Aberdeen 1 Queen's Park 0
Keskinen's Late Winner Seals Spot in Last Eight
Date: August 17th, 2024
Competition: Premier Sports Cup (Second Round)
Attendance: 8,939
Aberdeen reached the last eight of the Premier Sports Cup in dramatic circumstances, when new signing Topi Keskinen made it a debut to remember with an injury time winner. Jimmy Thelin has now won seven matches out of seven and the last time the Dons lost a match inside 90 minutes, was March 13th against Dundee.
Milne Starts, Gueye Retains Spot
There was one change to the line-up with Jack Milne slotting in for the suspended Slobodan Rubezic. Pape Habib Gueye retained his spot but dropped into the #10 more consistently compared to last week as the Dons went with a 4-2-3-1.There were also spots on the bench for Alfie Bavidge and Ante Palaversa.
Aberdeen started brightly with Nicky Devlin shooting wide from a narrow angle when a cutback may have been the better option. His counterpart on the left, Jack MacKenzie, also came close soon after when his goal bound effort was cleared a few yards prior to it hitting the net.
The best chance of the half fell at the other end when Jack Milne cleared Zak Rudden’s shot off the line. The young centre-half atoning for his error which presented the opportunity to the Spiders. Mitov was called into action as the visitors enjoyed a good spell. Jack Turner struck powerfully from the edge of the box, but the Bulgarian got down quickly and held the shot.
Prior to half-time, Pape Gueye, gave a glimpse of what he’s capable of when he got on the end of Jack Milne’s cross. Using all the power in his neck muscles, his postage-stamp bound header was brilliantly clawed away by Calum Ferrie in front of the Red Shed.
Half-Time: Aberdeen 0 Queen’s Park 0
It would be the Senagelese last action as he picked up a booking in the first half and was replaced by Vicente Besuijen. The change saw Jamie McGrath move to the #10 spot and the Dutchman move to the left-hand side. The two combined after only two minutes as Besuijen dropped the ball of to McGrath who slipped in Ester Sokler.
The Slovenian finished well with his left foot but was denied a confidence boosting goal as the linesman flagged incorrectly for offside. As you can see from the image below, this was the wrong decision, but with no VAR in place, the game remained 0-0.
It was the turn of those full-backs, once again, to get themselves into goalscoring opportunities, but neither was able to capitalise on the chance. Both openings came from quick passing sequences with the full-backs inverting their position high up the field.
First MacKenzie, was played in by McGrath but hit the side netting. In similar fashion, Sokler slipped in the underlapping Devlin, but on his weaker foot he was unable to guide the ball past Ferrie.
Pittodrie got its first sighting of new boy Keskinen on the hour mark as he replaced Shayden Morris on the right wing and he showed some early promise with runs in behind, winning a corner on 67 minutes. Mitov also seemed to sense his ability to stretch the play and launched a number of early drop-kicks in behind the Queen’s defence.
There were little in the way of clear chances as the half wore on and the double substitution of Peter Ambrose (Sokler) and Jimmy McGarry (MacKenzie) appeared to weaken rather than strengthen the team. Just as extra-time seemed inevitable, up stepped the flying Finn, to book Aberdeen’s spot in the second round.
With the Dons camped around the Queen’s Park box, the ball was moved from McGrath to Shinnie to Nilsen. The Norwegian passed first time into the feet of his fellow Scandinavian who had found a small pocket of space inside the penalty area. Keskinen swiveled on his right foot and unleashed a rocket with his left into the top corner giving Ferrie no chance. Pandemonium ensued amongst players and fans, all of whom can’t get enough of that winning ‘Thelin’.
There was further good news on Sunday as the Dons were handed the very favourable Quarter-Final draw of the Spartans at home. In a post-Darvel world, there will be no chance of complacency but the Dons have a great chance to reach their fourth semi-final in the last five League or Scottish Cup outings.
Full Time: Aberdeen 1 Queens Park 0
What the Manager Said
“It was a difficult game. We had some opportunities in the first half, but they also had two really strong chances. But we stayed in the game and tried to be consistent, and I think in the second half we tried to attack them more from the sides and go for some crosses. I think that was our solution, but still it was 0-0. The team stayed calm and didn’t get frustrated and they used the ideas we have, and that meant we finally get the winning goal.”
“I’m really happy with how they performed because it’s easy to get frustrated and then you can lose the game on a transition or whatever. It is also good how the fans don’t let the frustration take over, they stay with us and pushed us to the last minute. That’s why we can get this extra energy to win these games.
“We need to stay humble and we need to make the effort to grow. That’s the only way to achieve something together. There are still a lot of things to learn and improve, but I like the mentality because it’s so easy to get stressed in these kind of games, but the players really, really focus, all through the team.”
All quotes via www.afc.co.uk
Next Up
Aberdeen will host Euro-hopefuls Kilmarnock at Pittodrie on Sunday August 25th at 3pm, or 10am for us living Stateside.