Aberdeen’s woeful run of form in the Scottish Premiership continued unabated as the Dons slumped to their ninth defeat in their last 13 league games against a clinical St Mirren side.
The home side were the better side for most of the game, but poor defending from Slobodan Rubezic cost them two goals in the first half, Toyosi Olusanya scoring the first and setting up the second for Mikael Mandro. Mandron added a third late in the game to secure the 3-0 victory.
The Dons, who claimed a morale-boosting Scottish Cup win against Elgin City last week, made five changes from that side.
The visitors, who themselves had lost their last four in the league, handed Callum Penman a first start in one of two changes from the team that beat Queen of the South.
Friends were in front after just seven minutes as Ross Doohan came to the edge of his area to meet Richard Taylor’s long ball, but Rubezic headed the ball past the oncoming keeper and Olusanya collected the loose ball to slide home from a close distance.
Olusanya celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0
Aberdeen responded well and Pape Habib Gueye, on his first start in four months back from injury, was denied from a point-blank range by Zach Hemming after good work down the left by Jeppe Okkels.
Okkels himself was denied by Hemming before Topi Keskinen saw a low shot blocked by Richard Taylor’s hand, prompting a VAR review of the handball, which ultimately ruled against a penalty.
Debutant Penman was forced off through injury 10 minutes before the visitors doubled their lead, Rubezic again unable to cope with the pace of Olusanya, who got away from a poor push from the defender before cutting back to Mandro to head the ball home at home from six meters.
Rubezic signaled to the bench and was replaced by on-loan Tottenham defender Alfie Dorrington shortly after the goal.
The Dons brought on Ante Palaversa on the break and he almost had an immediate impact as Alexander Jensen’s cross fell to him on the edge of the box but his shot went over the bar.
Aberdeen were finding some joy down the left flank and Okkels put in another cross for Gueye, who the striker headed narrowly wide.
Hemming was forced to push a deep free-kick from Palaversa, which eluded everyone in the penalty area, around the post and substitute Kevin Nisbet hit the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick as the home side continued to look for a way to returned to the field. game.
Nisbet was denied by Hemming from close range with the Dons’ best chance of the match and Jensen saw his follow-up effort go narrowly wide of the far post as the Buddies goal took on a charmed life.
But any hope of an Aberdeen comeback was dashed when another long ball, this time from Alex Gogic, found Mandro in acres of space and he smashed home a wonderful effort from the edge of the area.
What the leaders said…
Aberdeen HEAD Jimmy Thelin: “It is difficult today.
“We are in this series of games and before the game we feel like we are looking better and better in the training sessions and
the team looks better and better, and then you get the result.
“It’s challenging for everyone, for me and the fans. As a manager, I am responsible and I have found a way to balance the team in a different way, so that we are not exposed so much to situations.
St. Mirren HEAD Stephen Robinson: “We’ve had a lot of good performances the last few weeks, but the big plus for me was our shot defense. Zach (Hemming) was dominant in 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 games in the second phase.
“We defended for our lives today, we rely on Zach to come in and dominate and that’s what he’s done, and it gives us a platform to play. And then some quality from the top two, they dominated the game and caused real, real
problems for Aberdeen”.
