Aberdeen beat Rangers at Pittodrie to continue unbeaten run under Thelin

Aberdeen have defeated Rangers at Pittodrie to continue their impressive unbeaten run under manager Jimmy Thelin.

The Dons stay joint on points with Celtic at the top of the Premiership after the 2-1 win on Wednesday night.

They are also nine points ahead of Rangers who remain in third place and now have a mountain to climb to get themselves back into the running.

Aberdeen remain undefeated under Thelin and have now won nine consecutive home games in the Premiership.

Goals from Nicky Devlin and Shayden Morris cancelled out Nedim Bajrami’s second-half equaliser to give the home side all three points.

The first chance of the game fell to Cyriel Dessers after good play by Ross McCausland to burst through the Dons defence, but the Nigerian forward’s shot was blocked.

Jamie McGrath then looked as though he was going to open the scoring up the other end before James Tavernier intervened just in time to avert the danger.

Tom Lawrence then tried his luck from the edge of the area and forced Dimitar Mitov into action with his first save of the match.

McGrath came close again, this time from a free-kick that sailed inches wide of Jack Butland’s post.

The home side opened the scoring when Devlin popped up at the back post to turn home a good ball into the box from Jack MacKenzie and make it 1-0 on the half-hour mark.

Topi Keskinen flicked on the left-back’s cross and the Scotland international smashed it past Butland from close range.

Jimmy Thelin’s side nearly doubled their lead soon after when a Graham Shinnie shot hit the woodwork.

They were then awarded a penalty for a handball, but Butland kept Rangers in it by saving McGrath’s spot-kick five minutes before the break.

The goalkeeper was forced into action yet again when he made a good save from a MacKenzie strike as Aberdeen ended the half strongly.

Rangers had the ball in the net when McCausland finished off a quick counter-attack in injury-time but Dessers had strayed offside in the build-up and they remained a goal behind going into the break.

Philippe Clement’s side started the second-half strongly as they pushed for an equaliser and Leon Balogun had a header just over the bar from a Tavernier corner.

They got themselves on the hour-mark after a bit of magic from Nedim Bajrami who cut in from the left hand side before sending a curling effort past Mitov to make it 1-1.

The away side now had the bit between their teeth as they started to dominate the game and put pressure on the Aberdeen defence.

Dessers came close to putting them ahead before Bajrami was blocked from the rebound by a last-ditch tackle by Gavin Molloy.

However, Aberdeen were still looking dangerous on the attack and Butland produced another fine save to deny Palaversa.

And the home side found themselves back in front soon after when Shayden Morris scored just minutes after coming off the bench to make it 2-1.

A Devlin shot agonisingly rolled across the line but just as Rangers thought they had kept it out Morris smashed it into the back of the net from close range.