Aberdeen travelled to Forthbank for the second time in as many seasons to face Stirling Albion with David Munro the man in the middle on this occasion.
The Dons were comfortable winners last season in the Viaplay Cup group stage.
This season, with the Dons being in Europe, they automatically qualified for the second round.
Aberdeen fielded the same 11 as last week against Celtic, showing great respect for their League One opponents.
With no VAR in use, how did Munro and his refereeing team get on?
The first Aberdeen goal was finished by Bojan Miovski, a good clean goal from a refereeing perspective.
The referee did well to award a free kick to the Dons and correctly booked the Stirling Albion player for a challenge on the rejuvenated Shayden Morris in the first half.
The second half served up plenty of nervous moments for the Dons, the first coming from Slobodan Rubezic.
The Serbian defender, who I expect to be a regular talking point this season, was involved in a tussle with Stirling forward Dale Carrick.
There were big shouts from the home end for a foul. It was certainly outside the box and the referee was ready to blow the whistle.
If the referee had awarded a foul, would there have been a card and what colour would it be?
I don’t think the challenge could be deemed as denying a goalscoring opportunity so a yellow would have been most likely.
But the referee opted to play advantage allowing Stirling to get a shot away at goal.
Therefore ruling out the potential yellow card being shown.
In some instances if the player is away to be cautioned for stopping a promising attack, but advantage is played the referee has every right to no longer award the caution.
This is due to the potential stopping of a promising attack no longer occurring as Stirling were able to get their shot away on goal.
I thought the referee was excellent on this occasion.
The Dons went 2-0 up from a superb Leighton Clarkson goal, with the ball clearly bouncing off the bar and over the line.
The hosts dragged themselves back into the game with a goal from a set-piece but was the free kick correctly awarded?
The foul given before the goal was incredibly soft.
It appeared to be given for a small push from Angus MacDonald and I can understand why it was given.
Pushes from defenders in those positions on the wing are very easy decisions to give.
When your opponent has their back to the goal, don’t take the risk by putting your hands on him.
After the goal, Aberdeen seemed to panic and lose composure in the game.
Bojan Miovski was booked for dissent after disagreeing with a refereeing decision.
Stirling Albion’s Jordan McGregor followed him into the book after a huge shout for a penalty.
After the ball was whipped in from the corner Miovski was complaining about, Ross Davidson was wiped out in the box by Shayden Morris.
The challenge came following a wild effort by the Stirling player that sailed miles over the bar. Tackles made after shots are taken always ask questions of the referee.
The referee was uninterested and no penalty was awarded. My first instinct was no penalty.
Having seen a replay of the incident, the Stirling player gets the shot away before the challenge of Morris comes in.
If VAR was being used, I would have expected a check to be done. The referee would have wanted to look at it again.
There wasn’t enough for a penalty in my opinion. The shot had been taken and it seemed more to me that two players collided while both trying to get to the ball.
But Aberdeen were lucky that VAR was not in use because referee Munro could have been sent across to the monitor to view it again.
If the referee had given a penalty I could understand the reasons why, but I agreed with the on-field decision of no penalty.
I thought the referee had a decent game and he stamped his authority towards the end of the match on the players showing him dissent. He was slightly inconsistent in some decisions but overall he did relatively well.
Finlay Elder was a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official from 2019, with experience in the Highland League, Juniors and Club Academy.
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