Aberdeen fume at referee Nikola Popov after their Europa League bid ends in comical fashion against Maribor
Graeme Shinnie’s backpass bobbled past Joe Lewis in injury time, but Scottish side were aggrieved at an earlier incident
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RAGING Derek McInnes accused ropey ref Nikola Popov of killing Aberdeen’s Europa League dream.
The Dons boss blasted the Bulgarian’s decision to blow the whistle quickly to award Adam Rooney’s missed penalty — because Niall McGinn scored anyway.
Popov also sent off Jayden Stockley for two bookings within ten minutes after accusing the substitute of leading with his elbows.
But McInnes, whose side lost after a bobble which took Graeme Shinnie’s backpass past Joe Lewis in the dying seconds, reckons the erratic whistler got ALL the key calls wrong.
He said: “The referee and all the officials were really poor.
“Games are decided on key moments. You could talk about Adam’s penalty miss, but we still had to overcome the officials.
“I think the officials played the biggest part in the whole thing.
“Football is a contact sport but right from the outset he blew his whistle at the slightest thing.
“He didn’t let the game flow and the sending off is ridiculous. I don’t think you’d see that in any other country.
“I don’t even think either foul was a booking because Jayden has just used his arm for leverage.
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“There were no elbows and it’s very unusual you see a red card for things like that.
“Even at the penalty award, he was very quick to blow for the penalty when Niall McGinn was running through to put the ball into the net. He was clearly getting onto the ball. My feeling at the time was that the goal should stand.
“The ref was too eager to blow his whistle. Why does he need to blow it when Niall’s got every chance of scoring?
“He was too quick to blow his whistle all night.”
Dons were the better team over the two legs and McInnes added: “It is very harsh. We can be happy with how we performed, we kept a good team at arm’s length for most of it.
“Even with ten men they didn’t cut us open much and we grew stronger as the game wore on.”
Rooney missed his first penalty in Aberdeen colours, but McInnes puts no blame on the Irishman — or keeper Lewis.
He said: “We don’t apportion blame to Adam. He has been brilliant for us over the years.
“The same goes for Joe. It was a horrendous bobble. It comes six inches off the ground.
“It was down to the pitch and there’s nothing you can do about that.
“I felt we had a goal in us and I felt we did enough over the tie.”