Aberdeen’s wretched Scottish Premiership kind continued unabated because the Dons fell to their ninth defeat within the final 13 league matches in opposition to a scientific St Mirren facet.
The house facet had been the higher for many of the sport, however poor defending from Slobodan Rubezic price them two first-half targets, Toyosi Olusanya scoring the primary and establishing the second for Mikael Mandron. Mandron added a 3rd late within the sport to safe the 3-0 win.
The Dons, who did choose up a morale-boosting Scottish Cup win in opposition to Elgin Metropolis final week, made 5 modifications from that facet.
The guests, themselves having misplaced the final 4 within the league, handed a primary begin to Callum Penman for one in every of two modifications from the workforce which beat Queen of the South.
The Buddies had been forward after simply seven minutes as Ross Doohan got here to the sting of his space to satisfy Richard Taylor’s lengthy ball, however Rubezic headed the ball previous the oncoming goalkeeper and Olusanya picked up the unfastened ball to slip dwelling from shut vary.
Olusanya celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0
Aberdeen reacted nicely and Pape Habib Gueye, on his first begin after 4 months out by way of damage, was denied from point-blank vary by Zach Hemming after good work on the left by Jeppe Okkels.
Okkels himself was denied by Hemming earlier than Topi Keskinen noticed a low shot blocked by the hand of Richard Taylor, prompting a VAR evaluation for handball which in the end determined in opposition to a penalty.
Debutant Penman was compelled off by way of damage 10 minutes earlier than the guests doubled their lead, Rubezic once more failing to take care of the tempo of Olusanya who shrugged off a weak nudge from the defender earlier than slicing again for Mandron to information the ball dwelling from six yards.
Rubezic signalled to the bench and was changed by on-loan Tottenham defender Alfie Dorrington instantly after the aim.
The Dons introduced on Ante Palaversa on the break and he nearly had a right away affect as Alexander Jensen’s cross fell to him on the sting of the field, however his shot went over the crossbar.
Aberdeen had been discovering some pleasure on their left flank and Okkels put in one other cross for Gueye, which the striker headed narrowly huge.
Hemming was compelled to push a deep Palaversa free-kick, which evaded everybody within the penalty space, across the submit and substitute Kevin Nisbet clipped the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick because the hosts continued to seek for a approach again into the sport.
Nisbet was denied by Hemming from shut vary with the Dons’ finest likelihood of the match and Jensen noticed his follow-up effort drift narrowly huge of the far submit because the Buddies aim led a charmed life.
However any hope of an Aberdeen comeback was extinguished when one other lengthy ball, this time from Alex Gogic, discovered Mandron in acres of house and he lashed dwelling a pleasant effort from the sting of the realm.
What the managers stated…
Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin: “It’s robust as we speak.
“We’re on this run of video games and earlier than the sport we really feel like we’re wanting higher and higher in coaching classes and
the workforce seems higher and higher, and then you definitely get the consequence like that.
“It’s difficult for everybody, for me and the supporters. I, because the supervisor, am accountable and I’ve discover a approach to stability the workforce differently so we do not get so uncovered to the conditions.
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson: “We have had a number of good performances in latest weeks, however what was the massive plus for me was our defending from set-pieces. Zach [Hemming] was dominant within the air.
“The strikers will get all of the plaudits, rightly so, however for me as a supervisor, the explanation we’re not larger up the desk has been our defending from set-plays within the second section.
“We defended for our lives as we speak, we depend on Zach to come back and dominate and that is what he is completed, and that provides us a platform to play from. After which a number of the high quality from the entrance two, they dominated the sport and prompted actual, actual
issues for Aberdeen.”
