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Elgin City manager Allan Hale said his team did the town proud with a battling Scottish Cup effort against Aberdeen and pointed to moments of ‘injustice’ in favour of Pittodrie side





Elgin City did themselves proud in their 3-0 Scottish Cup defeat to Aberdeen, and there were elements of injustice.

So says manager Allan Hale, who said his team’s battling performance to stay with Dons for so long was no shock to him.

Allan Hale - Elgin City vs Aberdeen FC. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.
Allan Hale - Elgin City vs Aberdeen FC. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.

He said it was a typical display of quality from City, and the result might have been difference but for decisions which went against the home side.

One of those was a claim for an Elgin foul which was ignored by the referee, moments before Aberdeen broke away to score their second goal in highly controversial circumstances.

Hale said his players were “adamant” that Duk’s header didn’t cross the line when City goalkeeper Aidan Glavin pounced on the ball.

The fury of those home players led to a yellow card for defender Lyall Booth, quickly followed by a red to effectively end Elgin’s hopes.

“There’s a few key turning points within the game,” Hale said. “We played the ball in behind and Dylan Gavin’s done really well to hold off (Aberdeen defender Kristers) Tobers and he’s gone down.

Allan Hale - Elgin City vs Aberdeen FC. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.
Allan Hale - Elgin City vs Aberdeen FC. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.

“The linesman is shouting in his earpiece that it was a foul. But we don’t get it and within a minute we are 2-0 down.

“(For the second goal) the players inside are adamant that it’s not over the line. Whether it is or it isn’t I don’t really know.

“Lyall gets the yellow card as a result of contesting the goal then he gets sent off a few minutes later.

“There’s a continuation of those things. Once they get the second goal and we are a man down they managed the game as well as you would expect a Premiership side to do.

“Our players have done the town proud today and that’s what we were expecting. Maybe we haven’t got the result that we all craved, a glamour result but the players can certainly be proud of their effort.

“It doesn’t surprise me the level of performance that we got from the players today because they give us that every week.

“It’s in their DNA and what we stand for is that we’ve got commitment, we’ve got energy, we’ve got belief and togetherness and they showed all of that in abundance today.

“The game was still in the balance with 20 minutes to go and that’s what we asked of them, to make sure that we made it a game.

“The red card swings it, the moment of not getting the decision that we should get then the second goal knocked the stuffing out of us a wee bit. There’s two moments of injustice there for us.”

Hale also revealed that top scorer Gavin, who came on as a second half sub then was carried off later on, has suspected knee ligament damage which could end his season.



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