Dons stroll to victory over ex-boss’s Killie
ABERDEEN 4
Besuijen (22), Miovski (24, pen. 45), Stewart (63)
KILMARNOCK 1
Taylor (27)
Jim Goodwin played down Aberdeen’s compelling performance as they ravaged a Kilmarnock team struggling to find a second win in the Premiership.
The Dons boss was concerned about some aspects of his team’s first-half display, despite them going in at the interval with a two-goal lead thanks to a brace by star striker Bojan Miovski, who has hit seven league games – all at home – already this season.
But he wasn’t the only star performer in red. Jonny Hayes created havoc every time he had the ball down the left and there were major contributions from others like Matty Kennedy, Hayden Coulson and Vicente Besuijen, the latter grabbing the first goal in 22 minutes following sloppy defending by the visitors.
Goodwin said: “I thought the overall performance was very good although there were elements of the first half that were a little bit frustrating. We are looking like a decent team
at the moment and if we can just scrub up in one or two areas then we are looking like a very good team.
“We are still a relatively new group. There are things that we have to get better at. I thought 4-1 made it looked extremely comfortable but that wasn’t the case in the first half because we left ourselves open to the counter-attack too many times.
“All-in-all, it was a pleasing and convincing performance against a team who were very well organised. Derek McInnes is a good, experienced manager and his team is always set up in a way that makes life difficult and hard to beat.
“But we created plenty of opportunities and we could have had a few more.”
There was enough fizz from both sides to suggest this might be a cracker and three goals in a blistering five-minute firsthalf spell told the story of the determination among both sets of players.
So, when the Rugby Park side momentarily switched off in their own penalty area as the Dons put pressure on them, it was Besuijen who burst through to slam the ball home.
The men from Ayrshire had hardly time to recover when the Reds struck again, just two minutes later, this time from the penalty spot as once more their opponents struggled to clear the ball before keeper Zach Hemmings’ foot caught
Bojan Miovski and ref Kevin Clancy pointed to the spot.
The north Macedonia international left Hemming with no chance as he hit his sixth league goal of the season with a clinical conversion.
The flurry of goals wasn’t over, however, and Kilmarnock managed to overcome their two-goal deficit with a beautifully-executed header from ex-Don Ash Taylor as Liam Polworth clipped a clever ball across the hosts’ goalmouth.
It was a measure of how tight this game was and with McInnes, who managed Aberdeen until last year, surely set to deliver a half-time lecture on how his men should deal with Jonny Hayes, causing havoc down the left flank and providing a constant flow of crosses, Aberdeen struck again, seconds before the break.
Once again is was hesitancy in the Kilmarnock defence that paved the way for another Dons strike from Miovski as Coulson was allowed space to take the ball deep into the area.
Joe Wright watched it happen and as the ball fell for Miovski, he scooped it into the net.
This was the point of no return for Kilmarnock and the Reds put their foot on the table in a second half they dominated with centre-back Anthony Stewart’s goal in 63 minutes proving the icing on the cake for Goodwin’s side.