Kahl him Responsible

Only a superb block by Phil Kahl helped Edinburgh restrict their opponents to nil on a chilly day at Peffermill. Lucky not to concede through Aberdeen’s ineptitude being greater than their own, it remains that the Edinburgh midfield came out on top, with Paul Heron outstanding in his distribution.

The game was buried by two goals inside 20 second-half seconds. A tetchy first half, with loose passes splayed all over the turf and fluffed chances at both ends that would have converted on a warmer day, saw the only goal ten minutes in, as Jay Harman got a stick on a Duncan Birse shot from a soft penalty corner. The former proved effective in chasing and winning the ball, hare-like and hungry; his teammate Soupy Campbell, meanwhile, was slipping and sliding and talking back to the officials. David Forrester didn’t really have to make a save, though an Aberdeen forward was inches from converting and ought to have equalised. A carbon-copy chance presented itself to Edinburgh’s Paddy Thompson, and it was really 70-30 to the home team in terms of possession, wasteful in open play.

The second half’s tone was set by a wild aerial free hit from Aberdeen which went like a missile into the crowd, almost hitting mascot Will Butler, ex-Edinburgh 1s, who certainly seemed to bring good luck to his old teammates. Five minutes after this miscue, clumsy defending let the excellent Nick Bryan square to Stewart Laing. Two became three from the next Edinburgh attack, Bryan adding his name to the scoresheet to leave the Aberdeen keeper shell-shocked as he dived hopelessly across his line, needing a minute or two to recover from metaphorical and physical bruises. His team’s distribution was shockingly poor all afternoon, and affected Kylan Pathmanathan who, not wanting an advantage in play, knocked the ball to the feet of an Aberdonian forward. He ran alone, rounded Forrester and looked set to convert, had Kahl not made up the ground to flick the ball back on the line.

On 55 minutes, and before the game petered out as the players had their minds on a nice, warm bath, a burst forward from Birse set up Steven Morrison, who had recovered from a head wound, to use his noggin and hit the net.