Aberdeen’s skipper for the day, Angus MacDonald, was understandably proud of his side’s performance in defeat to Celtic at Hampden, but warned that the Dons must maintain that standard in the final five league games to come.
“I thought we showed quality in the game, caused them problems, but today, it wasn’t to be. Now we have to take that level of performance into the last five league games. We can’t let our standards drop now. That’s the level we need to be at. We’ve got five cup finals now, and if we perform the way we did and cause problems like we did to them, to other teams, we’ll be absolutely fine.
“There’s been a lot of negatives this season, but also a lot of positives. The European campaign, we did ourselves proud, we’ve done the same in the cups, but the league has been disappointing. I can’t put my finger on exactly why the levels aren’t there consistently this season, but we’ve just got to try and make sure and do our best and try our hardest to maintain these levels until the end of the season.”
It was a tumultuous afternoon for MacDonald as he admitted afterwards.
“I hold my hand up for gifting them the first goal, so I was pleased to get up and to score the equaliser in the last minute of extra-time and then to score a penalty. That goal was special, it’s one for my family. I thought we were going to go and win it from there, but it wasn’t to be.”
Angus also had plenty of praise for interim manager Peter Leven and the work he has done at Pittodrie in recent weeks.
“With everything that’s gone on in the background, for Peter to step up and be the leader has been brilliant. Look at the results over the last four or five weeks, that starts from him. He’s been incredible and we might have been in a cup final under him.
“The lads are disappointed for the fans. They travel home and away every week and some results, some performances haven’t been great, but I’m just glad that we put in the performance today and hopefully shown them a glimpse of what’s to come. With the new manager coming in, the way the club’s going and is pulling in the right direction, it’s a positive sign.”
