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 medical St Mirren facet.
The house facet had been the higher for many of the recreation, however poor defending from Slobodan Rubezic price them two first-half objectives, Toyosi Olusanya scoring the primary and establishing the second for Mikael Mandron. Mandron added a 3rd late within the recreation to safe the 3-0 win.
The Dons, who did decide 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 crew 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 fulfill 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.
Aberdeen reacted effectively and Pape Habib Gueye, on his first begin after 4 months out by 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 overview for handball which finally determined in opposition to a penalty.
Debutant Penman was pressured off by 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 chopping 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 objective.
The Dons introduced on Ante Palaversa on the break and he virtually 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 extensive.
Hemming was pressured to push a deep Palaversa free-kick, which evaded everybody within the penalty space, across the put up and substitute Kevin Nisbet clipped the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick because the hosts continued to seek for a method 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 extensive of the far put up because the Buddies objective 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 area and he lashed dwelling a pleasant effort from the sting of the realm.
What the managers mentioned…
Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin: “It is tough today.
“We’re on this run of video games and earlier than the sport we really feel like we’re trying higher and higher in coaching periods and
the crew seems to be higher and higher, and then you definately get the end result like that.
“It is challenging for everyone, for me and the supporters. I, as the manager, am responsible and I have find a way to balance the team in a different way so we don’t get so exposed to the situations.
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson: “We have had plenty 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 the plaudits, rightly so, but for me as a manager, the reason we’re not higher up the table has been our defending from set-plays in the second phase.
“We defended for our lives right this moment, we depend on Zach to return and dominate and that is what he is completed, and that provides us a platform to play from. After which a few of the high quality from the entrance two, they dominated the sport and brought about actual, actual
issues for Aberdeen.”
