Aberdeen 1-0 Inverness: Dons make it perfect ten at home

Inverness' Ross Draper, left, heads clear under pressure from Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes. Picture: SNS

It wasn’t pretty or entirely convincing, and it needed a Gary Warren own goal to secure it, but it was their 12th win in the last 14 league games. It is also a perfect ten out of ten at home for the first time in six decades to stretch the lead over Rangers in second place to 13 points.

That is likely to prove unlucky for Pedro Caixinho’s claim that the Dons were catchable when he took over at Ibrox recently, regardless of what happens at Rugby Park tonight.

The teams do have to meet twice in the Premiership before the end of the season, starting at Pittodrie on Sunday, but Aberdeen need to lose four of their remaining seven matches just to give Rangers hope.

Of course Derek McInnes won’t indulge in any bold predictions but surely even the Dons manager will crack if Celtic remain the only visitors to have won at Pittodrie by Sunday teatime.

The league Caley Thistle will be in next season remains anyone’s guess after a result that leaves them isolated at the foot of the table. No team in British senior football has won fewer than the four the Highlanders have so far and while their spirit remains undaunted the prospect of increasing that enough to secure safety is remote.

They don’t concede many goals but they don’t score nearly enough, a fact all too obvious given that their top goalscorer is left wing-back Carl Tremarco with seven to his credit this season.

That made it all the more painful to see former players Adam Rooney, Jonny Hayes and Graeme Shinnie in the opposition starting line-up with Myles Storey and Celtic loanee Ryan Christie on the bench.

Greg Tansey has already agreed to become the next person to join the Dons’ clearance of the best Highland talent and he squandered a great chance to do his current employers a favour. Instead it was his future employers that were grateful when the midfielder sent his header from six yards soaring over the bar when he should have buried Henri Anier’s cross.

That came in 32 minutes while Billy Mckay had previously forced Joe Lewis into a rare save after being picked out by Liam Polworth’s pass at the end of a lung-bursting 50-yard dash.

Not entirely surprising those were rare break-outs as Aberdeen started with the pace, imagination and movement that turned Dundee inside out during last Friday’s 7-0 drubbing at Dens Park.

Kenny McLean pulled the strings in midfield, Niall McGinn and Hayes popped up in the wide areas while Rooney lurked, looking anxious to boost his already impressive goal tally by taking up intelligent positions.

All the more galling for Richie Foran then that his team conceded from a simple Hayes set-piece delivery into the six-yard box as Taylor got to it and the ball spun in off Caley Thistle captain Warren.

Owain Fon Williams made a couple of good saves, Louis Laing and Tremarco made a couple of crucial blocks as they put their bodies on the line to keep out Aberdeen, but the performance was  indicative of why they have been draw specialists lately.

The Dons would have won by a greater margin had the quality of their final ball been more incisive, especially in a second half when the quality of their play decreased dramatically leading to some anxious moments as Lewis was forced to make saves from Polworth and Larnell Cole to see them through.