THIS is what is known as a good night for Aberdeen.
Derek McInnes’s men have had problems in the past at New Douglas Park but this was a simple win against a Hamilton side who by the end looked as if they wanted to be anywhere else but in front of their own support who let it be known what they thought of their team and, in particular, manager Martin Canning.
Aberdeen are now on the same points as Rangers and in fourth spot. They will go second if Kilmarnock are beaten on Saturday at Pittodrie.
"It’s too early for a title race but the next eight or nine games including tonight, get to 30-game mark and still in and around it we can make it into something," said McInnes.
"I hope we’re building some momentum. We dealt with a bigger schedule in December so maybe it’s not bad having so many games.
"Once we scored we settled down. We spoke at half-time about learning from Saturday showing winning mentality putting game to bed rather than resting on laurels.
"There wasn’t a killer instinct earlier in the season. There’s a goal at the end of the pitch for a reason. We seem to have grasped the importance of that."
Hamilton actually started well enough. The game was eight minutes old when a Dougie Imrie corner picked out Matt Kilgallon, his header was perfect but so, too, was Joe Lewis’s goalkeeping and he somehow got his arm to the ball which hit the crossbar.
They couldn’t build on the good early pressure and Aberdeen scored on 25 minutes with their first real attack.
Stevie May crossed from the left, Sam Cosgrove got his header all wrong, the ball went sideways to the feet of Kilgallon, he got it stuck between his boots and allowed Cosgrove a second chance and he didn’t repeat his mistake.
The game was done, really, on 52 minutes. Hamilton had a desperate shout for a penalty, Gary Mackay-Steven was just too strong for Aaron McGowan in the Aberdeen box. While Accies were appealing in vain, the ball switched to Cosgrove at the other end, Ziggy Gordon failed to cut him off, and the striker calmly sent his shot past Ryan Fulton.
The third came within minutes. May’s corner was met by Cosgrove, his header was superbly saved by Fulton who could do nothing to stop Lewis Ferguson sending the ball in from a few yards.
Canning is under pressure. Unfairly to a large extent but he has lost most goodwill from the support and he goes to Celtic Park on Saturday.
“We started well but we go a goal down and then you can see we lack confidence,” admitted the Hamilton manager. “What sums us on right now is bad decisions. They have a striker (at the second goal) and he’s on the touchline and we open up the park for him.
“When we go one down we need to have more about us to keep it at one because that keeps the game alive.”
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