Aberdeen 4 - 0 St Mirren: First half blitz sees Dons through

Aberdeen's Stevie May celebrates his goal. Pic: SNS/Alan Harvey

They could conceivably have doubled that tally against a St Mirren side that left even their manager Alan Stubbs thinking some of his players had chucked it long before the end.

The away side were certainly outclassed right from the start as Stevie May nearly scored after just 10 seconds and the tie was effectively over before it has even reached the 30 minutes mark following goals from Gary Mackay-Steven, Graeme Shinnie and finally May.

What was only the £400,000 signing from Preston North End’s second goal this year neatly summed up the Premiership newcomers problems as their normally reliable goalkeeper Craig Samson gifted possession to Scott Wright who squared for May to shoot into an unguarded goal.

That should boost his confidence on a day when James Wilson, the highly rated on loan signing from Manchester United, was watching from the stand while young Frank Ross impressed after being thrown in when Niall McGinn was injured in the warm-up.

Mackay-Steven’s performance will haunt poor Hayden Coulson for some time as the left back on loan from Middlesbrough was led a merry dance by the winger to such an extent that he conceded a second half penalty.

The former Celtic player converted that himself for his fourth of the season, the third having come as the deadlock breaker in 16 minutes before setting up Shinnie with a neat cross to head in the second shortly afterwards.

However it was the performance of Wright amongst all those riches that most impressed McInnes who said:”Stevie, Gary and Frank were sensational at times but for me, Scott Wright was the pick. He allowed others to be as good as they can be by causing them all sorts of problems with his movement.

“He is a quick player and a ball carrier and he is a good winger, but we played Peter Pawlett in the ‘10’ position and I think Scott can be something similar in that role.

“If I am hyper-critical, he should be running away with the match ball as he got himself into positions to score.”

By contrast Stubbs had every right to be hyper-critical of his players and he certainly didn’t miss them after a performance that makes next week’s visit from Livingston all the more pressurized even this early in the season.

“The fans made the long trip and the players didn’t give them anything to cheer about” said the St Mirren manager. “A couple of them accepted it but one of the things the supporters expect is commitment even when things aren’t going well.

“A couple of the players felt sorry for themselves and if I was a fan I’d be disappointed with that because they made that long trip and worked hard all work to come and support the team.

“You could see in the first half especially you could see why they have been the second best team in the country.

“We contributed to that which makes it twice as difficult and at least three - maybe four - of our goals we contributed to our downfall.”