Barry Robson baffles pundits with strange Aberdeen claim after ‘dreadful’ Viaplay Cup final loss to ‘poor’ Rangers
Aberdeen “didn’t have a go at all” against Rangers in the Viaplay Cup final loss which makes Barry Robson’s comments after the game “strange”, according to Tam McManus.
The Dons boss had claimed after the 1-0 loss on 17 December that “it wouldn’t be right” to come and “run the whole game” at Hampden but they “had a go”, although both McManus and Peter Martin scoffed at the idea on PLZ Soccer’s The Football Show the following night.
McManus suggested the Light Blues were “poor” so Aberdeen not having a shot on target all game constituted a major missed opportunity in what Martin called a “dreadful” match.
Martin said (6m 45s): “I don’t think anyone was expecting Aberdeen to run the whole game. Maybe run a wee bit of it. They didn’t run any of it.”
McManus said: “A shot on target would have been nice. He’s saying they had a go there. It’s a strange way to have a go by not having a single shot on target in a game. I’d be disappointed if I was an Aberdeen fan, I thought that Rangers were pretty poor on the day.”
“It was a dreadful game,” said Martin.
“It was a poor game,” McManus agreed. “It was a really bad, poor game. The goal summed it up, the ball comes in and the goalkeeper could maybe do a bit better and it hits it into the ground and it goes in. It was going to take something like that, a scrappy goal or a mistake from someone to win it.
“But when you’re looking at that Rangers performance you’d think Aberdeen fans will go back up the road thinking, ‘We’ve missed a big opportunity’… I don’t think they had a go at all to be honest.”
Neil Lennon added: “Don’t you think that’s the way it’s been the whole season?”
Done and dusted
It was a pretty rough watch when the conditions were bad and the opposition appeared to be set up to frustrate Philippe Clement’s men.
That tactic threatened to work as Rangers were kept out for 75 minutes before James Tavenier smashed a shot off the turf and past Kelle Roos when the Dutchman could have possibly kept it out.
Ultimately Clement and the Light Blues fans won’t care about how it looked now they have secured the first trophy of the campaign, the first silverware at Ibrox since the Scottish Cup two seasons ago, and the first League Cup in 13 years.
Rangers weren’t great on the day but they did enough, which is all the matters in the end for a final and which Michael Beale didn’t produce last season.
It was hugely important that Clement got over the line on this occasion to set the tone for his reign, and for it to come just days after an unexpected 3-2 win at Real Betis to qualify in the Europa League as group winners is all the more significant.
Celtic lost to Hearts in the SPFL at the same time to open the door further for a title race so if the Belgian can now produce an Old Firm win at the first attempt on 30 December it will constitute a stunning turnaround from just a couple of months ago.
There are still plenty of improvements to be made and a negative result at Parkhead would prove a major disappointment, but already the situation is looking far brighter than might have been expected when Beale was sacked in October.
In other Rangers news, Lawrence Shankland has only added to transfer speculation with his reaction to the cup win.