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BBC News
06-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
St Mirren fan voice: 'How Buddies left Dons scrambling for excuses'
Football does not reward what money you spend or the purity of your tactical ambitions. Much of the time, you don't get what you deserve. Rewards in football are fought for, brutally, and only come at the expense of another. For the third time this season, St Mirren went toe to toe with Aberdeen and came away with all three points. Were football to be decided on budgets alone, or on time spent in possession, Jimmy Thelin's Dons would be nine points richer and the post-split Saints would be stressed about top-flight survival. However, that is not how points are won. The Buddies won their points on Saturday. Hammer throwers. Hoofball. Overly aggressive. Smash 'n' grab. Lucky. If there is a name opposition fans can throw at the Saints and make themselves feel better, that name will be thrown. There is a collective term for all of the above - excuses. Aberdeen may have held 60% of the ball at the weekend, and they may have completed twice the number of passes. They touched the ball more. They touched the ball more often in the St Mirren box than we did in theirs. They crossed the ball into our box 50% more often. Stats are malleable. The Dons attempted only seven fewer long balls than the Buddies, passed the ball backwards far more often and, crucially, scored zero goals. Twenty three touches in the box for zero shots on target. They committed more fouls than their hosts, won fewer tackles and had more shots to block. Aberdeen may have a European star on their badge, a January shopping spend in the millions and an annual wage roll that could fund all three of the recent seasons where Stephen Robinson has guided the Saints into the top six, but points still require to be earned. Mika Mandron plucked a Mark O'Hara set-piece down on his chest and earned his tidy volleyed goal. Zach Hemming and his defence earned their clean sheet, even if his gloves won't have needed a wash on Sunday. Robinson's substitutions earned their grip on the game late in the second half and might well have doubled or tripled the advantage. Shout whatever names out that make you feel better. The Saints under Robinson will continue to do what they have made a habit of doing. Earning the points anyway. Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external
Daily Record
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Mandron caps perfect week to keep St Mirren Euro dream alive as Aberdeen woes in Paisley go on
The hitman signed a new one-year deal midweek and then bagged the winner Mika Mandron celebrated his new St Mirren deal with a second half winner to keep the Buddies' slim Euro dream alive. The French striker - who penned a new one-year contract midweek - lashed home from 10 yards in the 60th minute as Aberdeen's Paisley pain stretched to an eighth game without a win at the SMiSA. Saints are now five points off Dundee United in fifth - ahead of next week's meeting at Tannadice. But Aberdeen - left ruing a big VAR call to disallow Jeppe Okkel's first half effort for handball against Kevin Nisbet - slip three points behind Hibs in third. The Dons settled quicker and forced the Buddies to frantically defend a series of early corners. Leighton Clarkson went close with a drive from 20 yards and Okkels thought he'd given the Dons the lead in the 26th minute - but ref Ross Hardie was called to the VAR monitor and spotted Nisbet hand flicked Clarkson's cross on with an arm. It looked a tough one with the Dons man potentially having been pushed before connecting with the ball. But, given a jag by the let-off, St Mirren began to get a foothold. Jonah Ayunga flashed an angled effort from 20 yards just wide after cutting in off the left and Dimitar Mitov got down quickly to hold Mark O'Hara's low effort at the second attempt. But the fans had to wait until bang on the hour for the opener - and it was that man Mandron who nabbed it. O'Hara floated a free kick into the box off the right, the Dons failed to clear and the ball dropped for Mandron to control on his chest and fire past Mitov from 10 yards. Aberdeen knew they had to go for it and Oday Dabbagh and Pape Habib Gueye joined Nisbet in attack. But the Buddies know how to defend their box and they held on for three huge points. Mandron the man for Buds The perfect end to the perfect week for Mika Mandron. The big striker penned a new deal on Tuesday and fired home the winner to repay Stephen Robinson's faith straight away. Mandron might not have the pace of the departed Toyosi Olusanya but the 30-year-old is a real handful for any defence with his height, power and intelligence. He used the latter of those three assets to bury his goal here as he drifted into space knowing where the loose ball would drop before cheating down and burying past Mitov at the first attempt. Now on seven goals for the season he's nicked ahead of Caolan Boyd-Munce as the top scorer at the club now Olusanya has departed for Houston Dynamo. The Dons backline will certainly wake up knowing they were in a battle. It's not just the opposite box that the 6ft 3in hitman is handy either. A couple of big clearances as the Dons piled on the aerial pressure near the end helped out his defence big time. Saints now face a massive clash with Dundee United in Tayside next weekend having cut the gap on fifth-placed United to five points to keep their slim Euro hopes alive. Eight in a woe for Dons Aberdeen haven't won at the SMiSA since a Scottish Cup visit in February 2020 and have now lost seven of their eight visits since then. The 2-1 defeat here in November began the mid-season winless slump that saw Thelin's side go 14 league games without a win - a run that also saw the Buddies thump them 3-0 at Pittodrie. There's little doubt Stephen Robinson's side have their number after another rotten afternoon in Renfrewshire that sees Jimmy Thelin's side slip three points off HIbs in the race for third. Dons rested Pape Habib Gueye and shunted Kevin Nisbet up top. Nisbet's stunning winner against Hibs last week took him onto 13 goals for the season - five short of his best as a top flight player. But he was starved of decent service on a frustrating afternoon in Paisley. Starting with three wingers in behind Nisbet in Okkels, Keskinen and Morris never quite worked and while the second half introduction of Oday Dabbagh as a second striker produced more threat there was still a lack of cutting edge to the Dons' play despite repeatedly getting into good positions. Apart from Okkels' disallowed goal - the visitors failed to register a single shot on target! Nizzy right or wrong? Jeppe Okkels' first half goal that was ruled out for handball was the big talking point of an otherwise drab opening period. Without the benefit of a replay it's a difficult one to call but the Dons certainly felt aggrieved. Nisbet's arm did make contact with the ball before it fell to Okkels but the Dons man appeared to have been nudged onto it by Alex Gogic's challenge. Referee Ross Hardie initially awarded the goal before being called to the monitor by VAR Steven McLean and eventually overturning his initial decision. One for the Sportscene panelists to debate this evening. But while the goal could have changed the outcome of this affair the truth was the Dons didn't do enough to take anything. Even with the ruled out goal the scoreline remained 0-0 but Zach Hemming had way too comfortable an afternoon in the Saints goal for the 1470-strong travelling support's liking. The Dons' eight-game unbeaten run comes to an end and their third place hopes are hanging ahead of next week's trip to Ibrox.
