Aberdeen Voice

This cagey affair saw the end of Motherwell’s unbeaten record at Pittodrie since November 2008, reports Andrew Watson.

Each side practically cancelled the other out, bar the early goal.  Hardly an advert for the supposed excitement of the Friday night football fixture.
Things started promisingly, though.

Two minutes from the whistle some good passing saw Aberdeen’s Jonny Hayes with a chance on goal.  He drilled low and under the keeper.

1-0!

Hayes soon had another chance but his clever chip saw the roof of the net.

It actually looked like, at least for awhile, it would be end to end stuff with the Steelmen hitting two efforts just over the bar.

It didn’t help that the Dons second in command keeper, Scott Brown, was left grasping for the ball and failing miserably.

From there on it descended into a rather tedious midfield battle between the two.  Half time came and went.

61 minutes into the game, striker Adam Rooney came on the pitch to replace Peter Pawlett. Thirteen minutes later, David Goodwillie came off for Barry Robson.

Cammy Smith then came on for Hayes at the 84 minute mark.

At some point the Red Army sang the following, after some touchline drama involving the Fir Park men’s gaffer, of ex-Rangers repute:

“Stuart McCall, is a wanker, is a wanker!”

There was even the pleasure of watching their number five, Simon Ramsden, wait not so patiently to receive the ball back from an Aberdeen fan in the Main Stand, who elected to feign throwing the ball back to him for the throw in.

That is, before eventually giving him the ball back.

You had to be there for moments like that, because, excluding the lone goal, there was little else to get excited about.  Come on you Reds.

Final score:  1-0.

This fixture against Inverness was a hotly contested and sometimes bad tempered match that made for some entertaining football, says Voice reporter Andrew Watson.

There were four yellow cards throughout the match’s duration and at times the ball hardly left the middle of the field, with tackles aplenty.

Yet expansive play, even just moving
the ball slightly forward, was held to a minimum.

16 minutes into the game, a poorly defended free kick left keeper Jamie Langfield exposed. The Caley Jags eluded their opposite jerseys and headed into the net.

1-0 (Josh Meekings).

It was a worry to see the wind knocked out the sails of the Reds so quickly.

Poor passing, though, between the Thistle keeper and his teammate at the back offered perfect opportunity for Adam Rooney to score an equaliser.

Cottoning on to the pass back, he beat the man between the sticks and salvaged the game for Aberdeen.

1-1 Aberdeen after 24 minutes!

The Reds then went ahead minutes before the stroke of half time. In this passage of play it seemed imminent the Dons would hammer in another goal and put them in the lead.

However, they were pinned back by Inverness, and almost out of the box, until expert holding play by David Goodwillie afforded them another chance.

He found attacking defender Shaleum Logan who cracked the ball into the roof of the net on 40 minutes.

2-1 Aberdeen!

Ten minutes into the second half Logan went from saint to sinner.

His poor tackle left Langfield vulnerable, and although he could’ve done better one on one with his attacker, blame laid largely upon the Englishman.

2-2 (Marley Watkins).

An arguably similar scenario up the other end of the pitch gifted former Inverness player Jonny Hayes the winning goal.

3-2 Aberdeen after 59 minutes!

Cammy Smith came on for Goodwillie at the 79 minute mark.

Then Peter Pawlett came off for Jeffrey Monakana two minutes into added time.

Goal hero Rooney took his time to come off the pitch against his former club a minute later, and was replaced by Lawrence Shankland.

It’s perhaps testament to the overall strength and depth of the squad that Aberdeen are finally bringing in the right results, especially recently.

On the other hand, if they haemorrhage goals like they almost did in this match, good and plentiful additions to the score sheet might count for nothing.

Final score:  3-2.