Old Firm outcome ‘win-win’ even if it costs Christie final appearance

RYAN Christie scored against Hibernian to help Aberdeen into the Scottish Cup final, and found himself with a huge dilemma over what result to hope for in today’s other semi-final between Celtic – his parent club – and Rangers.

If Brendan Rodgers’ side win, Christie will have to sit out the showpiece occasion at Hampden on May 27, but as a Celtic employee and lifelong supporter he isn’t quite ready to cheer on the blue half of Glasgow just yet.

“It will be interesting either way,” Christie said. “A lot of people had obviously been asking me about it before the game, and all I was saying was that I was just concentrating on helping the boys into a final and we’ll take it from there.

“Obviously, there’s a great bunch of boys at Celtic too, so I wish them all the best, but sometimes you’ve got to be a bit selfish. It’s a very strange situation, but I’ll just sit back and enjoy the game tomorrow and see what happens.

“I’m not too sure how my emotions will be, but either way it’s a win-win, because there’s a good bunch of boys at Celtic and they are having an incredible season right now, so for them to reach a final would be great and I’d be happy for them. At the same time, I’d love to play in a final.

“It’s going to be very strange. If it was someone else they were playing, it might not be as bad, but because it’s Rangers that’s even more interesting. We’ll wait and see what happens.

“I’ve been very lucky to join Aberdeen and come to a team that were desperate to get to a final, and we’ve managed to do that now.”

There was no confusion over the emotions of Hibs defender Darren McGregor, who was culpable for Aberdeen’s opener just a matter of seconds into the game, and then was desperately unlucky to see Jonny Hayes’ late shot deflect off his leg and roll agonisingly into the net to seal a 3-2 win for the Pittodrie side and end his own team’s defence of the trophy.

“I’m just gutted,” McGregor said. “We didn’t help ourselves in the first half-an-hour. We were poor and Aberdeen pressed us well. I was caught cold in the first few seconds with a stupid square pass that Adam Rooney capitalised on. Then you’re chasing your tail.

“I thought we came into the game and did well to claw it back to 2-2. Fate wasn’t on my side on the day. Hayes hit a mediocre shot, at best, which clipped me on the shin. It was like I was watching it in slow motion. It started curving outside of the post and then crawled in.

“There’s not much you can do about that. I’m just thankful we won the Scottish Cup last year and wrapped up the league. We played it down going into the game, but we really did want to win. It was good to test ourselves against a team going so well in the Premiership and I thought, over the piece, we did reasonably well. We didn’t help ourselves with the efforts – one from me and one from Ofir [Marciano]. A team like Aberdeen, it’s difficult to give them a two-goal lead.

“That’s what football’s like – I say it to people all the time. People ask me why I stay neutral in terms of your emotions, and it’s because things like this can happen. Last week, I scored two to help us into the Premiership, this week I probably assisted on two and we lost a semi-final. It’s hard to take and I’m really hard on myself as well. I thought I could have done better. I’m just really disappointed.”