It's rarely dull when Rangers and Aberdeen. Throw in a cup semi-final, a muddy pitch and VAR – well, for the majority of the game at least – and one of Scottish football's most fiery fixtures didn't disappoint. It provided 120 minutes of drama, even if it wasn't necessarily a game for the purists.
We had a red card with calls for another sending off, three goals, a goal chopped off for offside and a technical issue with the aforementioned VAR which meant match referee Nick Walsh had to go without for a spell at the start of extra time. But when the dust settled it was the Ibrox side who will go through to the final to meet Celtic on February 26 despite a decent effort from Jim Goodwin and his men.
Michael Beale can reflect on an impressive start to his Rangers managerial tenure yet there are still issues that will be nagging him. Some can be sorted by recruiting in this transfer window. Others can be ironed out on the training ground. Here, Record Sport looks at some of the talking points that arose from the second semi-final of the weekend on Sunday.
Looking after No. 1
A lot of Rangers supporters lost confidence in Allan McGregor in the last campaign after a mid-season wobble. But there is a fear now his own defence could have also lost a bit of trust in the veteran. It certainly appears at times he doesn’t instil confidence in the rearguard and if that is the case then it must be a worry for Beale. He will soon be blowing out the candles on his 41st birthday cake so he’s obviously going to lose a lot of his mobility. At Bojan Miovski’s offside goal – and also the one that stood – McGregor seemed awfully slow to react as he stayed planted to his line before the flag saved Rangers. You can’t argue with some of the big saves he has made and remains a top class shot-stopper but it’s clear this will be his last season, and there is still that argument that this is a campaign too far for him. There has been a debate ever since he signed his extension in the summer over whether Jon McLaughlin or McGregor should be first choice. Beale said he wants to give Robby McCrorie a runout before the end of the season and won’t sign a new shotstopper until the summer. But, with two knockout cups on the line, why wait? If the goalkeeper position is an issue then should signing a long term No.1 not be one of the priority positions in this window?
Captain calamity to lose armband?
What now for Anthony Stewart? He was handed the captain’s armband as soon as he was in the door at Pittodrie, replacing Joe Lewis. However, it has been anything but plain sailing for the former Wycombe Wanderers man in the north east. You want your skipper to lead but instead he left his team in the brown stuff – and by that we don’t mean the Hampden ploughed field – following his late red card in regulation time for a crazy challenge on Fashion Sakala.
And that was after Goodwin had to slap him down before the game over his comments in his pre-match press conference that he’d rather have faced Alfredo Morelos than Antonio Colak. Vice-captain Ross McCrorie will lead the team in his three-game absence and don’t be surprised if the armband never appears back on Stewart.
Varce
Aberdeen’s on-loan Celtic man Liam Scales went down clutching his face in the dying seconds of regulation time. Co-commentator Stephen Craigan said: “He seems to think he’s been punched or hit with an elbow,” after Ryan Kent appeared to lash out at the Irishman. The footage certainly didn’t look good for Kent and a red card at that point would have evened up the teams at 10 apiece following Anthony Stewart’s earlier dismissal.
Yet Dons boss Goodwin played down the injury time incident when asked after the game, saying: “I don't think it's a major talking point. I saw the incident and I don't think there was a great deal in it.” Kent might not yet be off the hook, Record Sport columnist and former Celtic striker Chris Sutton took to Twitter to say: “Ryan Kent will be very lucky to escape retrospective action for lashing out at Liam Scales.” Incredibly VAR had gone on the blink at the time but connection with referee Nick Walsh soon returned shortly after, at the start of extra time.
Hampden horrors
The National Stadium has been getting criticism from all angles over semi-final weekend. It kicked off with Ange Postecoglou blasting the state of the pitch after Celtic clinched victory Kilmarnock on a rain-lashed night. The weather didn’t help but the surface should still have been in better nick, and Beale echoed his comments following Rangers’ extra time win. But some of the old issues came up again that saw the SFA consider a switch way from the old lady of Mount Florida to Murrayfield. Fans continue to complain about access to the stadium and the catering also got a bit of a kicking. Former Hearts chairman George Foulkes wrote on Twitter: “Hampden Park must be the worst National Stadium in Europe. Not just a pitch like a ploughed field but spectator facilities, catering toilets and access are all 20th century. The SFA and Scottish Government need to get together to plan a replacement.” The same old moans about the stands being too far from the pitch still reverberate and rightly so. The national stadium is a bit of a dump.
New manager, some of the same old issues
Let’s start by saying that Beale has instilled a spirit and character in this Rangers side that must be applauded. Given how low confidence was under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, then it is no mean feat to have won six games and drawn the other. But it’s clear he’s going to need time and his own players to raise performance levels. It’s become a common theme that the first half can be a struggle – albeit it was a rapid start with Fashion Sakala hitting the post with a header – and it was a tough watch for the fans. Even allowing for the poor surface, some of the passing was slack and the play was laboured with the defending suspect – the way the goal was conceded was comic cuts – but it’s a game they could well have lost under Van Bronckhorst so Beale is clearly doing something right. That is the big positive but he needs to be able to add quality to the the spirit he has created.
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