Del’swords will help us be winners
SCOTT McKENNA says Aberdeen will use the wise words of gaffer Derek McInnes to avenge Hampden heartbreak.
For the third time in three seasons the Dons were done by Celtic in a major final and the hurt throughout the group was obvious.
But McInnes told his young team putting themselves into winning positions constantly and using the experiences of bad days can ensure they savour success in the future.
McKenna said: “The manager was very disappointed.
“In terms of the way we carried out the gameplan he was happy enough with that.
“He just said we were lacking that bit of quality in the final third of the pitch to pick someone out or get a shot on target.
“But he said after the game he knows this squad will be back and will learn from this.
“There were a few other young boys, as well as me, playing in their first final.
“So hopefully we learn from that and if we do get back it’ll stand us in good stead.
“It’s a difficult one to take because we played really well and stuck to our gameplan for the majority of the match.
“One long ball with a minute or two to go until half-time kills us ultimately.
“Celtic had the same BY CRAIG SWAN break in play as us and we maybe just lost a wee bit of concentration during that time.
“It’s tough. We went there knowing if we played as well as we can we could win the game.
“It’s just a moment where we lack concentration that’s cost us. We could have done with a wee bit of luck on our side.
“A backpass from Jozo Simunovic hit the bar and Joe Lewis had a great save and it bounced back to Ryan Christie. That was the difference.
“It’s pure disappointment for me to get this far but it was just the fine margins in the final third.
“They produced a wee bit of quality and we didn’t.
“But there’s still the Scottish Cup to come so hopefully we can go on a good run in that as well.
“We need to try to dust ourselves down. We’ve got a massive game at Ibrox on Wednesday night so we need to focus on that.
“We don’t have much time to think about what happened at Hampden.
“Hopefully it will go out our systems and it will be all focus on Rangers.
“We need to try to bounce back from disappointing results as soon as possible and hopefully we can do that.”