Barry Robson is doing his best to keep a lid on things at Pittodrie but his Aberdeen revival has all of a sudden starting to get extremely exciting.
His Dons had to dig deep to make it four Premiership wins on the spin with victory against a spirited St Johnstone side who deserved more from battling for more than 90 minutes with 10 men. But Robson has managed to forge a granite core to a side who previously had a soft centre – and they are now just one point behind Hearts in the fight to be best of the rest.
Unlucky Saints keeper Remi Matthews inadvertently bundled the ball in to his own net in the first half at McDiarmid Park to pile more agony on a team who already had Andy Considine sent off on his 36th birthday after barely five minutes after VAR decided his slight tug on Bojan Miovski was outside of the box – but merited a red. Graeme Shinnie was also sent packing in stoppage time but Aberdeen managed to brind it out and it’s game on for the Europa League spot – and the £3m bounty it could bring.
But Robson – installed as boss until the end of the season – said: “We've not achieved anything yet. We showed resilience. St Johnstone had to come out and have a go, we knew that. This is such a hard place to come and play, and that's credit to Callum and St Johnstone. Our remit was to come down here and win, and we did.
“I said to the players we can be better, but get the heads down, keep working, move on.”
Opposite number Callum Davidson’s frustration was understandable. The red card scuppered his gameplan – and his side’s bright start.
Dons keeper Kelle Roos was forced into an early double save when he kept out Liam Gordon’s drive and got back up in time to block Drey Wright at the back post. Considine’s slight touch on Miovski changed the flow and the Dons set up camp.
Ylber Ramadani wasn’t far off with a curling effort and there was a scramble when MacDonald’s header was saved by Matthews and Duk couldn’t bury the rebound. Aberdeen surged ahead when Angus MacDonald clipped Jonny Hayes whipped corner goalward only for Matthews to block – then knock into his own net with a trailing leg.
Saints keep plugging away and had a shout for a penalty when Liam Scales had his hands on Stevie May's back. And they were pulling their hair out in the second period when they couldn’t turn pressure into at least a point.
May should have done better with a free header and there were several moments of sheer panic in the Dons penalty area when the Perth men just couldn’t find the final touch. Shinnie’s red card for scything down Wright balanced the sides and Aberdeen had to hang on in the end – with Roos superbly making another double save in stoppage time when he tipped Gordon’s header on to the bar and recovered to gobble up the loose ball.
Robson has picked up five wins in his seven games but the only downside was Shinnie’s sending off late on for a second yellow after a previous booking for whinging at officials.
The gaffer said: “Come on, I got a player sent off and it's never been a sending off. It's just frustrating. VAR can't even look at that. It's frustrating because that's our captain missing for the next game.
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