Matty Kennedy scored against his former club as Kilmarnock comfortably beat Aberdeen 2-0 at Rugby Park.
Kennedy rounded off the scoring after Corrie Ndaba’s header put Killie in front just before the interval.
Killie’s third win over Aberdeen this season put them 10 points clear of seventh-placed Hibernian and left the Dons five points adrift of Dundee in the race for a cinch Premiership top-six place.
Aberdeen have now gone eight league games without a win and their travelling fans reacted angrily after the final whistle.
The game pitted Dons boss Neil Warnock against former Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes in a reunion of the ‘Battle of Bramall Lane’ 22 years ago, when the then West Brom captain was headbutted by one of Warnock’s Sheffield United players.
This meeting was more like a no-contest although Warnock received one of the two yellow cards dished out by referee Graham Grainger.
Warnock had called for his side to stand up to the physical challenge after watching footage of the Dons being “bullied” in a 2-0 defeat at Rugby Park in October.
There were early signs that it might be a similar afternoon as Aberdeen struggled to deal with balls into the box in the first quarter.
Vassell saw a shot deflected on the post after Marley Watkins’ headed on, Jamie McGrath cleared Stuart Findlay’s header off the line, then Kelle Roos clawed away Watkins’ effort after the Dons central defence failed to cope with a bouncing ball.
Aberdeen had some attacking moments of their own and Will Dennis held a deflected strike from Dante Polvara.
Some lengthy treatment to Aberdeen defenders disrupted the flow of the game but Killie took advantage to net from a corner in the fifth minute of stoppage-time.
Danny Armstrong whipped in an outswinging cross after Kennedy teed up his fellow winger, and Ndaba brushed off the attention of Bojan Miovski to head home from close range.
Warnock was booked in the aftermath of the goal, presumably for something said to the fourth official. Whatever he said to his players at half-time had little impact as Killie came out looking for a second.
Kennedy saw a free-kick saved and Aberdeen were soon exposed after Connor Barron’s free-kick from inside the Killie half failed to reach the penalty box.
The hosts broke through Armstrong and Roos came out to block from Liam Polworth before Vassell steered the rebound well off target with men in support.
The second goal was coming and it arrived in the 58th minute following a throw into the box. Vassell held off his marker, played a one-two with Watkins and set up Kennedy to wrong-foot Roos.
The home side could have added further to their lead with Kennedy at the heart of most of their chances.
Watkins glanced a header just wide, substitute David Watson got on the end of Kennedy’s cross but could not get enough power in his shot as he stretched, and the winger saw a curling effort held by Roos.
Aberdeen never looked like sparking a comeback and Polvara’s first-half effort proved to be their only shot on target.
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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