The second day of the Scottish Premiership’s first weekend is in the books with a pair of down to the wire matches. Let’s recap.
This week saw two of the six Premiership matches played on Sunday. I believe both were pushed to Sunday to accommodate European matches. Aberdeen hosted Hearts of Midlothian while Kilmarnock hosted Rangers.
Kilmarnock 1 – 2 Rangers
Since this is a Rangers blog you probably are fully aware of what happened here and hopefully read my full recap but this space is supposed to be friendly to fans from across the league so we will still quickly hit it.
Rangers started out great, dominating play and finding a goal from Scott Arfield (with help from a Nikola Katic header that the keeper couldn’t control) off of a corner kick. Kilmarnock came out a different side in the second half and often even looked the stronger side for much of the second half and they were rewarded with a goal off a set-piece where the Rangers defense simply lost it’s the way to allow a free shot.
Rangers responded to allowing the tieing goal, however, and ended up having Connor Goldson head in the game-winner at the start of injury time off of a corner kick.
The match was worrying despite the three points for Rangers. Struggling to score goals out of normal play was a huge issue last season and they put a lot of work into making that not an issue this season.
For Kilmarnock, despite it surely being a gutting defeat it showed that they have some life. They looked legitimately excellent for much of the second half.
Aberdeen 3 – 2 Hearts Of Midlothian
In what ended up being the best and most entertaining match of the weekend, Aberdeen let their momentum from Europe carry them to late heroics to overcome a spirited Hearts side at Pittodrie.
Aberdeen got the scoring started early as Sam Cosgrove continued his blazing form to score an excellent goal in the 13th minute. After a long clearance from Aberdeen’s defensive third was not handled, Cosgrove ran out with the ball and put it to the far post for a goal.
Hearts would not layover for Aberdeen though. The match would remain 1-0 at half-time, but Hearts would continue to threaten until they found a breakthrough in the 68th minute as the newly resigned Steven Naismith scored a goal off a header.
Less than 10 minutes later Jamie Walker would add a second for Hearts and they seemed to be in control of the match and in position to get a great season-opening win.
But things went sour in the 79th minute as Hearts youngster Aaron Hickey received his second yellow card and was sent off. Only moments later, off the free-kick awarded from Hickey’s send-off, Aberdeen won a penalty that Cosgrove put in for his brace and the tie.
Then just 5 minutes later in the 85th minute, Aberdeen got the game-winner after a low cross found Ryan Hedges who blasted the ball into the net.
Hearts will certainly leave the match kicking themselves as without the send-off they almost certainly would’ve at least left with a tie, but they can at least go home knowing that they were in excellent form to start off their league campaign.
For Aberdeen, they are in no position to complain about how the points come while they are still playing a jam-packed schedule of European games. Hopefully this momentum carries into Thursday.
That’s all for this weekend in the Scottish Premiership.