St Mirren defied Storm Bert to make it three wins from four and consign Aberdeen to their first William Hill Premiership defeat of the season.
It looked like the weather would beat the Buddies, with the game in doubt due to the volume of snow that covered the SMiSA Stadium pitch. But a brilliant effort from staff and volunteers, coupled with a delayed kick-off saw the match proceed. And goals from Toyosi Olusanya and Richard Taylor saw Stephen Robinson's man take the three points.
Coming off a 2-1 win away to Hibernian before the international break, the manager named the same starting eleven. Conor McMenamin, who netted a brace in the win over the Hibees, looked to keep up that form as the Saints started brightly. The Northern Irishman saw an effort deflected just inches by the post on four minutes.
The Buddies came close again on 10 minutes when Scott Tanser fired a strike just wide from 20 yards. Brilliant footwork from Olusanya the on right-wing saw the forward work his way into the box. He found McMenamin who slipped but the ball was eventually worked to Tanser who wasn't far opening the scoring.
Saints would hit the front when Olusanya scored his seventh goal of the season on 20 minutes. A ball from Ellery Balcombe gave the forward something to chase and he raced ahead of two Aberdeen defenders to get on to the ball. He collected himself before slotting under the legs of Aberdeen goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov.
Alex Gogic was given his marching orders on 25 minutes when referee John Beaton showed the Cypriot defender a straight red card for a challenge on Shayden Morris. It looked like Gogic had won the ball and wasn't reckless in the challenge. That proved to be the case with a VAR review seeing the decision downgraded to a yellow card.
Saints came agonisingly close to a second in the final seconds of the first-half when McMenamin's curling flew inches over the bar.
Aberdeen fired a warning shot early in the first-half when Jack MacKenzie got in behind the defence and saw his effort blocked by Balcombe. The Dons would level five minutes after the restart. Substitute Kevin Nisbet was found by a cross from Duk, but the forward completely miss-hit his effort. However, it fell kindly to ex-Saint McGrath who stroked low into the net to make it 1-1.
Despite that setback, Saints looked to hit back immediately with Olusanya firing a strike just over. McMenamin should have made it 2-1 on 64 minutes after a lovely bit of play from Saints. Great feet from Kiltie allowed the forward to get away from two Aberdeen defenders before picking out Elvis Bwomono of all people in the box. Bwomono picked out McMenamin but his low strike was saved by Mitov who stuck his leg out to block.
Bwomono was involved again when his cross found Kiltie but his volley was held by Mitov with 15 to go.
The Buddies would go back ahead with just over five minutes of normal time remaining. A corner from captain Mark O'Hara found Taylor at the far post and he rose the highest to bullet home his first goal for the Saints.
Aberdeen almost equalised for a second time two minutes later when a backheel from Duk inside the box came back off the post before substitute Mikael Mandron did brilliantly to block an attempted follow up.
But Saints would see the game out to pick up a deserved three points on a day where it looked like there might not even be football in Paisley.
Full-Time: St Mirren 2-1 Aberdeen
St Mirren: Balcombe, Fraser, Gogic, Taylor, Bwomono, Phillips, O'Hara (c), Tanser, McMenamin (Mandron 74), Olusanya (Ayunga 82), Kiltie (Boyd-Munce 90)
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Kenny, John, Penman, Smyth, Idowu
Aberdeen: Mitov, Devlin, MacKenzie, Shinnie, Sivert Nilsen (Palaversa 69), McGrath (Besuijen 85), Clarkson (Nisbet 46), Sokler (Duk 46), Morris (Keskinen 69), Molloy
Subs Not Used: Doohan, Polvara, McGarry, Milne
Attendance: 7,533
Manager Reaction - "We dedicate that to all the volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to get game on."
Stephen Robinson gives his reaction after our 2-1 win over Aberdeen.
