Aberdeen 0 - 1 St. Mirren

In a game which they should have won with something in hand Aberdeen were beaten by St Mirren at Pittodrie by the only goal. There were fully 15,000 spectators, and these saw a contest in which interest was maintained right up to the final whistle. Aberdeen generally held the upper hand, but they could not break down the resolute defence offered by the Paisley team, who, otherwise outplayed protected their goal with great stubbornness and not a little skill. The all-important, goal came after 25 minutes' play, when Lawson the St Mirren outside right, swung over an accurate centre, which Anderson left his goal to clear, but misjudged, and Walker headed into an untenanted goal. Before and after the incident Aberdeen had many determined assaults on the St Mirren goal, but Bradford showed great cleverness in dealing with all manner of shots. His charge was lucky to escape downfall on at least two occasions - once when a shot from Rankine struck the upright and later when a drive by Tromson [sic.] was accidentally deflected over the bar by Pringle, the St Mirren right back. An injury to Miller, the home centre-forward, greatly handicapped that player, but he pluckily continued and it was with difficulty that Bradford was able to clear several hot shots delivered by him. St Mirren were able to attack on very few occasions, but twice Anderson's charge was in danger. Following a corner, the Aberdeen keeper did well to deflect over the bar a header from Summers, and on another occasion it was fortunate that MacLachlan was on hand to clear when the keeper palmed down a centre from the visitors' left winger. These incidents were far outnumbered by the occasions on which danger threatened the St Mirren goal, and Aberdeen were very unfortunate not to have at least equalised before the interval.

Visitors' Strong Defence.

A similar state of affairs continued in the second period, when the ball was seldom far away from Bradford's goal. There were prolonged periods when the ball was shot in from all directions, but it would go anywhere except between the custodian and the uprights. Bradford continued to save brilliantly, and the decisiveness with which be stopped and cleared many good tries gained the admiration of the spectators. The Aberdeen forwards, joined by their half-backs, continued to dominate the game, but while many tries were cleverly parried, their over-eagerness led to somewhat wild attempts. Once Alexander banged wildly over with the goal at his mercy, and several favourable chances were lost through the home inside-wingers preferring to pass to the well-watched Miller rather than go through and shoot on their own. St Mirren never lost an opportunity to raid the home territory, and, while several corners fell to their lot, Anderson only averted further disaster on two occasions by running out and kicking clear from Walker's feet. Near the finish the Aberdeen forward line was re-arranged, Miller going outside-right, Middleton inside-right, and Thomson to centre-forward. The closing stages were thrilling, Aberdeen playing with great desperation, and close to end, from a cross by Miller, Rankine completely missed a ball which had he touched, must have found the net.

Source: Aberdeen Daily Journal 12th December 1921