decisive kick and his 25th goal of the season.
After falling behind, Levein sent on Stevie May and Adama Sidibeh up top for the salvage mission.
Miovski missed by inches with a header from Clarkson’s cross and Saints really should’ve burgled a late point.
Matt Smith whipped in a terrific delivery from the right for Sidibeh eight yards out.
The striker failed to meet it with conviction and nodded over Kelle Roos’ goal.
‘I said to the players that, where we are, fighting for survival, these things can go against you,’ said Levein of the penalty.
‘That split the teams on the day and that’s really frustrating.’