Lazetic snatches last-gasp victory for Dons against 10-player St Mirren

10 hours ago 2

Marko Lazetic scored six minutes into stoppage time to help Aberdeen defeat 10-man St Mirren in Paisley for the first time since 2018.

A competitive match looked set to end goalless until the substitute thrashed a shot beyond Shamal George to seal back-to-back wins for Jimmy Thelin's side.

St Mirren had Jayden Richardson sent off and an Alex Gogic effort disallowed in a feisty contest, with Saints boss Stephen Robinson also shown a red card after the full-time whistle.

The home side could have been in front within two minutes. A short corner was headed back across goal by Mikael Mandron to Keanu Baccus, whose shot was saved by Dimitar Mitov.

Aberdeen survived that let-off and created a chance of their own, only for Adil Aouchiche to shoot over the crossbar after good work by Jesper Karlsson.

St Mirren's Jayden Richardson kicks out at Aberdeen's Ante Palaversa before being sent off

The home side were next to threaten after a quick counter, with Mandron firing in a low effort that was comfortably gathered by Mitov. At the other end, Nicky Devlin had a similar attempt which lacked the power to beat George in the St Mirren goal.

The home side then passed up a great chance to move in front. A free-kick routine saw O'Hara clip the ball into the box where Fraser headed back across. It looked well set up for Killian Phillips to net against his former club, but the Irishman could not get his header on target.

The first chance of the second half fell to Aberdeen. Alexander Jensen's cross picked out Karlsson at the back post, but he could not find the target.

St Mirren had the ball in the net after 58 minutes when Gogic glanced in a Baccus cross, but referee Lloyd Wilson was summoned to the VAR screen and chalked it off for an apparent offside.

Alex Gogic's goal for St Mirren was disallowed following a VAR check

Aberdeen then passed up a great chance to forge ahead. Aouchiche slipped in Stuart Armstrong only for the Scotland international to be denied by the outrushing George. Jensen then sent the rebound over the bar.

Saints were reduced to 10 men after 81 minutes. Palaversa fouled Richardson but the former Aberdeen wing-back then appeared to kick out at his marker as the pair fell. Both players were initially booked before VAR called the referee to the screen, which resulted in Wilson upgrading Richardson's yellow to a red.

The 10 men looked set to hang on until Lazetic fired beyond George from a tight angle to snatch victory for Aberdeen.

Thelin delight as Dons move off bottom

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin at full time

Aberdeen head coach Jimmy Thelin:

"He [Lazetic] always had talent, of course, as we signed him for a reason. But he's also been improving, working hard, taking responsibility and helping the team to achieve things.

"And when you do that and you still have these individual skills, that's what you need in a team. You need to be first a really, really good team player and then his calmness can make the difference like it did today.

"It's an incredible skill to do that actually in the end, in that last minute. So, it's about the hard work he's been putting in but also to have the skill.

"We know it's (always) a really tough game here, we talked about it during the week. It was a long time (since) we had won here so our focus was trying to break this chain.

"For me it was a really good collective effort today. And when the collective works everybody also looks much better on the pitch."