Yahoo News Aberdeen star says nobody is blaming Killian Phillips after Scottish Cup semi-final heartache
Aberdeen's Connor Barron has insisted that no one in the squad is blaming Killian Phillips for their Scottish Cup semi-final loss to Celtic. The Republic of Ireland under-21 cap had his penalty saved by Joe Hart in the shootout, securing Celtic's victory.
Barron acknowledged that Phillips will be feeling the disappointment, but assured that his team mates will support him through this difficult time and help him come out stronger.
He said: "That is football. It is hard at times. We have to get around him. Everybody misses a penalty in their career, it is just the way it goes. You need a bit of luck. Killian was that man who missed the penalty. It is not down to him. As the full team we take responsibility. We are proud of ourselves but just wish we had taken that step closer."
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Despite often leaving Hampden with a sense of disappointment, Barron believes Aberdeen gave their all against Celtic and could have easily won the match. The 21 year old admitted: "It is difficult the way it ended, on penalties. We took them all the way."
"We had chances and could have won the game and maybe wouldn't have needed the extra-time. "The boys gave everything and they should be proud of themselves. "We ran a very good team right to the end.
"The feeling in here is we are gutted.", reports the Daily Record.
Barron was disappointed his team couldn't secure a win, feeling they deserved more against the current league leaders. He was quick to praise his players for their efforts, saying: "We are gutted because we felt we should have won that game. To come away with a feeling like that against a team like that shows this team can go a long way.
"It is just unfortunate in the league that we haven't quite had that. On Saturday, in the semi-final I thought the boys were absolutely brilliant."
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He credited interim boss Peter Leven for the tactical approach, stating: "We know they are a top side but we didn't show them respect. We showed what we are all about. The game plan worked a treat."
Leven elaborated on their tactics: "We got the tactics spot on. We knew at times we needed to sit in our block and then transition on them and we did that. There were chances to win the game. We ran them all the way. We went to penalties and we just didn't get the luck. We pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday."
Looking forward, Barron wants his team to build on this performance: "The next five games for us are important. It should give us a massive confidence boost. We have no worries going into the next five games.
"The fans are behind us. It is all about us now to see how far up the table we can get. We don't want to be down the bottom and we all know what we need to do."
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