ANALYSIS: Fallen kings of the road Aberdeen lose away form at worst possible time

Joe Lewis trudges off after his howler for Aberdeen against St Mirren.

Previously kings of the road with an astonishing year-long unbeaten run, Aberdeen have lost their away form at the worst possible time.

At the start of the month, the Dons were proudly undefeated away from home domestically in the whole of 2020.

Now they have lost three times outside of Pittodrie and drawn with a Hamilton Accies side sitting rock bottom of the Premiership.

It has been a costly slip as the Dons have now crashed out of two tournaments this month – the Betfred Cup and the rescheduled 2019-20 Scottish Cup with a 2-0 semi-final loss to Celtic.

Losing their travelling mojo now is terrible timing as Aberdeen face four away Premiership games in December – ironically beginning at St Mirren on Saturday.

What went wrong for Aberdeen in Betfred Cup at St Mirren?

Cup football can often be boiled down to who wants it more.

Which team has the hunger, aggression and belief to progress to the next round.

From the first whistle that was St Mirren. They outmuscled and outplayed Aberdeen in a dominant first half where they should have been a few goals clear.

It took an uncharacteristic mistake from keeper Joe Lewis for St Mirren to secure the win they deserved.

But ultimately it was the 10 outfield players who dropped the ball in a terrible first-half performance.

Aberdeen were without seven key players for the tie, but it was far from a skeleton crew that Derek McInnes sent out against the Buddies.

Joe Lewis held up hands after Aberdeen’s loss at St Mirren – Derek McInnes

The starting line-up was packed with more than enough experience and quality to get a result against a side flirting with the wrong end of the Premiership table.

Some players who replaced those unavailable did little to stake a claim to displace them permanently.

Greg Leigh at centre-half struggled to keep Dylan Connolly quiet, while – in midfield – Funso Ojo wanted too much time on the ball, while Niall McGinn and Ryan Hedges offered little creative spark.

St Mirren’s Jamie McGrath and Aberdeen’s Funso Ojo.

Meanwhile, Sam Cosgrove was isolated up front and completely starved of service, before he was replaced at half-time.

How the first 45 minutes unfolded

St Mirren made their intentions clear immediately when Jamie McGrath forced a save from Lewis after just two minutes.

Soon after they were ahead when Dylan Connolly ran 20 yards from midfield and cut inside, forcing Jonny Hayes to foul before he could shoot.

From the resultant free-kick Ilkay Durmus lifted a 22-yard effort over the defensive wall and it dipped into goal leaving Lewis stranded.

Soon after Richard Tait was given the freedom of the park and ran 20 yards unchecked as the defence backed off and invited him to shoot.

He accepted the invitation and unleashed a low 20-yard drive that cracked off the base of Lewis’s right post.

Aberdeen were on the ropes, struggling to win second balls and were being outmuscled by the Buddies’ relentless pressing game.

St Mirren had a strong penalty shout ignored by referee Don Robertson when Tommie Hoban looked to have taken Jon Obika down as he readied to head at goal.

In the 40th minute Connolly superbly turned Leigh to open up space to shoot but Lewis did well to block his drive.

Moments later Obika missed a sitter when a cross fell into his path three yards out after deflecting off of Ojo but he forced it wide.

It was a first half to forget for the Dons, although they levelled completely against the run of play in the 44th minute when a shot from Hayes deflected off of Cosgrove, spun up over the defence and into the path of the onrushing Niall McGinn.

He fired in a right-footed shot from the centre of the box.