Aberdeen secured their first SPL win since August in a thumping 4-2 home win against Hibernian.
Nightmare start for new Hibs boss
Aberdeen secured their first SPL win since August in a thumping 4-2 home win against Hibernian.
Two goals from Scott Vernon, sandwiched between strikes from Chris Maguire and Paul Hartley, helped Aberdeen race into a 4-0 lead shortly after the hour mark and turned new Hibs boss Colin Calderwood's first game into a nightmare.
The visitors did manage to halve the deficit through Colin Nish and an injury time goal from Sol Bamba.
But it was little consolation for Calderwood, who was unveiled as John Hughes' successor, as his team slipped into the bottom four.
The Dons, who had previously taken only one point from a possible 18, were looking for a first home win since their opening day of the season success against Hamilton.
And Hibernian, with Calderwood leading the side for the first time, were in confident mood after beating Kilmarnock last weekend to end their own dire home run dating back to March.
Squandered
The home side squandered a couple of decent scoring chances before Maguire broke the deadlock after 18 minutes with a clinical finish.
A superb piece of counter-attacking play saw Sone Aluko's long diagonal pass release striker Maguire who buried the ball into the bottom corner.
The visitors made an enforced change after only 22 minutes when Danny Galbraith came on for the injured David Wotherspoon before Aberdeen's Zander Diamond limped off and was replaced by Derek Young just before the half-hour mark.
The Dons doubled their lead after 33 minutes when Vernon's volley took a wicked deflection off Bamba and trundled past stranded away keeper Mark Brown.
Hibernian made an attack-minded change at the break with Derek Riordan introduced at the expense of Kevin McBride.
Quickest
But the visitors fell further behind when the Aberdeen goalscoring duo combined five minutes after the break to grab a third, with Vernon reacting quickest to slide home Maguire's shot-cum-cross at the back post.
Aberdeen had the chance to score a fourth after 66 minutes when Aluko was brought down in the box by Chris Hogg.
Vernon wanted the chance to complete his hat-trick from the spot but in the end it was Dons skipper Hartley who sent Brown the wrong way from 12 yards.
Nish pulled a goal back for the visitors two minutes later when he headed home Paul Hanlon's cross, although the striker landed awkwardly and had to be replaced by Valdas Trakys immediately afterwards.
The visitors were appealing for a penalty with 15 minutes remaining when Dons' makeshift defender Young collided with Galbraith but referee Craig Thomson waved play on.
Bamba headed home a second for Hibs from Riordan's cross in the closing stages but the majority of the 7,587 crowd at Pittodrie went home happy despite the late rally from the visitors.
