Glass: Aberdeen won't complain to SFA over penalty decision

Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass says the club won’t follow Rangers in making official complaint about the refereeing of Tuesday’s match between the teams, saying he doesn’t believe anything would be achieved.

The Dons boss remains adamant that there was a mistake made with “the most high profile incident in the game” but won’t pursue the issue.

Rangers were unhappy with decisions made by referee Kevin Clancy during the 1-1 draw with Pittodrie and raised the issue with the Scottish FA, highlighting eight points they believed showed mistakes or incompetence, including the sending off of Ryan Kent after two yellow cards.

Aberdeen had their own reasons to be displeased with the match officials, with Stephen Glass being adamant that his side should have had a penalty when Allan McGregor collided with Ryan Hedges when the Dons attacker was first to a long ball into the box.

After the final whistle, Glass said that Clancy and his assistant had given differing reasons for the decision not to award a spot kick, which came moments before Rangers scored the opener.

Responding on Friday to news that the Ibrox club had made their complaint official, Glass said Aberdeen wouldn’t be taking their own case further.

“There’s no reaction or fallout from this end,” he said. “There was one big incident in the game that I think everyone would agree upon, but we ain’t complaining about it.

“Us not getting a penalty was the most high-profile incident in the game but I’m not going to complain about it.

“We weren’t happy at the time and we’re still not happy but we’re not going to achieve anything by complaining. It’s their business what they want to talk about. I don’t work for Rangers, I work for Aberdeen.”

Glass and his players will instead turn their attention to their Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Edinburgh City. It’s now more than three decades since Aberdeen lifted the famous trophy and the manager is keen to end the wait for a repeat.

He said: “For the last 30 years, we’ve been adding a year on and talking about it, so it would be nice if at some point down the line we were talking about whether we can hold on to the Scottish Cup. That’s the aim for us, to try and win the Scottish Cup, but we know there are a lot of teams in the same boat.

“You win five games, you win the Scottish Cup but if we don’t take care of Edinburgh City we won’t have that opportunity.

“On Tuesday, we played in a big atmosphere where it felt like there was a huge game at stake. The atmosphere might not be quite the same on Saturday but the players have to create that in their minds and approach the game in the same way.