Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes praised his players’ resilience after they triumphed on penalties over Hibernian to reach the Betfred Cup semi-finals.
Hibs substitute Thomas Agyepong proved the fall guy as his spot-kick bounced back out off the underside of the crossbar to hand Aberdeen a 6-5 shoot-out win following a goalless quarter-final at Easter Road. Both goalkeepers had saved one spot-kick each.
The hosts had the better chances in the 90 minutes but Stevie May and Niall McGinn both missed good opportunities to win it for the visitors in extra-time.
McInnes said: “When it goes to extra-time and penalties, it doesn’t become about just being a good footballer, it becomes about so much more.
“I’ve never been one to buy into this ‘it’s a lottery, penalty kicks’. It’s not. It’s technique, it’s mental strength, courage to take that kick and be confident with it, and I thought we were very good.
“When you have a goalkeeper like Joe Lewis, you always feel confident anyway.”
Hibernian head coach Neil Lennon could not believe his side had failed to progress after missing a host of good chances in the 90 minutes.
“I thought we were brilliant,” he said. “The game should never have got to extra-time. But we missed easy chances.
“The penalties are a lottery, it can go either way and we took our penalties fine. My only complaint is we missed simple chances to win the game.
“We absolutely dominated Aberdeen for long periods, cut them open and got the ball in behind them and missed headers from two or three yards out.
“I’m delighted with the performance and really disappointed with the outcome.”
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Gavin McCafferty, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '398f0260-7f57-4720-92a0-9a1091964261');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:match-reports');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'I was always confident with Joe Lewis in goal \u2013 Derek McInnes'});
