Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne may need to have a word with Derek McInnes about the lack of discipline at Hampden.
The Dons boss and his assistant Tony Docherty were sent off in the 3-0 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic yesterday along with Dom Ball and Lewis Ferguson.
McInnes was dismissed by referee Craig Thomson in the final 20 minutes for making a gesture towards the Celtic support in response to sectarian chants being aimed at him.
Docherty was sent off for comments made to ref Thomson at half-time after Ball was shown a second yellow and red card late in the first half following a clash of heads with Ryan Christie.
And midway through the second period Ferguson got a straight red for a reckless two-footed lunge on Tom Rogic.
McInnes and Milne have a very close relationship, but I don’t think Milne will be happy with the lack of discipline.
It’s not a huge issue as far as McInnes is concerned – but the reputation of the club was put at stake.
The Dons have always had a good reputation for discipline but it wasn’t on display yesterday.
We know the reasons for that happening at Hampden and the players need to learn from it.
Not having the manager and assistant manager in the dug-out doesn’t help either.
I think there will be conversations about why it happened – sectarianism was involved in McInnes’ sending off and the chanting is unacceptable.
It’s not just Aberdeen’s lack of discipline which needs to be addressed, it’s how we deal with sectarianism.
How do match officials handle these issues? They must hear the chanting as well so it should be in the referee’s report.
We have to try to stamp it out of Scottish football and the authorities need to take action.
McInnes said he shouldn’t have reacted to it and he’s right.
He has heard that particular song sung at him on a number of occasions – and that’s not right.
We need to work hard in Scottish football to stamp that out, which will take time.
McInnes has admitted he was wrong and he will take his punishment for reacting to it.
He has heard it a number of times and with what was happening on the pitch I can fully understand how frustrated and disappointed he must have been at that particular time.
It’s not right that sectarianism is in our game and action needs to be taken.
But at the same time the Aberdeen manager has a responsibility to make sure he stays in the dug-out to try to effect changes to the game.
Losing your temper doesn’t help anybody – and McInnes knows that.
Ultimately the disciplinary problems made it difficult for Aberdeen to reach the cup final.
If 11 men had been on the pitch at the end of the first half McInnes could have changed his gameplan.
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