Killian Phillips absolved of Aberdeen penalty blame as teammates rally around heartbroken Hampden sinner

Connor Barron has revealed Aberdeen's squad have rallied around Killian Phillips after he missed the decisive penalty against Celtic yesterday afternoon.

The Dons lost the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden when Joe Hart kept out the Irishman's spot-kick following a day of drama and a 3-3 draw after extra-time. Phillips stepped up to take one of the pens during the shootout but it was saved and the heartbroken midfielder had to face his teammates after the disappointment.

There were no fingers pointed at the 22-year-old, though, and Barron explained how it was a team defeat and not down to any one player in particular as to why they were beaten.

"That is football," the young man said. "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.”

To lose on penalties is always a devastating way to exit any competition, and Barron knows that.

But the 21-year-old was proud of how he and the rest of the squad gave it everything they had.

"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.

“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.”