Aberdeen vs St Mirren. Scottish Premiership.
PittodrieAttendance14,420.
Report as Aberdeen beat St Mirren 4-1; Bojan Miovski scored twice before half-time, including opening the scoring from the spot after Declan Gallagher saw red for handball; Leighton Clarkson netted on his debut; Jonah Ayunga's penalty gave the visitors hope, before Luis Lopes' late fourth
Saturday 6 August 2022 22:48, UK
Aberdeen bounced back from their opening-day defeat at Celtic, taking advantage of Declan Gallagher's early red card to beat St Mirren 4-1 at Pittodrie.
Gallagher's nightmare appearance against his former club saw him dismissed for two bookings after just 22 minutes, and the home side needed no second invitation to lead 3-0 by the break thanks to Bojan Miovski's double and Leighton Clarkson's debut strike.
St Mirren pulled a goal back through Jonah Ayunga's second-half spot kick, but the Dons were comfortably ahead in the game and added a late fourth through Luis Lopes.
Aberdeen had brought in Liam Scales for his league debut while Clarkson, signed on loan from Liverpool on the morning of the match, made the bench. The visitors made three changes after their defeat to Motherwell.
The game started evenly, although Gallagher's foul on Hayden Coulson earned him a yellow card after just 10 minutes and saw the Dons defender forced off, with Clarkson entering the fray far earlier than expected in his place.
Gallagher was then gone with less than a quarter of the game played. Vicente Besuijen was unlucky to see his curling effort come back off the post, but when Scales's follow-up was parried away by the centre-back, a red card was inevitable.
Miovski found the net with ease from the resultant penalty to record his first league goal since signing from MTK Budapest, and he soon had a second.
A Jonny Hayes cross from the right seemed set to be easily scooped up by Trevor Carson, but the striker slid in to nudge past the 'keeper and double Aberdeen's lead.
It was 3-0 before the interval as Matty Kennedy kept the play alive after Carson had raced off his line to close down Miovski, and the winger picked out Clarkson, who capped his debut with a rocket shot into the top left corner from just outside the area.
Saints pulled one back from the penalty spot after 52 minutes. Hayes was penalised for a nudge on Greg Kiltie, with Jonah Ayunga sending his penalty low to the right.
However, Aberdeen looked a threat throughout the second period, with Carson denying Miovski a hat-trick with a fine diving save from the striker's powerful low drive on the hour.
But they would themselves end the game with just 10 men, this time through injury with substitute Callum Roberts forced off after manager Jim Goodwin had used all three substitute windows.
But another replacement Lopes, who entered the action at the same time, had a more successful cameo, racing on to a through ball to dink an effort past Carson for his first Dons goal.
Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin:
"We're obviously delighted with the result and the overall performance," he said. "As always, there's parts we can do better - we let the tempo drop in the second half but I can't be too critical.
"We want to be entertaining for the fans and I think they saw that with some of the goals we scored.
"As much as I want the fans to go away excited, we were up against 10 men for large periods of the game, so we should be able to win the game.
"But some of the football we played was very exciting and entertaining which is what we're looking for."
St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson:
"When you come here with 11 men it's a tough game with the amount of money Aberdeen have spent and the squad they've put together," he said.
"For 22 minutes I thought we were excellent, but once the penalty decision and red card happen, the game plan is out the window. It's a double whammy.
"Declan is adamant it hit his chest and not his arm, but whether you have 11 men or ten men, the second and fourth goals are certainly preventable.
"The second goal killed us as had we gone in at half-time at 1-0 it's a different game.
"Lady Luck isn't shining on us at the moment. I can't ask too much more in terms of effort and application. I'm not going to get too down. Results haven't been what we want so far, but we've opportunities to rectify that."
It is another home game for Aberdeen as they host Motherwell on Saturday 13 August.
St Mirren are at home to Ross County on the same day. Both matches kick off at 3pm.
