Aberdeen cut the gap between themselves and second-placed Rangers to two points with a game in hand with a scrappy 1-0 win against Dundee at Pittodrie.
In the first half, Aberdeen looked the sharper of the two teams but neither side created any particularly notable chances for more than half an hour. However, the deadlock was broken in the 35th minute when Dons captain Graeme Shinnie got on the end of a Ryan Christie cross to open the scoring for the home team.
Aberdeen should have doubled their lead ten minutes into the second half when Chidiebere Nwakali had a long range shot parried straight to Christie by Dundee’s Elliot Parish but the midfielder hit his shot straight at the keeper.
There were remarkably few other notable moments in a game that was at best dull, at worst, dire. But Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes declared himself happy with his team’s first league win since the 3rd of February, despite having to play on a pitch that both teams agreed was not conducive to good football.
"It was a real challenge with the way Dundee set up and the conditions were tough for both sets of players - the wind was horrendous and it was a dry, horrible surface that doesn't help you move the ball,” the Dons manager said.
"We were assured when we went 1-0 up, although Freddie Woodman has to make a big save in the first half.
"That was a big moment and that's his job as a goalkeeper - he needs to be ready for that.
"We brought more quality than Dundee did and we could have had a couple more.
"We have plenty to look forward to and I am really pleased with the players.
"Hopefully the boys will come back from the international break in good nick and we can attack the back end of the season."
The defeat leaves Dundee in tenth position in the Premiership but there was a silver lining to their loss in that it was a better performance than they have put in over recent weeks and manager Neil McCann was, despite the defeat, in an upbeat mood.
“You could see that the boys gave everything in terms of application - they emptied in terms of putting the effort in but it just wasn’t the conditions to play any sort of football whatsoever,” he said.
"But we’ve got a habit of passing up real chances and then giving away poor goals and it was another example of that today.
"Last week (after losing 4-0 to St Johnstone) it was sheer disappointment and anger because it is the worst performance since I’ve been manager of Dundee. We didn’t do the fundamentals whereas I think we did do the fundamentals today. But it was always going to be hard to get the quality because of the conditions so it was difficult.
"The most pleasing thing for me was that the application was back but if you don’t take chances and you cough up cheap goals, you get nothing."
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