Aberdeen legend Willie Miller strongly endorsed former Celtic manager Neil Lennon as the person he wants to take charge at Pittodrie but someone else with a connection to the Hoops continued to make his pitch with this victory.
Miller made his comments as BBC Scotland pundit prior to kick-off, but former Celtic winger Barry Robson’s chances of being more than just an interim boss were enhanced by this fighting victory.
It was his second successive home three points since replacing Jim Goodwin but steering Aberdeen to only a paltry third away league win of a dismal season against Dundee United next week will be equally vital.
Robson dedicated this result that moved the Dons back into the top six to chairman and owner Dave Cormack, recovering in an Atlanta hospital from open heart surgery carried out on Friday.
“It was brilliant to get a win for Dave,” said Robson. “None of this matters really, does it? It’s football and I am sure we have all had family members who have had to go through big operations.
“We are just thankful he has
come through it OK.I texted him
last week to say there are really
good people at this club and we will work hard to look after it when he’s away. His focus is on getting better and we just need to crack on and win more games.”
It was a different sort of fighting spirit that Robson called upon to secure their eleventh league win of the season, not in itself impressive but still already one ahead of an even worse campaign last time round.
This wasn’t exactly pretty as he was only too willing to admit afterwards.
“We knew we would need to fight and win second balls. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you need to do that,” Robson said.
“You have to be ready to fight and then the talent and everything else comes after it. Never get that the wrong way around.
“I remember Arsene Wenger, with all his stars, being asked why he’d lost a game at Arsenal. He said that it doesn’t matter how many world-class players you have, you need to win second balls.
“Ylber Ramadani and Graeme Shinnie in the pitch just want to go to war, don’t they? but if you want to play for Aberdeen and win games you need to go to war- and they did.”
The first half was certainly
largely forgettable with neither side looking particularly convincing going forward, hardly surprising given both have been mired in mediocrity lately.
Aberdeen always looked the more capable of finding a way out of the mundane given the precocious skills of Luis “Duk” Lopes who continues to show why he got into Benfica’s youth system.
Robson will certainly appreciate the ability Duk provides down the left side of the attack, given how effective he was in a similar position during his own playing career.
It’s the player’s work rate that is equally impressive though, a potent combination shown to its best effect after a dull opening 18 minutes that was calling out for just such an intervention.
An outrageous backheel when seemingly trapped in his own right back area started a fluent counterattack as the home side swept all the way to the Livingston penalty area where Ylber Ramadani took possession.
When the Albania internationalist delivered a cross to the back post it was Duk who had flown forward only to miss connecting by millimetres for what would have been an outstanding goal.
Instead it was left to Miovski to provide the latest in a growing list of adroit finishes one minute from the interval, just as most in the ground were despairing of seeing any meaningful goalmouth action.
By that point a far from fluent Livingston had at least contrived a series of corners, although a persistent approach of whipping
them near post proved as ineffective as anything they tried from open play.
Aberdeen weren’t much better, but increasing pressure finally paid off just after Nicky Devlin’s desperate block denied Ryan Duncan a clear run on goal from Jay Gorter’s long ball forward.
When the goal did come it was
a fitting combination of the
sublime and the ridiculous as
Ayo Obileye made a complete hash of clearing Duncan’s cross, Miovski taking full advantage with a sumptuous volley.
To be honest it was largely of keeping with what was witnessed during the rest of the match, although Joel Nouble was unfortunate to see Angus MacDonald pop-up to clear his net bound effort off the line.
That was just four minutes in
to the second half and, apart from
a Ramadani shot from 30 yards
that narrowly cleared the crossbar, that was about as close as we came to disturbing the scoreline in a
game high on energy but dreadfully low on quality.
