'Pride to take from Hampden despite heartbreaking Dons defeat'

Heartbreaking.

No other word can sum up the feeling when Killian Phillips' penalty failed to find the back of the net on Saturday afternoon, consigning Aberdeen to another Hampden defeat to Celtic in a game that had it all.

Generally speaking, I’m not one who subscribes to the belief penalties are a lottery. But on this occasion, they kind of were.

With the likes of Miovski, Duk, Clarkson, Polvara & Barron all off the park, Aberdeen’s options for penalty takers were curtailed severely and credit has to go to the likes of Angus MacDonald, Jack Milne and Ryan Duncan for stepping forward to take a penalty when the pressure was well and truly on.

Duncan was especially unlucky with his penalty and he wasn’t helped by the injury to Kelle Roos that forced the Dons youngster to stand, agonisingly, waiting to take his kick. It’s difficult to fathom why Roos didn’t get himself clear of the penalty area before going down, rather than having to put his young team-mate into that situation.

Phillips’ penalty was probably the poorest of anyone’s during the shootout, but the Dons take the plaudits for contributing to a Scottish Cup semi-final that will go down in folklore and the Aberdeen support can, rightly, take pride in their team’s performance.

That said, for all of the plaudits Aberdeen’s performance has elicited, it’s Celtic who will return to Hampden in May to contest the final and the responsibility will now fall on Jimmy Thelin to take the positives from Saturday’s showing and develop a winning mentality at the club.

Before Thelin arrives, the onus sits on Peter Leven to finish off the season with some positivity - a win on Saturday over Motherwell should put niggling fears of being dragged into the relegation play-off battle to rest and allow the entire club to try and forget the campaign and put all focus on to next season.

Gary Scott can be found on the ABZ Football Podcast.