Rangers edge Aberdeen in League Cup final for Philippe Clement’s first trophy
Heads were turned in Scottish football by an epic outburst from the Ross County manager, Derek Adams. In the aftermath of a defeat against Dundee on Saturday, Adams castigated the standard he has encountered in the Premiership since returning north from the giddy heights of League Two and Morecambe. “Rubbish” was among the descriptive terms used by the 48-yearold.
Adams can be accused of exhibiting hyperbole and sour grapes after the concession of a 97th-minute winner. Nonetheless, nobody who sampled the first final of this Scottish season could reasonably dispute his core point. This was tetchy, scrappy, bitty and attritional. Thud and blunder.
Rangers will shrug at a lack of points for artistic impression. They needed to win this final, and did so. In fairness to Philippe Clement’s team, they were by far the more likely throughout. Aberdeen’s containment policy worked for 75 minutes; it simply was not pretty.
James Tavernier proved the Rangers match winner. Until now, the League Cup was the one Scottish trophy to elude the club captain. He pounced at the back post to meet a Borna Barisic cross. Aberdeen’s defence were far too generous in respect of the space given to Tavernier, a prolific scorer for a full-back. Clement has silverware and a place in the Europa League’s knockout stage just two months into his Ibrox tenure. The Belgian has had little problem commanding hearts and minds.
“This of course gives us confidence but it is my job to keep everybody’s feet on the ground,” said Clement. “I want a hunger for more and am seeing that in the dressing room. With this mentality, and with the quality we have, we can do really good things.”
However, Clement has warned his squad not to become overly satisfied with their lot. The stance is sensible, given Rangers’ routine failures on the domestic front over a decade. “This is not about me, it is about the players. I am the one who speaks a lot but there are people in the dressing room pushing our story.” Celtic’s league wobbles mean Clement has legitimate hope of wrestling the title back as well. When Michael Beale was sacked by Rangers, the floating of that notion would have led to a call for men in white coats.
Rangers should have taken the lead during stoppage time of an attritional first half. Instead, Ross McCausland headed Todd Cantwell’s cross over the bar. Aberdeen’s only real moment arrived nine minutes after the restart as Nicky Devlin’s cross somehow evaded everyone inside the Rangers six-yard box.
Rangers heeded the warning; McCausland and Cyriel Dessers forced Kelle Roos into smart saves. Tavernier and Barisic had free-kicks batted away by the Dutch goalkeeper. Leon Balogun fired high over the Aberdeen bar when he should have done better. Then, just when Rangers looked to be running out of ideas, Barisic found Tavernier. Roos may well feel he should have done better with a shot which had been arrowed into the ground.
Concession of the goal did spark Aberdeen into some sort of attacking life. “We made positive substitutions, but we fell short,” Barry Robson, their manager, said. In truth, Rangers never looked likely to give up their advantage. Robson will point towards Aberdeen’s earlier win at Ibrox and a score draw between these teams in the north east as justification for his defensive tactics. Still, it felt unsatisfactory that his talented striker Bojan Miovski was given scant opportunity.
Robson said the game lacked “spark” which, being kind, could partly be due to the exertions of both these teams taking part in recent European competition activity. “They gave me everything,” the Aberdeen manager said. “Every drop, every ounce. When you have Rangers hanging in at the end, kicking balls out the pitch, it shows what we were trying to do. We have no right to come here as Aberdeen and win the game.” However, they perhaps have more of a duty to try.
No sooner had dust settled than a statement attributed to Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football league, heralded a “fitting advert for the Scottish game”. Doncaster lauded a “wonderful final”. One assumes someone penned this release with a straight face. It is unclear whether Doncaster was so impressed by pyrotechnics, sectarian singing or what transpired on the field of play. His sentiment would have been more appropriate on 1 April. In his Highland bunker, Adams will feel vindication.