Hibs-Aberdeen reaction: Waiting game not beautiful game, is Robson rage justified, who was Clarke watching?

VAR took some of the shine from this Viaplay Cup semi-final but lack of Scots is also a concern

Aberdeen booked their place in next month’s Viaplay Cup final and we pick out some of the talking points from Saturday’s match against Hibs at Hampden:

VAR, Montgomery and Robson’s ire

Spare a thought for Nick Montgomery. The Hibs manager outlined his semi-final misfortune with Sheffield United at his pre-match press conference on the eve of his side’s game against Aberdeen.

Aberdeen players celebrate beating Hibs to reach the Viaplay Cup final.

Referee Graham Poll impeding midfielder Michael Tonge – described by then United manager Neil Warnock as "the best tackle Arsenal made all afternoon" – helped Arsene Wenger's side secure a 1-0 win in the last four of the FA Cup in 2003. It was over two legs at the same stage of the League Cup three months earlier but still the same unfortunate outcome for Montgomery and his teammates - a defeat, to Liverpool, with the second leg at Anfield going to extra time.

It has now become a litany of woe for Montgomery following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat against the 10 men of Aberdeen in the semi-final of the Viaplay Cup. No wonder he cut such a dejected figure afterwards. This latest defeat was hard to bear but as he himself admitted, Hibs didn’t lose the tie because a goal had been ruled out (very harshly) for offside. They lost because they did not take their chances, although he did stress that another chance should have come from 12 yards away. He felt Dylan Vente had been felled by Aberdeen goalkeeper Kelle Roos shortly after Martin Boyle's goal was chopped off following a lengthy VAR review. The Vente incident was not even looked at again.

Ironically, Easter Road was where the technology was first utilised at a top-flight match in Scotland, just over a year ago. It seemed new and exciting then. Now? Well, I think the phrase is: You can shove it where the Leith sun don't shine. When they are taking nearly five minutes to find a reason to chalk off a brilliant goal, let there be no more talk of something called the beautiful game. It’s the waiting game. And the worse for it.

Montgomery was admirably restrained in this post-match press conference. In fact, it was bizarre that of the two managers, Barry Robson seemed angriest afterwards as he raged about the scheduling issues that he claims are putting Aberdeen at a disadvantage. Most eye-opening of all was his complaint that the date for the Viaplay Cup final comes just three days after a concluding Group G Conference League tie against Eintracht Frankfurt. It’s hard to see how the SPFL are to blame for this tight turnaround even if it does leave only a day for Aberdeen to prepare for the showpiece occasion against either Hearts or Rangers, with the Friday after the Frankfurt game likely to be just for recovery.

Barry Robson took aim at the scheduling from the SPFL, with next month's final coming three days after a European tie.

Who knows what state Aberdeen’s European ambitions might be in by then? They have three more games left, two of them away. It could be that an appetising European clash against the German team is reduced to a warm-up game for the final, with auxiliaries given a run-out. Although with every Conference League group win earning teams £440,000, perhaps this isn’t realistic either. Does revenue trump silverware? Maybe. But if you’re a club like Aberdeen so starved of success, with just one League Cup win since 1995, then this is something Robson might need to have a long hard think about.

Still, better to have this headache than not have it – as he’d be the first to admit.

Will Clarke be tempted to make call-up?

It’s all very well sparing a thought for Nick Montgomery, but what about Steve Clarke? The Scotland manager was watching yesterday's semi-final from a seat in the South Stand and the first question that sprung to mind was, why?

Aberdeen’s Jack MacKenzie was sent off for an act of stupidity when pushing over Lewis Miller.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s right and proper that the Scotland manager should be at a showpiece occasion at the national stadium. But with Clarke set to name his latest squad, for the last two Group A Euro 2024 qualifiers against Georgia and Norway, early in the coming week, who was playing who might feature? Precious few is the answer.

Alarmingly, of Hibs' starting XI, just David Marshall, the goalkeeper, is eligible for Scotland. He of course retired from international football last summer after 17 years of distinguished service. Solid though he was in his side's 1-0 defeat, Marshall's performance was not relevant to Clarke.

As for Aberdeen, there were at least some Scottish outfield players in their starting line-up, but one of them, skipper Graeme Shinnie, is now 32 and hasn't played for Scotland since a traumatic trip to Kazakhstan in 2019. Jack MacKenzie will definitely have been on Clarke's radar since the manager is badly in need of a left back following injuries to Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson, who dislocated his shoulder against Spain on the last international break.

MacKenzie is 23 now and if a Scotland call up is going to happen, one might think it needs to happen soon – particularly given the temporary problems in his area of the field. But he of course chose the wrong game to react so childishly to being dumped on the floor by Hibs full back Lewis Miller when already on a booking. Clark may be be minded to overlook his red card since he needs some cover for Celtic's Greg Taylor, who is, by the process of elimination, Scotland's new first-choice left back.

The manager has problems on the other side of the field as well. He was still digesting the news that right-back Aaron Hickey has been ruled out until early next year due to a hamstring injury sustained during training at Brentford. Aberdeen's Nicky Devlin has been a dependable performer in that area so far this season and showed up well again at Hampden. Might he be a contender for Clarke? Connor Barron was the only other Scot in the Aberdeen side and he was replaced midway through the second half. Clarke isn't light on midfielders so it's unlikely we can expect his name to feature in the squad.

Hibs did finally get some Scottish outfield players on in the second half, although it wasn't worth Clarke taking too many notes. Josh Campbell has been a bit-part player recently while Rory Whittaker and Josh Landers are both just 16 and still too raw for Scot Gemmill's Under-21s, never mind the full international side.

It was at least welcome to see Hibs have some local talent on display, with much expected from both teenagers. "We had three academy players on the bench and two of them came on in Rory Whittaker and Josh Landers," said Montgomery afterwards. Rudi Molotnikov, also a Scot, was the other.

“The future of the club is some of those young boys coming through," the manager added. That will be music to Clarke's ears because if two of the biggest clubs in the country can meet in such a high-stakes encounter and muster just seven Scots between them then something has gone or is going badly wrong.