LEWIS Ferguson showed his forgiving side as he rubber-stamped the extension to his contract at Aberdeen.

Derek Ferguson broke the news of the deal to keep his son at Pittodrie until 2024 on BBC Radio Scotland last Saturday, an announcement that was supposed to be kept secret until yesterday, but that faux pas was laughed off by Lewis and his manager, Derek McInnes.

But, as he reviewed the convincing victory by Rangers over Kilmarnock in the fifth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup and the forthcoming last-eight clash with Steven Gerrard’s side, the 19-year-old midfielder made it clear that he bore no malice towards Allan McGregor, the Ibrox goalkeeper, pilloried for his studs-high challenge during the controversial game between the teams at Pittodrie two weeks ago.

The Herald:

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McGregor went unpunished at the time but a violent conduct charge was later upheld and he was banned retrospectively for two games, though Ferguson, yellow-carded on the day for his part in the incident, shrugged-off the matter as “just part of the game”. His father saw it through different eyes and made his displeasure known to McGregor..

“Tt’s football; it happens,” was how Ferguson junior defused the situation. “After the tackle happened I was obviously a bit angry at him but that’s football.

“I’ve tackled like that in my career when I was playing in the development league. I’ve put in bad tackles but you move on from it.

“After the tackle happened, I never really thought about it again.

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People were always asking me about it, but it’s football, it happens.

“People are going to mistime tackles and hurt people, that’s just the way it is. After the game I wasn’t really bothered if he got the ban or not.

“I never read into stuff like that. It’s done. It didn’t have an effect on me. I’ve done it before and I’m sure other professionals have done it before.

“There’s no bad blood between me and Allan.”