Aberdeen’s matches with St Mirren this season have hardly been black and white, but they have had the feel of chess about them: Derek McInnes consistently finding himself manoeuvring his pieces to circumvent Jim Goodwin’s gambits. The results suggest that he is no Beth Harmon.
In all three meetings, McInnes has opened with the now-familiar back three, but in each case he has had to demote one of his wide men and restructure, either temporarily or permanently, in acknowledgement of opposition dominance.
He would have hoped to avoid such acquiescence on Saturday with the board back to scratch and most of his key pieces restored. But still, at full strength, Aberdeen were incapable of asserting any type of control over a St Mirren team which – even in those matches decided on the pitch rather than the SPFL boardroom – has avoided defeat only once this season to any other member of the top eight.
For Aberdeen to lose their queen at the start of the second half – after an early sacrifice which always felt dangerous given Lewis Ferguson’s aggressive approach to the game – meant they were functionally limited to protecting what remained and spoiling for a stalemate.
They just about managed to do so, Andy Considine’s desperate castling move ensuring that the game did not end, as last weekend’s, with the tipping of Aberdeen’s exposed king, but the shaking of hands on a draw was the most meagre salvage at the end of what has been a bad fortnight for the Dons.
Embattled St Mirren will feel like this was a third defeat inflicted within 24 hours, but Aberdeen must reflect on their own loss. Of momentum and of confidence.