Aberdeen beat Livingston 2-0 as the home side moved to second place in the SPL table. What will please Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood most is the manner in which this result was achieved - solid at the back and lively up front. Aberdeen have now played five competitive matches this season without conceding a goal.
On the other hand Livi paid dearly for their negative approach to this game, they didn’t look impressive at all. Allan Preston's side never imposed themselves on the match at any time and on the evidence of today's game, the Lions will have a long season ahead of them.
Aberdeen's first noteworthy effort came on ten minutes when a Steve Tosh cross into the area was missed by Emmanuel Dorado, the ball falling to John Stewart, but under pressure from David McNamee his tame ten-yard effort was comfortably held by Livi number one Roddy McKenzie.
In the 16th minute slack midfield play between Stuart Lovell and Burton O'Brien allowed Tosh to intercept the loose ball. He advanced to the edge of the area before his shot was brilliantly turned around the post by Roddy McKenzie.
Aberdeen kept up the pressure, and minutes later McKenzie again did well to hold an Russell Anderson header from a Stevie Tosh corner.
In the 29th minute, and much against the run of play, the visitors could have opened the scoring when a cross from the left was missed by Zander Diamond, but Jim Hamilton was unable to get the vital touch needed at the far post.
Livingston keeper McKenzie had to produce another top-class save when he got his fingertips to turn a fierce 30-yard drive from Stewart over the crossbar.
In the 41st minute another great reaction save from McKenzie kept the scoreline blank as he twisted in mid-air to reach a Stewart header which had goal written all over it.
Nine minutes later Livingston's Derek Lilley let the frustration and the lack of decent service get the better of him when he was booked for going in needlessly high and late on Dons skipper Anderson.
The game was threatening to boil over and Craig Easton also found himself going into the referee's notebook for a cynical over-the-top challenge on Scott Severin.
Aberdeen went ahead from the spot after McNamee was alleged to have handled on the line to stop Stewart from scoring his first goal for the club.
To add insult to injury McNamee was sent off for his troubles before Steven Craig crashed the resultant penalty kick high into the net. Alan Preston has decided to appeal against the red card, after looking at TV pictures, and seeing that McNamee did NOT intentionally handle the goalbound shot.
Craig then scored a classy second goal on 68 minutes when he turned away from Oscar Ramos Rubio 30 yards out and drove towards the visitors box. As Dorado looked to close him down, the striker had the presence of mind to clip the ball delightfully over a stranded McKenzie and into the net.
The Dons striker was very unlucky not to complete his hat-trick minutes later, dispossessing Dorado before advancing in on goal. However, McKenzie stayed tall forcing Craig to shoot narrowly wide.
It was all Aberdeen now as the game reached its latter stages. Firstly McKenzie reached a Severin throughball just ahead of Tosh, the ball broke out to Markus Heikkinen but his first time 20-yard effort was headed off the line by Rubio with his keeper stranded.
With just minutes remaining substitute Scott Muirhead chased a long ball into the corner before whipping in a dangerous cross which debutant Fernando Pasquinelli got in ahead of Dorado but he couldn't trouble McKenzie with his low effort.
A poor Livi effort, and lets hope we bounce back against Killie in a couple of weeks.