Celtic cruised into their third straight Scottish Cup final and a chance to claim a historic Treble-Treble via a pretty comfortable 3-0 humbling of Aberdeen in an eventful encounter at Hampden.
Right from the get-go, Celtic looked pretty rampant and even central defender Jozo Simunovic had the freedom of Hampden to roam forward at the Aberdeen defence before executing a shot that was touched just past by Dons keeper Joe Lewis. From the resultant corner, the big Croat should have scored as the ball fell to his feet just yards out but he knocked it wide. Very much a centre backs finish.
Aberdeen were shorn of winger Niall McGinn with a season-ending injury in the lead up to the game and that coupled with the loss of captain Graeme Shinnie through suspension as well as Gary Mackay-Steven also being crocked meant they were always going to struggle.
However, their tactics were pretty pathetic. They sat deep, showed little to no ambition to venture up the park and seemed to envision holding out for 90 minutes plus extra time and eventually trying to take the game to penalties.
Added to that they deployed their usual hammer throwing approach of kicking anything that moved all day.
Dominic Ball was yellow carded after persistent fouling – though the press ignored that and it just said it was a soft yellow – and then got a second one for sticking the nut on Ryan Christie. In fairness, it was a head clash but he was never going to win the ball and completely wiped Christie out. The young midfielder was stretchered off and will now be sidelined with facial damage until the end of the season.
Not long after James Forrest scored a howitzer after leaving Max Lowe for dead and sending one flying into the top left-hand corner which is his 16th goal of a fine campaign. He’s now only one off his total for last season.
And he should have had another one minutes later but Lewis saved well with his legs.
Into the second half and it was all one-way traffic with Celtic pushing for a second. They should have had the opportunity when Lewis Ferguson wrestled Odsonne Edouard to the ground in the box but this was ignored however not long after substitute Mikey Devlin upended ex-Aberdeen star Jonny Hayes and this time we did get the decision.
Edouard stepped up and duly converted on the half-hour mark to put the game to bed.
Ferguson then got his marching orders for an outrageous two-footed tackle on Rogic seven minutes later and from the resulting free-kick, a deflection off the wall eventually fell to Rogic who buried it from outside the box to put the icing on the cake.
In the fallout, Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes took all of the attention after being the victim of apparent ‘sectarian abuse’ in response to which he signalled to the Celtic fans resulting in him being sent to the stands.
The post-match really was a master class in deflection by McInnes. The ‘dirty orange bastard’ chants that were aimed at him, of course, are unnecessary, stupid and going by some threads I’ve read from Rangers fans in regards to McInnes, not even particularly relevant. This is a guy who declined to manage them not so long ago let’s not forget. But as much as I can understand the Aberdeen manager taking umbrage to such chants I find it strange that he never found them much of an issue when his home support aimed an identical chorus at Rangers manager Steven Gerrard on multiple occasions this season. I guess that’ll be because it’s only a west coast of Scotland problem.
They resultant furore also allowed him to escape any sort of scrutiny for his abject tactics and his team’s quite frankly awful display. He claimed the Ball sending off had a massive impact on the game which is nonsense as it ignores the fact that Celtic were all over them, and should have been well ahead even before James Forrest did break the deadlock. Ball being on the pitch would have made no difference to Forrest scoring either.
He also completely sidestepped the Ferguson tackle which was awful two-footed lunge and a blatant attempt to seriously injure a Celtic player. Even the player himself knew it.
There was only one team in it yesterday and the facts are that Aberdeen just didn’t show up. The closest they have ever come to beating us in one of these recent big Hampden games was in 2016 final. They had a real go that day against an excellent Celtic side and nearly pulled it off. But since then have opted to try and sit in, defend, stifle and kick us into submission. It’s never even come close to working with heavy defeats and multiple red cards being its ultimate achievement.
Anyway, we now move onto the cup final on May 25th which, as long as we tie the league up in between time, will give us an opportunity to capture an unprecedented Treble Treble and seventeenth trophy in nine seasons.
Oh and after some prematch scepticism based on Lenny’s previous record at Hampden, I have to say this was an excellent performance and easily the best since his return. Yes, the opposition was poor but we got stuck into them from the first whistle and it reminded me of his two previous semi-finals against them back in his first full season in charge when we trounced them 4-1 and 4-0 respectively.
Hearts won their semi-final by overpowering Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-0 on the Saturday. The scoreline flattered them though as the men from the Highlands could easily have had two goals with the crossbar and linesman’s flag coming to the Tynecastle sides aid. But they got the win and reduced the pressure on manager Craig Levins’s shoulders in doing so.
That’s now one to saviour as there should be a raucous atmosphere and could be a helluva day. Outside of our beloved neighbours from Govan I can’t imagine better opposition to do it against.
....Always A Tim! 