I WASN’T SCOFF SIDE
Roo refuses to rub it in for gobby Gavin
It’s a script that has been written a thousand times before.
The hard-luck tale the losers never think they deserve to endure and the winners never give a second thought.
Aberdeen’s triumph over Morton will look predictable and comfortable in the record books, exactly what was expected from the country’s second-best side against a team of inexperienced Championship rookies.
But for 70 minutes Jim Duffy’s kids gave almost as good as they got, growing into a game that could and maybe should have gone the distance.
They had one big chance – and they blew it.
From the moment teenager Jai Quitongo’s one- on- one was brilliantly saved two minutes before the break, anyone who has watched Scottish football for long enough could see the ending coming for the underdogs.
The fact Adam Rooney’s headed opener was offside will only make the pain more acute for the Greenock side.
The Dons striker had the last laugh on fellow Irishman Gavin
Gunning af ter the Morton defender had bombarded him with banter during the game.
But Rooney said: “I didn’t say anything to Gavin after I scored. It’s not the time to rub it in.
“Gav never shuts up during the game. He’s a funny lad, a great boy, and if it hadn’t been 0-0 for so long I would have been laughing a lot more.
“He talks non-stop through the game, that’s just him. But it was a good battle with him and I’m just thankful we came out on top.”
By the time Kenny McLean delivered the coup de grace late on, the game was done anyway.
However, you still have to give credit to Derek McInnes and his side for getting the job done.
They came out like a whirlwind but even when they couldn’t blow the house down in the first 20 minutes they kept going, kept changing, kept the pitch wide and found a way. As all the best sides do. Their recent Hampden record notwithstanding – eight defeats in their past nine visits – everything pointed at Aberdeen from the off. Not least the team sheet.
The Dons looked every inch the superior force on paper – a recognisable and solid starting XI, refined and honed over three years – and they transferred that on to grass after the first whistle.
Four corners in the first two minutes saw McLean force a terrific point-blank stop from Andy McNeil and Jonny Hayes clatter the bar with a header as he peeled off the front of Morton’s zone unmarked.
Fair play to Ton, though, they were dogged in their defending, defying Aberdeen the chance to pick holes between their lines by keeping their two fours tight to each other in front of the 18-yard line.
James Maddison was a thorn, const a nt ly probi ng and prompt i ng , poppi ng up everywhere trying to find the killer ball.
It never came though and by the time Morton made it half way
Gavin Gunning never shuts up during the game. He’s a funny lad, a great boy, and if it hadn’t been 0-0 for so long then I would have been laughing a lot more. But I didn’t say anything to him after I scored my goal – it’s not the time to rub it in
through the half unbreached, they had discovered a bit of belief.
A side who had seen off Hami lton, Kilmarnock and Dundee United to get this far, and had won four of their past five, shouldn’t have been short on confidence anyway.
They just needed to shake off the occasion’s tension.
When they did? When on-loan Celt Jamie Lindsay and Jamie McDonagh started picking passes, when Gary Oliver started finding a yard, when Quitongo realised he had the physicality to cause the Dons stoppers some pause for thought, they got on the front foot a bit more.
Morton applied some pressure. Not much – but just enough to put a few doubts inside red heads and fewer in their own.
In truth, the Aberdeen chances were few and far between.
A couple of long- rangers from Niall McGinn and Hayes aside, Gunning and skipper for the day Thomas O’Ware superbly mopped up everything in the heart of the box.
Then, two minutes from the break, Morton finally saw the whites of Joe Lewis’ eyes. Mark
Reynold s bung l ed Andy Murdoch’s through ball to let Quitongo muscle his way in but his finish lacked the guile to beat the big keeper, who blocked brilliantly with his legs.
If you’re the underdog in a game like this it’s the kind of chance you have to take. Give yourself a lead then hang on for grim death.
And the Championship side were nearly made to pay before they had even made it in at half time to rue it, Rooney clattering the bar with another header.
After they came back out you had to believe the Dons would make their experience tell.
They had been in this game three times in the past four seasons and lifted the Cup once.
And they were up against a team of wide- eyed babies by comparison. The average age of Ton’s starting line-up was 22 and a half. Only three of them were over 23, none even in their 30s. The club hadn’t been this far in more than three decades.
Yet it was Duffy’s side who walked back up the tunnel with their chests puffed out.
And more than once Aberdeen needed the excellent Anthony O’Connor to dig them out from the last line.
Quitongo’s belief was growing by the minute, the teenager squar ing up his man and smashing one just past the top corner from the edge of the box before scooping an audacious overhead kick over the bar.
How often have you seen it happen though?
Don’t take your chances? Suffer the consequences.
And with 20 minutes left Morton got their head-in-hands moment handed to them.
Graeme Shinnie’s deep cross from the right was headed back across the six-yard box by Andy Considine, begging for a keeper with more presence than McNeil to come and take it.
But he stayed rooted, Rooney met it flush and sent it high over the goalie into the net.
Aberdeen hadn’t done enough to deserve it – and even less so when the replays showed he was a few inches offside.
That’s what getting the job done is all about though. Any means necessary.
It’s why Aberdeen are where they are. It put a spring in their
step and with two minutes left they plunged the final dagger into Greenock hearts.
The legs were gone and class told as McGinn took the ball on a run down the right, saw his shot from the angle parried and McLean was left with a tap-in. Predictable – but a long way from comfortable.
The Dons are now just 90 minutes away from glory and Rooney would settle for another unconvincing display so long as he gets his hands on the prize.
The striker hit the winning penalty when Aberdeen edged out Inverness in the 2014 final.
And he said: “Hopefully it won’t need to go to pens this time – but if it does we’ll take it.
“The main thing is we’re in the final and we can look forward to a great day.
“The stadium wasn’t that full for this semi. But that was down to the early kick- off.
“A lot of fans would have left Aberdeen at 6am so we had to put on a good show for them. We had to make sure it was a worthwhile journey. I’m sure there will be more down for the final.”