Aberdeen boss makes 'millimetres' VAR claim after Hibs defeat as he makes one thing clear about loss
Jimmy Thelin conceded that Hibs were the better team in The Dons’ 2-0 Easter Road defeat.
In a match that was defined by ‘small margins’, Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin believes his side were unfortunate to be on the wrong end of a VAR call, but also reiterated that his side deserved nothing from the game.
Hibs kicked on from their Derby Day heroics with another impressive Easter Road win against a high-flying Aberdeen side. After a cagey first half, Thibault Klidje opened the scoring for the hosts on the hour mark. Former Hibee, Kevin Nisbet then thought he’d salvaged a point for The Dons when he was on target from close range, but VAR adjudged him to be offside in the build up. Junior Hoilett then sealed the Hibs win in the dying minutes with a strike that Reds goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov won’t be watching back in a hurry.
After a poor start to the season, Aberdeen have undergone a mini-revival in recent months which has seen them climb to seventh in the Scottish Premiership table. However, after the Hibs defeat, they’re now winless in their last four. Jimmy Thelin was disappointed with his side’s performance in Leith, but refused to make any excuses for the defeat.
‘I’m not a referee’
The Dons boss said that despite Nisbet’s disallowed goal being a really tight call, they must accept the decision of the officials. According to P & J after the match he claimed: “I watched it and it’s really small margins, like millimetres, but I’m not a referee.”
Thelin was under no illusion that his team should’ve gotten anything from the game. He continued: “I can’t say we were better than Hibernian and deserve something. Sometimes football is more about these moments. We have been in this situation now for some games in a row and we haven’t really fixed it yet.
“It’s something we have to do better. When it’s 1-0 to them, we have a good opportunity ourselves to score 1-1 in a cross situation. Right now, we have been in some games that we haven’t been good enough in these important moments of the game, even if not always the performance is there, so we make it difficult for ourselves in tight games.”
‘Fight for Europe’ still the aim for Dons
Aberdeen have just exited the Europa Conference League at the first phase, however they did have some decent results considering they were drawn against some of the best teams in the competition. Thelin says European Football is still the aim for next season: “we are clear about what we need to do to achieve our goals for this season, to fight for Europe.
“There are still a lot of games left, but we need to push a little bit now to make us good enough to fight all the way to the end of the season. We were not good enough over 90 minutes. I still think if we act a little bit different in some transition moments, we can get something from this game.”