The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dons are up for tackling Rangers in Ibrox clash
ABERDEEN: Focus on league encounter after swallowing bitter defeat in cup final
Scott McKenna insists Aberdeen cannot dwell on their 1-0 Betfred Cup final defeat to Celtic.
The Dons went toe-to-toe with Celtic at Hampden Park but fell short in the final third, allowing the Glaswegians to claim a third final triumph over Aberdeen in two seasons.
However, a trip to Ibrox to face Rangers – who went top at the weekend – in the Premiership tomorrow night sharpens the focus, even if Sunday’s defeat was difficult to swallow.
He said: “There’s still the Scottish Cup to come so hopefully we can go on a good run in that as well. But we need to try and dust ourselves down.
“We’ve got a massive game at Ibrox tomorrow night so we need to try and focus on that.
“We don’t have much time to think about what happened on Sunday.
“Hopefully it will be out of our systems and it will be all focus on Rangers.
“We need to try and bounce back from disappointing results as soon as possible and hopefully we can do that.”
Aberdeen’s tactics on the day worked for long periods, nullifying Celtic’s attacking prowess, and it was only when the Dons committed bodies forward to Brendan Rodgers’ side that they started to find space on the counter-attack.
McKenna said his manager was disappointed with the outcome of the game but his players will learn from the heartache.
He said: “He’s very, very disappointed. But in terms of the way that we carried out the game plan, he was happy enough with that.
“He just said we were lacking that final bit of quality in the final third of the pitch to pick someone out or to get a shot on target, but he said that he knows this squad of players 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.”
The 22-year-old felt that Celtic had the rub of the green, with Ryan Christie’s goal coming via a rebound off Joe Lewis and referee Andrew Dallas also giving a highly dubious penalty.
McKenna added: “It’s tough. We came here knowing that if we played as well as we can, then we could win the game. It’s just a moment where a lack of concentration cost us.
“We could have done with a wee bit of luck on our side.
“A backpass from Simunovic hit the bar and Joe had a great save and it bounced back to Ryan Christie. That was the difference.”