Wednesday November 4th 2026
The Rangers fans' display before kick-off
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Adam Bowen
Halloween kick-started the first semi-final of the Premier Sports Cup with Rangers playing Aberdeen at Hampden.
A huge occasion with both teams desperate to make it through.
These two last met at Hampden in December 2023, where Rangers were victorious 1-0 in the League Cup Final.
Rangers came into this game in good form picking up 3 wins and 2 draws in their last 5. One of those draws coming against other semi-finalist, Hearts.
Rangers made two changes following their dramatic draw during the week at Tynecastle. One of the changes was very surprising, the captain, Dan Neil, was on the bench. Gassama was also dropped to the bench with Rommens and Bouanani coming into the starting 11.
McInnes explained the decision to drop Neil was due to Rommens retuning to the squad at left back which in turn pushed Penrice into the midfield, which was a position the boss felt Penrice could play well.
It was four changes for Aberdeen following their 1-0 defeat at Home to Falkirk. Devlin, Milne, Ronan and Gyamfi all started with Smith and Armstrong dropping to the bench whilst Happe and Cadden were not included in the matchday squad. The Dons boss, Robinson, confirmed Cadden is out for 6 weeks.
It was a fast start to the game, predominantly by Rangers who were consistently getting balls into Aberdeen’s penalty area, but no real efforts were acted on.
15 minutes in, Rangers’, Kim, was running with huge space down the left wing when Aberdeen’s, Gyamfi, seemed to slip which in doing so wiped Kim out. Gyamfi came out a lot worse, lying still for a while before eventually coming off injured. Stuart Armstrong was his replacement.
10 minutes later, Fernandez, whose has had a lot of attention recently, sat down injured looking dejected, Godfrey was stripped ready to come on but Fernandes decided to play on after treatment.
Aberdeen were beginning to come into the game, testing the Rangers defence.
Around the 40th minute a member of the Rangers ultra group, the Union Bears, sprinted out the barrier appearing to scream towards the police for help, a couple of officers came then more, before medics arrived. Rangers’ fans were screaming at the medics to hurry up. A woman and a teenager were then taken out the crowd.
The second half was a lot more end to end with chances coming for both teams within the first 15 minutes.
Rangers were really knocking on the door but wayward attempts on goal was what was stopping them from taking the lead.
For a spell it was corner after corner for Rangers, but they just couldn’t find the net.
Aberdeen began to have their chances, mostly through Nisbet but he was constantly putting the chances wide.
Both sets of fans were doing all they could to get behind their respective teams.
Rangers won the ball from an Aberdeen corner with Naderi charging through with only a couple of defenders back. Aremu should have tripped him up, however they did manage to defend the initial attack, but Penrice’s shot was redirected by Naderi into the back of the net. The Rangers end or shall I say most of the ground, erupted.
Both managers resorted to a triple substitution to try and win the game with little time left.
Aberdeen kept going trying to find an equaliser, but they just couldn’t get it.
Both teams fought for it, but Rangers were the ones who managed to convert a chance and therefore bought themselves a spot in the Premier Sports Cup Final, where they will now face Hibs, after they were victorious over rivals, Hearts.
Rangers boss Derek McInnes said after the game,
“We need to keep arriving at Hampden, keep arriving at cup finals and get the job done.”
And that,
“The better team won.”
Aberdeen manager Stephen Robinson reflected on the game saying he was,
“Disappointed with the result”
Also, that he believed,
“They scored during our best period of the game”
However, he was happy with his team’s performance saying,
“They gave me absolutely everything”
The final will be played at 3pm on Sunday 13th December.
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