Dundee United booked their place in the CIS Insurance Cup final against Rangers with a 4-1 thumping of ten-man Aberdeen.
With resounding thumping of ten-man Abderdeen
Dundee United booked their place in the CIS Insurance Cup final against Rangers with a 4-1 thumping of ten-man Aberdeen.
Jimmy Calderwood's Dons enjoyed a fine start when Andrew Considine gave them the lead, but it proved to be a false dawn as efforts from Darren Dods, Christian Kalvenes, Craig Conway and Morgaro Gomis secured United a date at Hampden on 16th March.
Aberdeen's misery was sealed when Lee Miller was sent-off with 23 minutes remaining for a second yellow card.
United were quickest out of the traps. Mark de Vries, making his first start since his return north of the border, nodded David Robertson through on goal early on but he was denied the opener by a timely intervention from Zander Diamond.
Noel Hunt then drove a powerful effort into the side-netting after collecting a Kalvenes ball on the right wing as Craig Levein's men attempted to crank up the pressure.
It was Aberdeen's cue to haul themselves into the game and Josh Walker and Barry Nicholson both tried their luck with long-range efforts that did little to trouble Lukasz Zaluska. It was not long, though, before he was plucking the ball out of the back of the net.
Nicholson whipped a corner into the box to the head of Diamond, whose effort was parried by the United goalkeeper. The ball broke kindly to Considine, who was the unlikely claimant of the opening goal when he stabbed home from close range with 19 minutes gone.
Dods delight
If Considine's goal was a collector's item, so, too, was Dods' when he restored parity just four minutes later. The Dons fans were still celebrating when he threw himself in front of Kalvenes' free-kick and directed a header past the helpless Jamie Langfield.
Like Considine, it was only his second goal of the season so it was probably asking too much for the defender to claim another shortly before the break when he glanced a header from Craig Conway's cross just wide of the upright from close range.
Switching ends proved problematic for Dons keeper Langfield in the second half when the game was briefly halted after he was pelted by missiles, including a plastic cup of tea, by United fans behind his goal.
Those supporters were celebrating with 59 minutes gone. A poor clearance from Langfield gifted United a corner, which was duly delivered into the box by Conway and Kalvenes rose above everyone else to nod home from 12 yards.
Final nail
There appeared to be no way back for Aberdeen when they lost another goal and a man within three minutes.
A long ball from Zaluska was pounced upon by De Vries. He nodded into the path of Conway who did well to shrug off the challenge of Diamond before rounding the goalkeeper and keeping his cool to slot home.
The final nail in the coffin arrived after 75 minutes and came courtesy of Aberdeen skipper Scott Severin. His dreadful pass back to Langfield was woefully short, allowing Gomis to slide in and divert the keeper's vain attempt at a clearance over the line.
