THE Scottish Football Association are weighing up whether to move away from Hampden once the lease expires in 2020.
Aberdeen may encourage them to bring that date forward. If the concept that a stadium can influence a club's fortunes seems whimsical then you need only take a look at the Pittodrie club's record there in recent times. It makes for painful reading for those of a red persuasion.
Fifteen years have now passed since Aberdeen last won a game at Hampden. Since that Scottish Cup semi-final win over Hibernian in 2000 they have lost six games in succession, beaten by Rangers, Queen of the South, Celtic twice, Hibs and now Dundee United who came from behind to win Saturday's League Cup semi-final. With Hampden out of commission in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, Aberdeen won their first trophy in 19 years last March by defeating Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the League Cup final at Celtic Park. Perhaps it is just a coincidence or maybe Aberdeen simply don't like playing at Hampden, irrational as that may seem.
This defeat was particularly galling for a number of reasons. Firstly because Aberdeen threw away a lead given to them by debutant Donervorn Daniels after passing up chances to establish a bigger advantage. Secondly because the goals they conceded to Callum Morris and Nadir Ciftci were both soft and could easily have been averted. And thirdly because they were the holders with genuine aspirations of retaining their trophy. It all adds up to a loss that could sting for some time to come yet.
"We were desperate to do it again, desperate to keep the trophy," admitted Adam Rooney, denied a semi-final goal by a blast of referee Steven McLean's whistle. "You saw the sort of celebrations we had in Aberdeen last year. Our fans have been great, and we had 21,000 again down here with us today. It was our trophy so it's disappointing."
Andrew Considine, a survivor of several of Aberdeen's previous Hampden horror shows, was just as deflated. "Knowing how it felt last year and what it meant to the city, it was a fantastic occasion so it is a really sore one," said the defender. "I felt we were the better team in terms of chances, we just didn't manage to take them. It came back to bite us on the bum as I felt we kept their flair players at bay."
Aberdeen are undefeated in their last 10 league games, keeping clean sheets in eight of them, largely on the back of solid defensive foundations. For them to lose a goal from a corner, and then another bundled in from close range with no defender close to Ciftci, was particularly galling.
"The manner of the goals we lost was disappointing," added Considine. "Dundee United have scored a lot of goals this year from open play and I felt we managed to shut them out. I haven't seen the goals again and I don't know if the second one was offside or not. But they weren't great goals to lose"
Rooney was just as perplexed at the sudden soft centre appearing at the heart of the Aberdeen defence. "On the run of games we've been on, when we've been ahead we've managed to see games out and control them. But obviously just before their equaliser, we were a bit sloppy and gave the ball away, so we didn't control the situation in the way that we should have. It was very disappointing to let them back in it, and then to let them go and get the winner."
There was also a sense of befuddlement about his "goal" that was ruled out. "I've no idea why it was disallowed," added Rooney. "He [the ref] said it was for a push, but that seemed pretty soft to me. We were both pushing each other and there was a lot of holding going in the box. It was six of one and half a dozen of the other."
Having already exited the Scottish Cup, Aberdeen have no choice now but to focus on trying to maintain their pursuit of Celtic at the top of the SPFL Premiership. "That is massive," admitted Considine. "We will come back to training first thing on Monday morning, try to brush this aside and crack on with the league. It is hugely important for us to try to grab that second spot."
Rooney was just as determined not to let the season fizzle out. "We just have to try to take whatever positives we can from this and try to make sure we go on and win the rest of our games. We've got a lot of big games coming up in the league, and we have to make that our focus. We have to make sure we bounce back from this and use it as a motivation for the rest of the year."
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