William Akio hasn’t always been the man to rely on when the ball has been bobbling around in the goalmouth.
But as they craned forward trying to follow the desperate stramash unfolding a hundred metres away, Aberdeen’s support, raised to expect the comedic worst, will have been unsurprised to identify the viral sensation wheeling jubilantly away towards the touchline, rather than the ball being inexplicably ejected towards it.
As at Annan, Aberdeen paid a late price for giving one too many dead-ball opportunities to opponents they had allowed to stay too close for comfort.
Whereas they received an extra 30 minutes to right their mistake on Tuesday, three futile touches of the ball were all they were afforded here.
The two additional points whose collection they pre-emptively welcomed so wildly were frustratingly handed back.
Those with no vested interest in the game might call it comeuppance for such an exaggerated celebration of a potential winner.
Though it was certainly the first match in Premiership history to be settled with goals by internationalists from Cape Verde and South Sudan, a routine league game in Dingwall on the first weekend of September is arguably not so exotic a fixture as to warrant fans vaulting the barrier and players launching their shirts into the great blue yonder.
That Duk’s outstanding, and ultimately under-rewarded, strike was greeted so unrestrainedly is partly explained by the quality of the goal and the resignation that it would never arrive.
But it also speaks of a team which is yet to put its ambition into practice.
The expectation of this side is that it should be finding it easier to create scoring opportunities than it currently is, such that when it does break down a fully-staffed defence it is cause to party.
Room for improvement, at both ends.
