Derek McInnes
‘In the opening period of the game they were far more aggressive than us. We were well aware of their set-play threat with the size of them and when you lose two headers in your own box you normally cause yourselves trouble and that was the case. They got a great start and we were poor first half, there is no question about that.
“Half-time came at a good time for us and we were fortunate to only be 1-0 down.
“With Flood going off injured we had to try and manufacture a midfield that would still carry a threat and I thought we were far better and more competitive in the second half but we came here with high expectations. The fans had high expectations and when you are a player for Aberdeen or a manager of Aberdeen you have to deal with that.
“Today we are open to criticism for the first half performance, especially when you see the second half. Hearts had something to hold onto and they outfought us rather than outplaying us and deserved to go through.
“In the first half we didn’t even give ourselves a chance to cause any problems but at least in the second half we won more headers, passed the ball better and got into good areas.
“The ball bounced around the area and Andy had a good chance, I’ve not seen the Rooney penalty incident again but it looked like he got pulled back. Other than that we didn’t make the most of getting into good areas.
“We are hugely disappointed.
“We work for a club who want to compete and get to semi-final’s and final’s and we no longer have that opportunity. To play for a big club you have got to win big games and put yourself in a place to win trophies and we never done that today.
“We have got to pick ourselves up and work with the boys we have got to try and improve things. “For now the sole aim is to do as well as we can in the league and finish as high as we can as it is the only competition we have.”
“We now we want to go as strong as we can in the league. It would take Celtic having a poor points tally but we intend to get as many points as possible and see where it takes us. We probably are the only team that can fight it out with Celtic for the league.
The manager revealed that he has major injury problems as he is now without his two main central midfielders.
“Willo has a problem with his hamstring and should be out for some time. These things usually take four to six weeks and we have got Ryan Jack out for a similar amount of time so it obviously leaves us short in the middle of the park.”
The manager also revealed it was his decision for Aberdeen not to give the ball back after Ozturk went down with cramp.
“At the end of the game I gave the instruction for Jonny Hayes to keep the ball, it was my instruction. When the cross came in Ozturk was fine, McGhee got the foul but Ozturk was fine. All of a sudden he has went from the front post to the edge of the box and he goes down. It is something that Hearts consistently do when they are trying to see a game out and something that we made the players aware of.
“Alexander couldn’t wait to get the ball out of the park and when their player goes down and doesn’t require any treatment whatsoever we have got every right to keep a hold of the ball. Some of the Hearts players complained after the game but I told them that we have every right to keep the ball in that situation.”
