Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen boss Barry Robson happy to silence doubters who hoped for a Viaplay Cup upset against Stirling Albion

Robson was well aware of the recent cup upsets to lower league clubs suffered by the club and fielded a full-strength team to win 2-1 at Forthbank.

Aberdeen's Bojan Miovski celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0 against Stirling Albion. Image: SNS
Aberdeen's Bojan Miovski celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0 against Stirling Albion. Image: SNS

Aberdeen boss Barry Robson was happy to silence doubters who were hoping for the Reds to suffer another cup upset.

The Dons edged out League One Stirling Albion 2-1 away to reach the Viaplay Cup quarter-finals.

Robson reckons many people wanted to see the Dons suffer more cup embarrassment.

Aberdeen crashed out of the Scottish Cup to sixth-tier Darvel in January.

Robson played a full-strength side to avoid any possibility of the club suffering another cup horror show to a lower-league side.

He fielded his strongest side, despite a Europa League play-off clash first leg tie with BK Hacken in Sweden looming on Thursday.

Aberdeen went ahead through goals from Bojan Miovski and Leighton Clarkson.

However, Stirling hit back with a goal in the 75th minute from substitute Greig Spence.

And Stirling were raging when they were denied a penalty in the final minute after Shayden Morris appeared to bring down Ross Davidson.

Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski scores to put 1-0 up against Stirling Albion. Image: SNS.

Robson said: “It was a difficult game for us and I knew it would be.

“This club has had bad cup results over the last couple of years and we didn’t want that to happen again.

“We managed to win the game, although everyone wanted us to lose as they wanted a cup upset.

“But we never let that happen as we showed a good mentality.

“It is cup football and I have seen so many upsets.

“Everyone wants an upset and I get that.

“It is the beauty of the game, but I’m just glad we dealt with it.

“We have had a few hard cup results at Aberdeen over the years, but we got through.”

Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski celebrates with Graeme Shinnie after scoring to make it 1-0 against Stirling Albion. Image: SNS.

‘A lot of positives and no injuries’

Aberdeen suffered a nervous finale to the cup tie but held on to book their place in the quarter-finals.

It was the Dons’ first competitive win of the season, after they had taken just one point from the opening two Premiership fixtures against Livingston (0-0) and Celtic (1-3 defeat).

Robson insists it should be remembered his new-look team, with nine new signings, are still gelling.

Aberdeen’s Dante Polvara battles with Stirling Albion’s Lewis Milne. Image: SNS.

He said: “There were lots of positives and no injuries.

“Everyone should remember this is only our third game and we are trying to build a squad.

“We played against Celtic last week and nobody gave us real credit.

“That was a treble-winning team they had and we are building a whole new team.

“We are getting there and were sharp at times.

“There are things we can get better at, but we are in the next round.”

Stirling Albion’s Paul McLean and Jordan McGregor attempt to win possession from Aberdeen striker Duk. Image: SNS.

Robson praises lower-league Stirling

Last season’s League Two champions Stirling Albion came into Friday’s game with just one defeat in their previous 26 matches in all competitions.

They pushed Aberdeen hard, particularly in the second half.

Stirling Albion’s Greig Spence (L) celebrates after scoring. Image: SNS.

Robson said “You have to give credit to Stirling as they were outstanding and gave everything.

“They were brilliant, every one of them.

“Stirling Albion have not lost a lot of games before this and they should be proud of how they played.”

When asked about Stirling’s late penalty claim, Robson said: “I couldn’t see it from where I was.”

Leighton Clarkson scores to put Aberdeen 2-0 up against Stirling Albion. Image: SNS.

MacDonald returns from injury

The cup tie marked the return from injury of centre-back Angus MacDonald.

Defender MacDonald had missed the four pre-season friendlies and two Premiership games with a knee injury.

He was introduced as a substitute in the 61st minute against Stirling.

Aberdeen’s Angus MacDonald during a Viaplay Cup second round match at Stirling Albion. Image: SNS.

Robson said: “It was good to have Angus back. We thought we could bring him on and he could calm us down a bit.

“And he did that.”

Conversation