Lying in my hospital bed in the hours prior to Saturday’s League Cup semi-final against Hibs I vowed
to myself to maintain a level of calmness if Aberdeen were to score. My doctors had banged on for
two weeks about keeping stress levels down and using my time to recover and build up my strength.
Yeah, how do you think that went when Bojan Miovksi broke through on goal and superbly slotted
the ball past Hibs keeper David Marshall with only twelve minutes left on the clock?
I confess, I leapt out my bed punching the air through with delight while the Red Army in Glasgow lifted the roof off the national stadium. It was the perfect tonic.
What a magical moment that secured Aberdeen’s place in their first final since 2019. Now, we face Rangers in the final on the 17 th of December and have absolutely nothing to fear, nothing! Was it pretty? Far from it but I don’t care, these games are all about winning; whatever it takes. It did not matter that we did not replicate Wednesday’s form against Motherwell, what was important was getting across the line and if that meant playing ugly football so be it. I would much rather contest a final having got there unsightly than not be there at all.
This time last week we all knew Barry Robson was facing a very testing few days ahead of him, but
he answered all his critics quite brilliantly by masterminding two very important results starting with a fantastic away performance against Motherwell. At Fir Park he got his tactics spot on. On Saturday a big call was required when Jack Mackenzie’s moment of pure madness saw him receive his marching orders. Barry was forced into making that call. He reverted to a straight back four with four across the midfield and Bojan patrolling the top end of the pitch. Aberdeen defended like lions
throughout as Nicky Devlin, Slobodan Rubezic, Stefan Gartenmann and Richard Jensen put their
bodies on the line time and time again to deny a Hibs side who simply couldn’t break us down. When
the opportunity presented itself to counter, we did just that and we all saw the end product.
The noise from the Aberdeen end when the ball hit the back of the net was just as magical as the finish itself from our extraordinary North Macedonian striker. In his first full season as Aberdeen’s full-time manager, Robson has led us to a major cup final, it’s an achievement that deserves to be celebrated. To say I’m delighted for Barry, and everybody connected with the club is quite the understatement. During his post-match interview Barry made note of praising the Aberdeen fans commitment to the cause. He was quick to mention the incredible away support and the expense that has to be paid out week in, week out. I for one was delighted to see him publicly acknowledge the support as this season the traveling Red Army has been nothing short of sensational.
The 2023 Scottish League Cup final is the least they deserve for their continued backing. Do Aberdeen deserve a 50/50 split when it comes to the ticket allocation? Absolutely they do and anybody who continues to argue against it needs their heads examined.
Every single club in Scotland who reaches a domestic cup final deserves a chance to sell as many tickets as possible. If some have to be handed back by a certain deadline so an opposing club have an opportunity to sell more then so be it but at least give the club a fair crack of the whip and let the fans decide if a showcase event is for them or not. I also hope the Scottish football authorities see sense and take the away support into consideration when deciding kick-off time, too many times Aberdeen fans have been left with challenging traveling arrangements to make the final and to get home again at a reasonable hour.
This week Aberdeen fly to Greece to take on POAK in the Europa Conference League and then we
face another away trip, this time to Glasgow to face the Champions at Celtic Park on Sunday. The
traveling is relentless at the moment with our next home game not scheduled until after the
upcoming international break. By the time the Rangers game comes around it will be exactly one
month since the Dons last played at Pittodrie. Go figure!
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