ABERDEEN manager Mark McGhee has rounded on the Dons supporters who barracked their team during Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie against Raith Rovers at Kirkcaldy.
McGhee was furious at the chanting from the visiting supporters at his players, with midfielder Gary McDonald, in particular, on the receiving end.
McDonald silenced the jeers by netting an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time, much to McGhee’s delight, but the manager was still unhappy with what he saw and heard on Saturday.
He said: “With 10 minutes to go we were pummelling Raith Rovers and there were chants of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’.
“I thought it was ludicrous supporters were watching their team still in with a chance and had given up.
“My brother was at the game and he left five minutes before the end as he felt he was going to end up having a fight with somebody if he stayed, that’s how bad the atmosphere was.
“Most of the vitriol seemed to be aimed at Gary McDonald and he was the guy who popped up with the equaliser. I don’t know what they (the supporters) were thinking.
“I was standing there watching the game, listening to the chants and watching the players give everything.
“I just cannot make any sense of it and I did not see it coming.
“Had we lost 1-0 I would have expected stick but not when we are dominating a team and it was backs-to-the-wall stuff from them.”
McGhee sympathises with the supporters who have watched their team suffer the indignation of losing to lower-league opposition in recent years.
Defeats by Queen’s Park, Queen of the South and Dunfermline have made the cup competitions something of a poisoned chalice for the Dons but McGhee insists his players deserve to still be in the hat for tomorrow’s quarter-final draw.
He said: “I was standing on the touchline knowing what people were going to say if we went out of the cup but it would have been the biggest injustice in history had it happened.
“It would have been so cruel and unbearable, so to get the equaliser was correct. We deserve to still be in the competition and I just could not see us going out.
“I was convinced we were going to do well in the cup and I remain convinced.”
Rovers will travel north to Pittodrie for the replay a week today but the Dons have a trip to in-form Hibernian and second-placed Celtic at home to negotiate before the cup tie.
McGhee has maintained his rebuilding job at Pittodrie is going to be a long task but he is adamant better days lie ahead.
He said: “We will go to Hibernian with no fear and I am convinced we will improve on our best moments this season.
“The best is yet to come. With Sone Aluko and Peter Pawlett back, and Zander Diamond providing competition for places, I expect a lot more from this team now.
“If we win the cup it will still be way ahead of my expectations. What we are trying to do here is going to take time but I know we will get there.”