Dons crash out in 4-3 thriller

By: Ian Rose | April 12th, 2008

We have one of our Scottish Cup finalists, and it’s a shocker to be placed right next to Cardiff City in that other Cup. Going into today’s semifinal between Aberdeen and Queen of the South, the Dons looked great to take a clinical victory and move on to a final where, if they faced Rangers, a UEFA Cup spot would be theirs regardless of the outcome. Not so fast, said the First Division Doonhamers.

The crowd of 24,000 at Hampden Park only had to wait just over 20 minutes for the first goal, a bullet from the foot of one Steve Tosh that jarred awake Dons fans from their dreams of an easy win. Things evened out before the interval, with Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine netting a lovely header past his Scotland U-21 teammate Jamie McDonald in the Queens goal. The second half started even more quickly, with Queens’ Paul Burns netting just four minutes in, taking advantage of a Derek Soutar parry and slotting home the rebound. Keeping the support on their toes, it was Barry Nicholson just four minutes later. Then Queens were ahead again just three minutes after that … and a second goal from Considine equalled things up for the third time, just three minutes after THAT. Refusing to be caught by their SPL opponents, Queens had one more goal in them, a 60th minute laser from John Stewart, just a minute after Considine’s last equalizer. Five goals in eleven minutes. One has to wonder if such a barrage would have been allowed if Aberdeen’s first-choice keeper Jamie Langfield was between the posts instead of Soutar. For the last half hour, there were desperate attacks from Aberdeen, but the Doonhamers held strong and will now head to their first Scottish Cup final ever.

On a note that might end up being a sad one for fans of the SPL in Europe, Queen of the South are now poised on the edge of European qualification. If Rangers win their quarterfinal replay, then beat St. Johnstone in their semi, Queens will get the spot as Cup runner up. This is exactly the sort of situation Scotland wanted to avoid, another second-tier team making it to Europe without even having to win the Cup. But UEFA says we have no choice in it, and we have to hope that if they make it, they have better success than Cup runners up Gretna a few years back.

This game essentially spells the end of Aberdeen’s run for back-to-back seasons in Europe. To return to the UEFA Cup now, they would have to jump from sixth to third in the league, overcoming a Motherwell side that is eight points ahead of them with two games in hand, with only five matches left to play themselves. It’s not statistically impossible, but it’s probably not going to happen, not with teams like Hibs also vying for that spot. So, we’ll have to wait at least one more year for another Cup run from the boys in red.