ABERDEEN battered Hamilton for much of this Shrove Tuesday showdown but few Accies fans were giving a toss about that last night as the two Lanarkshire sides flipped places in the Premiership table.
This fine win, courtesy of an early Michael Devlin goal and secured with just 10 men after the late dismissal of Darian MacKinnon, was just the Accies’ fourth Ladbrokes Premiership victory of the season, but it completed an enviable home double against the Pittodrie side.
Not only did it mean that they warmed up for their Scottish Cup visit to Ibrox on Saturday with a win, more importantly the three points moved them off the foot of the table. One of the three teams they leapfrogged as they climbed to ninth was managerless Motherwell.
Aberdeen missed the chance to open up a 12-point chasm on Rangers but second place seems safe enough. More depressing for their supporters was succumbing to a Groundhog Day of sorts at a venue where they have won just once in their last six visits.
The home side’s success was made even more notable by the lengthy injury list with which manager Martin Canning had to contend. He was deprived of Alex D’Acol – who scored the winner here between these teams back in October – in addition to Jesus Garcia Tena, Darren Lyon, Louis Longridge and Shaun Want, while star midfielder Ali Crawford was only deemed fit enough for a place on the bench.
Aberdeen had won just once in their last five visits here and it soon transpired that Accies had some more trouble in store for them. Only nine minutes were on the clock when referee brought the play back for a late Ryan Christie challenge on Georgios Sarris some 40 yards out. What advantage Accies had gained appeared uncertain until Danny Redmond swung over a free kick and and Mikey Devlin held off Ash Taylor cleverly to hook in a neat finish.
Aberdeen had fought back to win from a goal down on an artificial surface against Kilmarnock recently and there was a decent reaction here too. Adam Rooney went close from a corner then even closer from a Niall McGinn cross, his header beating Accies keeper Gary Woods but bouncing back off a post. Somehow the Accies goal remained intact until the break. Derek McInnes emerged from the break even more resolved to throw the kitchen sink at his opponents. He sacrificed a defensive minded player in the form of Mark Reynolds for the attacking midfield prowess of Peter Pawlett, a move which facilitated Graeme Shinnie slotting in at left back and Andrew Considine – on the night he moved into the top ten of all-time Aberdeen appearance makers – moving to centre back.
Kenny McLean stung the palms of Gary Woods but for all their dominance of territory Aberdeen weren’t creating enough clear cut chances Still Aberdeen piled on. Considine fed Pawlett, whose cross shot was awkwardly touched in off a post by his fellow substitute Miles Storey, only for his celebrations to be cut short by the offside flag. Two bookings in the space of a minute, both for crude fouls by McKinnon on the onrushing Shinnie was enough for the midfielder to get his marching orders with five minutes remaining. But after grimly holding on against the odds late on, the Accies fans were righly jubilant at the end of this one. On the other hand, it put the tin lid on a fairly bleak day to be a Motherwell fan.
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