A quality goal from the home team’s captain produced the right outcome at Pittodrie as Aberdeen earned another visit to the national stadium where they will hope they find themselves on a surface that gives them more of an opportunity to perform.
They were unquestionably the better of the sides, as Thistle’s manager Alan Archibald, who had seen his side win their previous four matches, was the first to acknowledge.
However it was workmanlike qualities that ultimately saw Derek McInnes’s side through as they dealt with the robustness that had helped Thistle get the better of Dundee four days earlier and get through this quarter-final tie as they had been expected to in spite of their own midweek mishap at Hamilton.
“It was hard fought. We expected it to be tough,” McInnes said afterwards.
“Our attacking play was more prominent and we deserved to win the game.
“The first goal was always going to be important against a team who doesn’t lose too many goals, but we deserved to be in front.
“Joe (Lewis, Aberdeen’s goal-keeper) didn’t have a save to make but you can see how Thistle have been getting results. They are tough to play against.”
All the more so when confronted by what would be considered a leveller of a pitch, rather than one that would provide true home advantage for a side that was looking to play a lively game, but overcoming that should only have added to the sense of satisfaction and that seemed to be the case.
“It was torrential here all day yesterday, we spiked the pitch because there were puddles on it (but) it dries out really quickly,” he said, explaining the odd looking decision to water it pre-match when it had been flooded less than 24 hours earlier.
“There’s not too much grass on it, so we tried to make best of it, get some pace into it. We wanted pace in the game – that’s why we played (Peter) Paulett, (Niall) McGinn and (Jonny) Hayes.
“We didn’t want it slow and predictable, wanted it open with pace.
“Our movement did that for us. We moved them around a lot, their big central defenders. We were energetic.”
For all the difficulties they faced from opponents whose determination to make their presence felt earned a yellow card count of 4-0, the last of those ending Danny Devine’s involvement since it was his second, that approach was what made the difference, McInnes registering no complaint about the nature of the questions asked of his men
“It’s a quarter-final, that both teams are desperate to win. You have to deal with physical side, but it didn’t boil over,” he observed.
His counterpart, Alan Archibald matched that in readily accepting that Devine’s dismissal had been deserved while, for all that his team which was understandably unchanged following the win at Dens Park, had set out looking as confident as might be expected he accepted that they had been out-played. In doing so the Thistle manager also seemed to suggest that he might have done better to find some way of freshening things up.
“I thought we started well enough and were the better side for the first five or 10 minutes, but we fell out of the game after that,” was his fair summation of proceedings.
“It was one game too much for some of our players.”
“We’ve got to pass it better. Our delivery was poor, whereas Aberdeen used their big boy up front very well.”
He noted that included Jayden Stockley laying off the ball to set up the opportunity that his skipper, Graeme Shinnie, took so well in teeing the ball up with himself with a couple of deft touches as he moved infield from the right, before wrapping his left foot round the ball and sending it across and beyond Tomas Cerny, but just inside the goal-keeper’s right post.
Cerny had already made a fine save from a powerfully struck volley from Niall McGinn, who was probably the most influential figure on the day and for all that he was far from over-worked he had a good deal more to do than Lewis.
Admittedly as Thistle lifted their energy levels in the closing stages they did get close to undeservedly taking the match back to Firhill, not least when a Callum Booth free kick from the right was met at the far post by his captain, but Abdul Osman was unable to get it on target when he probably should have done better, albeit the very same accusation could have been levelled at Aberdeen sub Anthony O’Connor a little earlier.
Aberdeen: Lewis, Logan, Considine, Taylor, Hayes, McGinn (Christie 87), Shinnie, McLean, Pawlett (O’Connor 74), Stockley, Rooney (Storey 79)
Thistle: Cerny, Lindsay, Devine, Keown, Osman, Elliott, Booth, Barton (Lawless 54), Edwards, Erskine (Azeez 60), Doolan
Referee: C Thomson
Attendance: 11,333
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