Dundee 0
Aberdeen 2
League Cup (Semi Final)

Match Report

Giving anyone a goal of a start isn't recommended. When you do it with a team as competent as Aberdeen it achieves the rating of positively suicidal!

And though Dundee tried hard in this Skol Cup semi-final and at times threatened to recover from a devastating opening which saw former Dark Blue Bobby Connor blast the Dons into the lead in 39 seconds, they did not make it.

So it is the men from Pittodrie, looking again like the honours-winning outfit they were not so long ago, who go forward to the final on Sunday, October 25, against Rangers. The fact that Jim Bett became Man of the Match by one vote from Connor gives a pretty good summing up of the game.

Their class in midfield, with the backing of the all-international cored defence, gave the Dons the edge throughout.

Connor scored, Bett laid on the second for Brian Irvine. 'Nuff said?

At the same time, Dundee come out of the tie with credit. They could have folded after that opening hammer blow, but never stopped trying.

In the end, though, sustained. as their effort was, they seldom got in on Leighton and when they did he proved that there aren't many, if any, better in the land.

The season that started so well for Dundee, has suddenly developed a serious flaw with this their fourth defeat in a row. As for Aberdeen manager, lan Porterfield had his critics as he settled in, but it could be that he is well on the way to creating yet another team of the calibre expected at Pittodrie.

Aberdeen were the "home" team in only the second semi final to be held at Tannadice the other also involved Dundee, against St Johnstone, and they won it, 20 years ago.

Captain Bobby Glennie lost the toss and with queues still waiting to get into the ground, the worst fears of the Dundee faithful were realised in only 39 seconds.

After Glennie had lost a tussle with Joe Miller, the ball came to Jim Bett after a throw in. His cross was completely missed by two Dundee defenders, then dummied by Hewitt, and former Dens Parker Bobby Connor, playing in left midfield, raced in on his own to smash the ball high into the net. Deadly finishing, terrible marking!

The Dons were operating with three up front, with Falconer, Miller and Hewitt, but it was big Brian Irvine, sneaking through from midfield, who got on the end of a Hewitt cross, only to head straight at Bobby Geddes.

Dundee made a couple of thrusts in the direction of Leighton, but the Scotland keeper wasn't tested until the 13th minute, when he had to cope with a deflection off a tremendous McKinlay drive. His fingers brushed the ball, which hit the bar and dropped invitingly for Coyne. In his eagerness the striker rose for it too early, and at chance went abegging.

It was an open game with a lot of good football on show and Dundee giving as good as they got, but, tragically for them, suffering from that careless moment at the start.

As the frantic pace of the opening stages slowed, Dundee built a good move on the left which ended with thunderous Angus drive whistling just past the post.

Dundee's front three of Coyne, Wright and Harvey were trying hard, but finding, as so many have before them, that the Willie Miller-marshalled Dons defence isn't easily broken down.

When Coyne went on a run in the 26th minute, Robertson cut across him. The referee awarded a foul and spoke to both players-Robertson for the offence, Coyne for talking out of turn.

Maybe Robertson was more affected than it appeared. A minute later he swiped at a ball, took nothing but fresh air, and landed in an undignified heap!

When Dundee forced a corner, a McGeachie shot broke to Glennie and his powerful drive was well held by Leighton. Dons broke from the clearance for Bett to try a cross-cum-shot which wasn't all that far out.

Mennie had the Aberdeen defence in trouble with an out swinging cross after a great run on the right, but Coyne and Wright got in one another's way and the ball was cleared fatatly for Dundee, as it proved.

Again the ball went to Bett, and after controlling it he smashed a low ball deep into the Dundee penalty area. It spun up off a group of players, with Irvine first to react, control it and crack it low past Geddes. Time 36 minutes.

This was the essential difference between the teams. Dundee were getting up the park all right, but the Dons were the lads with that final touch to put the ball where it mattered...into the net.

Keith Wright proved it just before the interval. Through and running in on Leighton, he hesitated a split second and Willie Miller deflected the ball to safety.

A swinging McKinlay cross only just tipped over by Leighton briefly restored Dundee hopes, but even though the keeper dropped another cross, that two-goal gap was still there.

A thunderous Brown drive from 20 yards sizzled over Leighton's crossbar as Dundee tried the only thing possible going forward to try to close that goals gap.

But that has its dangers as the Dons proved when they broke for Connor to finish with a bending shot which swung just past Geddes's right-hand post.

It was Dundee's best attacking spell of the night, overall, with one weakness. The lethal finishing of earlier in the season was missing.

Harvey had a great shot on the turn which had Leighton stretching, but again equal to the occasion as he tipped the ball over the bar.

The match had been hard, but never more than that and it was no surprise that the first booking was for what looked a fairly innocuous challenge by Mennie, after which he kicked the ball away.

Halfway through the half came the shot of the game, if not of the season. How Geddes even saw Brian Irvine's 35-yarder never mind got to it to turn it away defies belief.

Aberdeen were comfortably in command now, but they could not relax, as Keith Wright proved when a head flick had Leighton diving desperately to the right to save.

With eight minutes to go came the first substitution, Ross Jack, a consistent scorer in the reserves, for Mennie and immediately he got in a shot which almost swept Willie Miller into the terracing, but still didn't alter that scoreline!

In the final seconds Hewitt should have rubbed salt into Dundee's wounds. A marvellous run by Bett up the right, saw the Man of the Match square to the winger/striker on his own inside the box.

How he contrived to hit Geddes with his shot became another of football's mysteries.

Match report written by The Courier