Aberdeen moved to within one point of Premiership leaders Celtic after battling from behind to beat Partick Thistle 2-1 at Firhill.
After a blank first half, midfielder Steven Lawless gave the home side the lead on the hour mark with a thunderous drive and the visitors wobbled.
Derek McInnes’s side had passed up several chances to put Celtic under pressure this season and it looked like another would be missed.
However, two headers in three minutes from defender Andrew Considine and striker Simon Church turned the match in Aberdeen’s favour and bolstered their title hopes, albeit they have played one more game than Celtic.
The original match at Firhill was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and the surface was asked to withstand another deluge in the early stages.
Aberdeen were boosted by the return of influential midfielder Jonny Hayes from a hamstring injury, but took some time to get warmed up.
The visitors came close in the 37th minute when Hayes’s free-kick into the Thistle box was headed on by defender by Mark Reynolds, with Church clipping the crossbar with his close-range shot.
Both teams went at each other from the start of the second half and in the 54th minute Craig Storie’s driven free-kick from the left was cleared off the line by the back-tracking midfielder Sean Welsh.
The travelling support urged their side on, but the home fans were equally enthusiastic and roared in delight when Lawless, from 25 yards, hammered the ball high past the flailing Scott Brown.
Aberdeen had now to contend with title anxiety as they fought back and they became increasingly disjointed. In the 68th minute, after great work by forward David Amoo in the Aberdeen area, only a great save from Brown prevented Mathias Pogba heading in a second for Thistle.
The points looked to be slipping away from Aberdeen, but they dramatically drew themselves level when Hayes’s cross from the left ended up at the back post where the unmarked Considine headed in from four yards out.
The Dons fans went wild, but there was more drama just two minutes later when Church glanced in a corner from Barry Robson, who had replaced Storie, leaving Thistle stunned.
Substitute Kris Doolan, on for Pogba, missed a great chance for Partick Thistle to equalise, dragging a shot from 10 yards wide, but Aberdeen held out for the win which puts pressure on Celtic.
Source: PA