Had Hayden Coulson dropped his keys on the way back to the car park, they would have bounced off a Thistle defender’s leg and flown into the keyhole of his driver’s door.
It was reminiscent of an over of fine swing bowling, Coulson repeatedly finding the outside edge and the chances being gobbled up by the waiting net behind.
Whether one judged Aberdeen to be merely the fortunate beneficiaries of an outrageous period of luck or, by their attacking endeavour, the creators of it, the left-back’s two-wicket spell effectively settled the match as a contest.
At least the Dons had already managed to fashion a goal without outside intervention, from the increasingly significant Duk.
The muscular forward’s emergence as a cult hero has come at a good time, with an almost totally reconstructed team still in the process of forging an identity.
Duk leading charge for honorary Aberdonian status
The recent absence of old-timer Jonny Hayes has given rise to a curious statistic: no player to have taken the field in either of the Dons’ last two matches has played more than 90 games for the club.
That happened in 1932/33, when the team had required to be partly rebuilt after losing a handful of stalwarts in the Great Pittodrie Mystery, but only once in all the decades since – in 2004, when an unprecedented injury crisis sent Steve Paterson off into the sunset with a virtual youth team.
This, then, has been arguably the least identifiably Aberdeen side for almost a century. And while supporters will always demand a team that is, within reasonable limits, good, they also crave one which is definitively theirs.
If this is not bestowed naturally by origin or tenure, it must be created by mutual affection and shared experience. The charismatic Duk is leading the charge for honorary Aberdonian status.
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