DONS SURVIVE A BIG SCARE JOHN McGARRY
Reynolds relieved as rocked Reds show bottle in bonkers clash
SO much for semi-finals being dour, cagey affairs. We have 33 days to wait until Aberdeen march on Hampden again and many of those will be spent reflecting on how Derek McInnes’ men somehow came through this brilliantly bonkers affair just about intact.
We witnessed three games in one here, the Premiership side punishing the holders’ atrocious start to the extent that the score briefly threatened to become embarrassing before 30 minutes had elapsed.
Then Hibs bounced off the ropes and came out swinging, with Grant Holt’s introduction turning the tide back towards Leith. It seemed dynamite would be needed to wrest the old trophy from their grasp.
But Jonny Hayes was to have the final say for the Dons. He will score better goals than the one which took a wicked deflection off Darren McGregor to beat Ofir Marciano, but probably none more important.
In the dying embers, the Israeli keeper almost forced extra-time by guiding a header towards Aberdeen’s goal. Joe Lewis gathered and McInnes’ side had reached the final by the skin of their teeth. Quite how, no one could say.
Hibs’ belated efforts were appreciated by their fans, who were at least consoled by the fact the Cup they had waited 114 years to win was not relinquished without a fight.
The start they made, though, was taken as a personal affront by boss Neil Lennon and while his use of the word ‘pathetic’ seemed a little harsh, the parallels he drew with mentally weak Hibs sides of old in those early exchanges was apt.
Aberdeen were everything Lennon’s men were not as they cruised into a two-goal lead. Focused, aggressive and organised, they threatened to get the job done with something to spare.
McInnes threw a curveball by playing Graeme Shinnie in behind the main striker. It worked a treat, with Marvin Bartley unnerved by this terrier snapping at his ankles.
John McGinn’s attempt at a playground dribble towards goal straight from kick-off was halted by Shinnie but Bartley’s intervention appeared to have repelled the Dons’ attack.
McGregor’s square ball to Efe Ambrose was woeful but credit Adam Rooney for latching on to it and producing such a composed finish with just 12 seconds gone.
We hadn’t seen anything yet, though, with Marciano beaten at his near post by Ryan Christie’s free-kick on 25 minutes. The keeper was culpable but the defensive wall, comprising Dylan McGeouch and Martin Boyle, offered as much resistance as straw in a hurricane. Hibs were self-destructing.
Had Hayes found the right side of the post soon after, the game would have been up.
The introduction of Holt for the dejected Fraser Fyvie had such a profound effect you could only wonder how this game might have unfolded had the veteran been on from the start.
His very presence brought a simplicity to Hibs’ play. Nervous sideways passes were replaced with shells direct from midfield and, tellingly, cross balls.
When Boyle produced the latter to allow Holt to halve the arrears nine minutes from the break, we had a game on our hands.
‘At 2-0, we felt comfortable but that can be a dangerous scoreline,’ said Dons defender Mark Reynolds.
‘I don’t think they had a shot on target until the goal. We kept them largely at bay but they brought on a sub and changed their tactics.’
Holt was like a magnet to the ball. McInnes sought to counter his menace by bringing on Anthony O’Connor, only for Hibs to immediately level by playing through their opponents. McGeouch’s energy and invention were the catalyst. Holt delivered a peach of a ball with the outside of his foot and the midfielder buried it under Lewis.
Lennon made for the corner flag in celebration. The chant of ‘two-in-a-row’ that greeted his return to the technical area seemed entirely plausible.
‘We made it interesting,’ smiled Reynolds. ‘Neil Lennon made the change and it had an immediate impact. We were a bit shaky and took time to get to grips with Holt. He got the goal and we looked rocky for a few minutes after that.’
Perched in the Sky TV studio was Jimmy Calderwood and memories of Aberdeen’s’ capitulation to Queen of the South at this juncture nine years ago must have crossed his mind.
Briefly, the Pittodrie side were in a dark place. They are a different animal from so many Dons teams of the recent past, though. With more inner strength and nerve, they stumbled yet just about kept themselves upright.
If Hayes’ winning strike owed everything to good fortune, he earned the right to get the shot away by demanding O’Connor’s pass then committing weary defenders. Try as Marciano might at the death, Hibs’ reign was over.
‘The momentum swings and they were pushing for a winner,’ said Reynolds. ‘Thankfully, we managed to get it through Jonny, with the scabbiest goal of his career but probably one of the biggest. In semi-finals, you need that bit of luck and we had that.’
As much as he is a stickler for detail, how Aberdeen got the job done will matter less to McInnes than the fact they did so.
An already fine season could yet enter the club’s folklore. As laudable as reaching the League Cup Final and amassing a nine-point lead over Rangers to date has been, the second trophy of the McInnes era on May 27 would dwarf those achievements.
‘At the start of the season, that was our target,’ said Reynolds. ‘We want a trophy in the cabinet, so we’ll try to better the last final.’
They certainly have enough experience — good, bad and indifferent — to lean on. The 2014 League Cup win over Inverness. The ineptness of November’s League Cup Final loss to Celtic. Their rapid start on Saturday. An ability to wriggle out of a tight corner when the game seemed to be getting away from them. All grist to the mill.
‘The more you get exposed to these situations, the more normal they become,’ said Reynolds. ‘We’ve been playing under a lot of pressure and expectation over the last few years. Thankfully, we’ve started to live up to that now.’