Cooperative Insurance Cup 3rd Round Kilmarnock 4-2 Aberdeen

Jared Hodgkiss made his competitive Dons debut in tonight’s Cooperative Insurance Cup 3rd round tie at Rugby Park. Bertrand Bossu, who played against Ayr in the previous round, started in Goal and Darren Mackie returned to the side after starting Saturday’s defeat to Dundee United on the bench.

With Dons looking to make amends for Saturday’s display at Pittodrie the last thing they wanted to do was concede an early goal. Unfortunately they did. A long kick out was not dealt with by the Dons defence and Connor Sammon muscled his way threw and, despite getting a hand to it, Bertrand Bossu could not keep the ball out.

The Dons needed to respond, and they did. Charlie Mulgrew’s free kick was not dealt with and the ball fell to Sone Aluko, his shot was blocked but Gary McDonald thundered the ball into the top corner.

It only took Kilmarnock another 6 minutes before they were in front again. David Fernandez slipped and slithered his way through the Dons defence and put the home side 2-1 up.

Fernandez was causing the Dons all sorts of problems and won the home side a penalty on the quarter of an hour mark. Zander Diamond looked to have got a way with a tug in his back when the assistant referee flagged for a penalty. Taouil stepped up and made it 3-1 from the spot.

Just as the Dons looked like they were walking on thin ice and in danger of going further behind – Foster found Mackie with a threw ball and the Dons striker was sent crashing to the ground. Lee Miller stepped and made no mistake with resulting penalty.

McDonald then came close to equalising as he picked the ball up in the middle of the park and had a pop which went just wide.

The Dons defence was again posted missing as Sammon grabbed his second of the night. He lost his maker and took a good touch down before putting the ball simply into the corner.

The Dons fought back straight away and Richard Foster was unlucky not grab the Dons third as he crashed a long range drive off the bar.

Half Time

Kilmarnock 4-2 Aberdeen

The Dons changed things slightly at the break; Lee Mair replaced Mark Kerr and Scott Severin moved into midfield with Mair taking his place in the centre of the Dons defence.

With barely a minute gone in the second half, Gary McDonald almost pulled one back for the Dons but his shot was deflected wide by Fowler and the Dons had to settle for a corner.

The Dons had the ascendancy for much of the opening period of the second half but they failed to create any clear cut chances. As the half progressed the home side pulled themselves back into the game, with Hamil, in particular, causing the Dons all sorts of problems when he got on the ball.

As time began to run out, Derek Young replaced Charlie Mulgrew but there was no way back for Aberdeen. Scoring two goals in the second half away from home was always going to be hard, and the poor first performance could not be overturned. Saturday can’t come quick enough for the Dons right now.

Aberdeen: Bossu, Hodgkiss, Diamond, Severin, Mulgrew (Young 68), Foster, Kerr (Mair 45), McDonald, Aluko, Mackie, Miller
Subs: Langfield, Wright,  Maguire

Kilmarnock: Combe, Fowler, Hamil, Lilley, Wright, Ford, Bryson, Sammon (Simmonds 45), Pascali, Taouil, Fernandez
Subs: Johnston, Murray, Skelton, Rascle

Remember if you’re a RedTV subscriber you can listen to live Commentary from 7:45pm – tonight David Ridd is joined by Stuart Duff and Jeffrey de Visscher! Also be sure to look out for exclusive post-match reaction from players and management.