Pre Season Friendly – Pittodrie Stadium

25th July 2020

Aberdeen 1 Hibernian 1

A late strike from Hibernian’s Darryl Horgan denied Aberdeen in their final pre-season friendly after Craig Bryson’s first goal for the club looked like being the winner.

The visitors started brightly with Porteous getting his head on Mallan’s corner, but Ojo was well placed to clear. The Dons responded with a neat bit of play between Kennedy and Ferguson ending with the latter’s shot going wide.

The pace of Jonny Hayes was evident as he raced back to deprive Martin Boyle a clear run at goal before Aberdeen made the first of a number of changes in the game.

The home team were starting to dominate proceedings without creating anything clear cut in front of goal with Kennedy, McGinn, Hayes and Anderson prominent in attack while Ferguson and Ojo were working hard in the middle of the park.

Matty Kennedy’s fine run ended with a shot which fizzed just wide, but the interval arrived with the scoreline blank.

A torrential downpour greeted the players at the start of the second period.

After the Hibs defence repelled a couple of promising Dons attacks, they were powerless as Bryson profited from good work involving Kennedy, McGinn and Ojo to fire the ball through the legs of Marciano from an angle to give the Dons a lead their play certainly merited.

A raft of substitutions from both managers disrupted the flow of the game a little but Aberdeen were still enjoying the bulk of possession.

As the game wore on Hibs pushed hard for an equaliser and enjoyed their best spell of the game.

A Newell shot was comfortably saved by Lewis.

Tommie Hoban then made an appearance for the Dons as a trialist. Tommie, who has been training at Cormack Park, went into the squad today to act as cover as there are a number of defenders including Michael Devlin on the injured list. The central defender cme through his run out in fine style.

Just as it looked as the game was going to end with the Dons winning, substitute Horgan latched on to a clearance to fire a spectacular volley high past Lewis to make the score 1-1.

Aberdeen almost snatched it right at the death when a fine run from Ethan Ross saw the youngster roll the ball in to McLennan, but Connor’s shot was just wide of the far post