Jim Goodwin admitted he found Aberdeen’s start at Livingston “alarming” – but backed his players for their second half response in the 2-1 defeat.
A dreadful start at Almondvale saw the Dons fall behind to a Jack Fitzwater finish and Sean Kelly penalty – given on VAR review by referee Nick Walsh for a Connor Barron handball – within 20 minutes on Tuesday night.
But the Reds rallied and received two VAR reviewed penalties for handball of their own – Bojan Miovski failing to convert one before the interval, before his strike partner Duk pulled a goal back from the spot in the second half.
As a result of their dominant showing after the break, Aberdeen almost took something from the clash, but, ultimately, it was consecutive away defeats to Livi for the first time ever in the league, which means the Lions are now level with the Dons on 22 points in the Premiership table.
Goodwin said: “We lost the game in the first 20 minutes, it’s as simple as that.
“I was really concerned when it goes 2-0, because we looked a shadow of the team we have been lately.
“But we settled down after about half an hour and came back into the game. The penalty at half-time would’ve been great to go in 2-1 behind – albeit it wouldn’t have been deserved as Livingston were the better team in the first half.
“The first goal, we shoot ourselves in the foot. It’s not a great corner, it’s one we should cut out at the near post and react better.
“But – and some people might not like me saying this – tonight’s performance in the second half was as well as we’ve played for weeks. We’ve had more goal attempts tonight than we’ve had in the past four or five games.
“We played nowhere near as good as that in the second half against Hibs and managed to win 4-1, didn’t play as well as that at home to Hearts and won the game 2-0.
“The reaction we got in the second half gives me a bit of hope and confidence back – because the first 20 minutes was alarming, concerning and we just at times didn’t look anywhere near the team we’re capable of being.
“Making mistakes, individuals doing things they haven’t done all season… We can have an off-night from time to time, but then the reaction in the second half was excellent – we have had in excess of 20 goal attempts.”
Goodwin added his view, over the piece, the visitors deserved to take something from the game at the Tony Macaroni Arena, saying: “People will look at the end result and no doubt evaluate the first 20 minutes – and they’ve every right to do that.
“But I don’t think we deserved to lose the game over the whole piece, if you look at how well the boys did in the second half.”
Goodwin took off Ross McCrorie for Matty Kennedy at half-time, as he switched the 3-1-4-2 he has deployed in recent weeks for a 4-3-3.
Kennedy’s introduction and the change of shape certainly helped Aberdeen dominate the second period, but Goodwin thinks individual performances were as big a factor in the Dons’ hide-your-eyes start as the formation.
The manager said: “People make a big deal about systems and formations. The back three, you could suggest, maybe didn’t work tonight. But I do think there were a number of individual below-par performances.
“So we decided to change it at half-time, we brought on Matty Kennedy who I thought was absolutely outstanding, and added a real bit of quality and creativity.
“As I said, it was extremely frustrating for me, the manner in which we started the game. We spoke about Livingston always tend to have a quick start, come flying out the traps and you know what you are going to get. They are very direct, balls up to the frontmen, they get around the second balls and all I can say is they did the basics a lot better than we did in the first 20 minutes.”
Goodwin added: “I know people will tell me: ‘the only stat that matters is the end result’, and I’ve said that myself in the past because the three points are invaluable – but I saw a lot of real quality football in the second half.
“It was one of the most one-sided halves of football I’ve seen for a long, long time.
“Of course we’re gutted, it was always going to be a difficult place to come – they don’t make life easy for you here.
“But we’ve got an opportunity on Saturday (against Dundee United at Pittodrie) to put things right.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult run of games, but if we can finish this block of three games with six points from nine that won’t be too bad.”
On the three penalties for handball in the game – one to Livi and two to his side – Goodwin didn’t appear overly convinced of any of them from his position in the stand, where he was serving the last match of his three-game immediate SFA ban, saying: “VAR is going to go for you and against you.
“The two penalties given in the first half – I can’t remember any player claiming for anything in either box. I think we were all a bit surprised.”
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