By Callum McFadden at the SMiSA stadium.
St Mirren defeated Aberdeen in dramatic fashion, as Neil Warnock was left baffled by VAR decisions and his Aberdeen’s side’s late collapse.
Remarkably, the veteran Englishman is still waiting for his first Scottish Premiership victory after six games.
One interested spectator in Paisley was FIFA president Gianni Infantino who watched on from the directors’ box as part of a visit to Scotland for the latest IFAB general meeting held earlier in the day in Loch Lomond.
The game burst into life imminently as Connor Barron gave Neil Warnock’s side the lead just sixty-four seconds into the match, with a wonderful strike from twenty-five yards. The strike was so good that it rifled its way into the St Mirren net giving goalkeeper Zach Hemming no chance. I would not be surprised if Barron’s effort is a contender for goal of the season such was the quality of the strike.
The game settled into a scrappy, midfield battle for the next fifteen minutes until St Mirren spurned two great opportunities to score. First, Scott Tanser saw an effort from close range touched on to the post by Kelle Roos before Lewis Jamieson fired the resulting rebound over the bar.
Amidst those opportunities, VAR also looked at a possible penalty to St Mirren, but nothing was awarded.
Duk nearly doubled Aberdeen’s lead in the 22nd minute but his low, driven shot was parried away by Zach Hemming.
St Mirren almost levelled on the half-hour mark when Caolan Boyd-Munce played a long ball over the top of the Aberdeen defence which reached Lewis Jamieson whose volleyed effort crashed off the bar and behind for a goal kick.
The Buddies came close again in the 36th minute when Mikael Mandron headed wide from a Boyd-Munce corner.
Warnock’s side took a single goal lead into the break and could have doubled it on 55 minutes when Junior Hoilett saw a fizzing half-volley saved acrobatically by Zach Hemming.
Elvis came close to drawing the sides level in the 61st minute when he volleyed into the side netting from a Boyd-Munce pass.
Both sides made a number of changes after that but the scoreline remained the same until up until second-half stoppage time, despite St Mirren’s best efforts to find an equaliser.
Stoppage time was when the game well and truly turned on its head in the most dramatic fashion.
Things came to life in the 92nd minute when substitute Toyosi Olusanya won the ball in front of Aberdeen defender Nicky Devlin at the edge of the box to win his St Mirren side a penalty.
The spot-kick was duly taken by captain Mark O’Hara to level the game with a matter of minutes remaining.
What followed next was nothing short of frantic and chaotic as less than 90 seconds after the equalising goal, St Mirren were unbelievably celebrating a winning goal in the game as striker Mikael Mandron found Olusanya with a head inside the box to allow the substitute to fire the ball into the roof of the net to complete the most incredible turnaround that I have seen in a long time.
The victory secured a crucial three points for Stephen Robinson and his St Mirren side, who move into fourth place in the Scottish Premiership, while Aberdeen are now only four points clear of 11th place and the dreaded relegation playoff position.
| I also asked @saintmirrenfc manager Stephen Robinson about the nature of the Buddies comeback in the game today and how pleased he is by the united nature of his team and the club as a whole. pic.twitter.com/hZflDhGqEk
— Callum McFadden (@Callum7McFadden) March 2, 2024
St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson:
“I thought we thoroughly deserved it. It would’ve been a real injustice if we didn’t get the result.
“Aberdeen looked like a team under pressure. They played direct, which is understandable. We dominated, to not get anything would’ve been cruel.”
Aberdeen manager Neil Warnock:
“I don’t think I’ve felt as disappointed as that in many years. It’s not what we deserved, but that’s life.
“We never get anything easy at the minute, we haven’t had much luck since I’ve arrived. I couldn’t see them scoring in a million years and we’ve ended up losing.”
| Post match, I asked Neil Warnock if Aberdeen are now in a relegation battle in the Scottish Premiership.
His response was telling. pic.twitter.com/b604H1OKy1
— Callum McFadden (@Callum7McFadden) March 2, 2024
St Mirren: Hemming, Bolton (Taylor, 81), Gogic, Fraser, Bwomono (McMenamin, 62), Boyd-Munce (O’hara, 81) , Kwon, Tanser, Kiltie (Ayunga, 62), Mandron, Jamieson (Olusanya, 45).
Substitutes: Urminsky, Dunne, Taylor, Brown, O’Hara, McMenamin, Olusanya, Scott, Ayunga.
Aberdeen: Roos, Gartenmann, MacDonald, Jensen, Devlin, Shinnie, Phillips, Barron, Hoilett (McGrath, 64), Duk (McGarry, 64), Miovski.
Substitutes: Doohan, McGrath, Clarkson, McGarry, Hayes, Sokler, Polvara, Duncan, Milne.
WFi player of the match: Toyosi Olusyana – The second-half substitute was the difference maker for the Buddies. Ironically, he was a player recommended to St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson by a certain Neil Warnock.
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