The goal which settled this tie not only mortally damaged Stephen Glass’ Aberdeen tenure, it defined it.
Eight Dons players were stationed inside the six-yard box. Six of them enveloped Connor Shields in an almost perfect circle. Two full seconds passed between Gary Woods patting the ball down into that red ring and the scoring touch being applied.
Nobody representing Aberdeen was able to take control of the situation and prevent impending doom, despite copious resources being in place to do so.
A pity that it was the players who required to run the gauntlet through the angry Aberdeen support at full time, for though Lewis Ferguson’s response was unfortunate, he is some way down the list of people truly responsible for the mess his team is in.
Had Dave Cormack been forced to take the walk of shame up those steps into Fir Park’s away bubble, he would have been left in no doubt that his own has burst.
The decision to place the future of Aberdeen in the hands of a group of rookies completely untested at senior club level was his. The decision to cement the regime in place when initial signs were historically bleak, also his. The decision to impose a structure which asked an unprepared coach to work with a squad he hadn’t ordered: his.
The appointment of Glass’ successor will also fall to Cormack, who thus far has displayed neither the propensity to learn from mistakes nor the willingness to deviate from the original route map, even though his team is lost.
However, with his own contribution under scrutiny, Cormack is likely to seek a populist solution for his own safety, and in so doing may inadvertently – and overdue – alight on what is needed.
Glass, alas, was never the man for this job. The same mistake cannot be made again.
