Kevin Nisbet and Topi Keskinen each scored twice as Aberdeen ended a run of six Scottish Premiership video games with no victory with a 6-2 win over Livingston.
But it surely was referee Ross Hardie who was on the centre of the motion as each side completed with 10 males at Pittodrie.
Kenan Bilalovic had the Dons forward early on however quickfire targets from Mahamadou Susoho and Robbie Muirhead turned the sport on its head.
Nisbet struck twice in first-half stoppage time to place Aberdeen again in entrance earlier than Livingston supervisor David Martindale was despatched to the stand and was shortly adopted by Aberdeen’s Jack Milne and Livi sub Jeremy Bokila after a shoving match overheated.
Sivert Heltne Nilsen got here off the bench to bundle residence a fourth Aberdeen objective and Keskinen fired in a fifth 5 minutes from time earlier than capping the outcome with a sixth in added time.
The house aspect made 4 adjustments after their Scottish Cup win over Raith Rovers, determined to halt a run of 4 straight defeats within the league, whereas Livi had been seeking to bounce again from conceding a late leveller of their midweek draw with St Mirren.
The house aspect couldn’t have requested for a greater begin, Bilalovic bundling residence on the again put up within the ninth minute after Mats Knoester flicked on a Lyall Cameron nook kick.
The Dons thought they’d gone 2-0 up when Nisbet peeled off his man to run on to Stuart Armstrong’s intelligent flick and faucet residence, however the objective was dominated out after a prolonged VAR offside test.
As an alternative, it was the guests who would subsequent discover the web – though there maybe ought to have been an offside given in opposition to Ryan McGowan within the first section of play.
Ultimately, his flick deflected to former Don Connor McLennan, who in flip noticed his shot fall into the trail of Susoho to degree within the twenty eighth minute.
Three minutes later, McLennan’s back-post volley was pushed away by Dimitar Mitov, however solely into the trail of Muirhead, who turned residence from shut vary.
In current occasions Aberdeen would have crumbled, however they confirmed resilience to show the sport round once more earlier than half-time.
Nisbet’s first was a easy three-yard tap-in after an inch-perfect cross from left-back Mitchel Body and his second was near-identical, Keskinen this time teeing up the Scotland striker.
Each side battled by the opening 20 minutes of the second half earlier than Martindale invoked the ire of Hardie, who despatched the Livi boss to the stands for feedback made on the touchline.
Simply three minutes later, an off-the-ball shoving match between Milne and Bokila boiled over, resulting in the pair having to be separated and each being red-carded.
Aberdeen responded the higher of the 2 groups and Nilsen met an Armstrong nook to show residence the fourth simply moments after coming off the bench with quarter-hour left.
Finnish winger Keskinen accomplished the rout with two comparable targets, first chopping inside from the left flank to the sting of the world and firing previous Jerome Prior from 20 yards after which operating into the world earlier than sitting the ‘keeper down and passing into the web.
