Aberdeen 3 - 0 St. Mirren

Aberdeen were without Scott Wright, Craig Storie and Scott Mckenna who are all away on international duty and all three started for the Scotland U19s this afternoon. So this evening the Dons lined up with Brown in goal, Murray at right back with Gibbons and Rose in central defence and Kelly at left back. Nicky Low was the sitting midfielder in a diamond shape with Orsi and Felek in the wide areas and Campanile playing as the forward midfielder. Smith sat in behind Shankland upfront.
After an even start in difficult conditions, on 15 minutes Nicky Low played in a corner which Marcus Campanile met and his header had to be saved by keeper Wilks before being thumped clear by the defence. Seconds later Shankland put a dangerous ball across the face of goal but there were no takers. St Mirren had a strong wind behind them in the first half but to their credit they always tried to play football from the back and the Paisley side did ask one or two questions of the Dons defence. On the half hour mark from a throw in McDonald got ahead of his marker and flicked a chance just over the bar. Apart from that though they never really troubled Scott Brown who was very well protected by Rose and Gibbons, both making a number of last ditch tackles or interceptions. At the other end the St Mirren back four had also done well to deal with the Dons impressive attacking threat by finally on 36 minutes Aberdeen made the breakthrough. Nicky Low was at the heart of the move, he played it to Cammy Smith who had found space on the edge of the area. Cammy's movement is excellent and he is so good at drifting into dangerous areas. On this occasion he had time to turn and pick out Shankland who made no mistake from 10 yards as he beat the on rushing keeper.
Then just before the stroke of half time the young Dons doubled their lead. Michael Kelly played a superb ball over the top. It was a clever pass to play in the conditions as the ball held up for Campanile who had made a good run in behind. Marcus still had quite a bit to do but showed good composure to cut inside before beating the keeper at his near post from close range.

St Mirren started the second half well and enjoyed a good spell of possession by again Rose and Gibbons, aided by Kelly and Murray, kept a good solid back line. The Dons eventually wore St Mirren down and started to play some great football with Nicky Low pulling the strings. They missed a number of chances after some quick breaks, Shankland missing the best after a lovely pass from Smith. However on 83 minutes Aberdeen grabbed a third. After a move which started inside their own half, Low floated over a ball which Shankland just failed to get on the end of but substitute Frank Ross did well to keep the move alive and he found Shankland, the ball then bounced up and Cammy Smith nipped in to nod home. After that the Dons could have added more. Low forced a good save from the keeper, Shankland hit a fine shot from the edge of the area which just went past the post with the keeper routed to the spot and Smith should have grabbed his second by Wilks blocked.
A more emphatic scoreline would have been harsh of the young Saints side who competed well throughout. The only negative this evening was a late injury to captain Craig Murray after a poor challenge on him, although there was no malicious in the tackle, more miss timed. Craig was in a lot of pain as he was carried off but let's hope the injury is not too bad.