The Scottish Professional Football League has announced that Rangers will receive about 25,000 tickets – roughly half the capacity of Hampden – but the Dons will only be allocated up to 19,500 seats for the December 17 showpiece.
An Aberdeen statement read: “The club robustly put its case to the SPFL to treat both teams fairly with an even share of tickets, given Hampden is a neutral venue and, as such, presented an option that would split the allocation for the match evenly between both competing finalists.
“Much to our extreme disappointment and frustration, this proposal was rejected by the SPFL, who cited operational challenges and attendances at previous semi-finals/finals as the principal reasons for their determination.”
Aberdeen had proposed that they hold back five sections of the North Stand and hand back tickets to pass on to Rangers by a certain date if the demand among their fans was not evident.
An SPFL spokesperson said: “Deciding ticketing allocations for cup finals is always a challenging task, as more fans invariably want to attend than the stadium can accommodate.
“We take a range of factors into consideration, including the number of tickets each club sells in the semi-finals, as well as their historic ticket sales in any previous League Cup finals and semi-finals.
“In addition, the design of the stadium and its ability to split sections is a major factor which influences our decisions, together with input from safety and security authorities to ensure fan safety and appropriate segregation.”
The league added that the split was broadly the same configuration as Aberdeen’s previous League Cup final appearance against Celtic five years ago.
There were 28,295 fans at the semi-final between Aberdeen and Hibernian.
The Dons were confident of selling a 50 per cent allocation given they took 43,000 supporters to Celtic Park when they last won the League Cup in 2014 by beating Inverness in the final.
The Gers right-back hooked in an impressively-executed strike from a Borna Barisic cross to settle Sunday’s Hampden showdown with Aberdeen in the 76th minute.
Tavernier has made a habit of popping up with huge goals since moving to Rangers from Wigan eight-and-a-half years ago, and fellow defender Goldson feels his colleague has become a colossal influence at Ibrox.
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“This football club won’t appreciate James Tavernier until James Tavernier’s not here,” said Goldson. “For a right-back to do the numbers he does… it’s not one season, it’s year after year after year.
“He started this season slow, I don’t think he scored many at the start but he’s on a hot streak now and long may it continue.
“The main thing about playing for this football club is adding numbers to the board. That board was there long before we were here and will be there a long time after, so to say you’ve had a part in adding numbers on to that is obviously huge.”
Sunday’s victory means long-serving Tavernier has now won each of the three major trophies in his time in Scotland after leading Gers to the Premiership title in 2021 and the Scottish Cup in 2022.
The goal-scorer savoured a perfect ending to a week in which the Ibrox side also sealed top spot in their Europa League group with a 3-2 victory away to Real Betis.
“It’s obviously long overdue but I’m really proud of the team,” Tavernier said of the Viaplay Cup success. “It was probably closer than it was expected to be but we knew if we limited their chances, we would create our own.
“I’m really happy to see this week out by topping the (Europa League) group and getting our hands on the first silverware this season.
“I’m delighted that all of us have managed to get our hands on the first silverware this season. That should give us real good momentum to build on.”
City rivals Celtic have lost their last two matches, allowing Rangers – who previously seemed out of contention – to haul themselves back into the title race.
The Gers are now within five points of the Hoops with two games in hand, the first of which comes at home to St Johnstone on Wednesday.
Tavernier refused to entertain talk of Celtic’s recent dip, preferring to keep the focus on his own team.
“There’s plenty points to play for,” he said. “We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and focus on knocking out the wins. It gets decided in May.
“We’ll try our hardest and see where it takes us. We’ve always got determination, no matter what. We play for a club that’s rich in history with trophies and we want to bring success to the club and our fans.”
The Dons lost 1-0 after Gers captain James Tavernier scored the only goal of the Hampden showdown in the 76th minute.
Defender Gartenmann felt his team showed the required commitment but rued the fact they were unable to force a save out of Ibrox goalkeeper Jack Butland.
“We didn’t have what it took today,” said the Dane. “We needed to test their keeper and defence a bit more.
“We had the feeling whenever we got close to their box that there was something to be picked up there.
“But obviously we didn’t create the chances and the stress in their box that was needed.
“They were just a little bit better at doing that at the other end.
“I think we gave everything out there. It wasn’t the effort we lacked, it was the quality in the last few situations.
“The little touch in the box, the cross hitting the right player, the pass in the deciding situations.
“We had a few counter-attacks where the pass just needed to have that little bit extra finish to it.
“That was probably the difference between us and Rangers today.”
Aberdeen’s cup final disappointment came just a few days after the final match of their Europa Conference League campaign against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Their focus now turns to trying to improve their fortunes in the cinch Premiership.
The Dons are 10th in the table but have a chance to lift the gloom and ease their predicament in the league when they host bottom-of-the-table Livingston on Wednesday.
“There is another game on Wednesday, that is the perfect chance to get back up,” said Gartenmann.
“We can sit in there and feel sorry for ourselves, and we probably will for the next hours, but then we have to move on.
“Football is tough, there will always be a loser in a final like this and today it was us.
“But we just need to take it out on Livingston on Wednesday, that’s the only thing we can do right now.
“The two hours after a game like this you’re just disappointed and you don’t know what to do with yourself.
“But that feeling we have in there right now, we need to try and avoid that as much as possible.
“That’s the worst feeling you can have as a football player.
“We need to now go and remember that feeling and try and avoid it as much as possible.”
Two late goals from Martin Boyle settled a compelling quarter-final that flowed from end to end.
The Paisley side had taken the lead through Scott Tanser, fell behind to quickfire second-half strikes from Elie Youan and Dylan Vente before Keanu Baccus made it 2-2.
Boyle’s double continued Montgomery’s positive start to life at Easter Road and he now has his first working trip to Hampden to look forward to.
He said: “It’s all about getting through to a semi-final at Hampden so I’m really proud of everyone involved.
“I was at Scotland versus England a couple of weeks ago and thought the atmosphere was amazing – apart from the boos!
“But I never went there as a player or coach, so I’m really looking forward to that.
“The boys thoroughly deserved it, so I’m really proud of their effort.
“I thought it was a really good game of football, a good cup tie under the lights.
“I saw great character from the boys and I thought we deserved to win the game.
“We created more than enough chances to win two games. But fair play to St Mirren, they came as the form team in the league.
“They’ve had a fantastic start to the season but we saw that as an opportunity to put an end to that run. I’m really proud of the boys’ effort because it has been a big couple of weeks.
“I thought that performance epitomised everything in terms of team spirit. And in the second half we played some great stuff.”
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt it was a chance missed for his team, who lost for the first time in 11 games.
He said: “It’s an opportunity missed. We were superb in the first half. We had total control of the game and it should have been 2-0.
“But then it was as if we went ‘that was really good, let’s not do that again’ for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Ultimately, we conceded goals that we don’t concede.
“If you lose four goals you’re going to lose football matches. But I can’t be too hard on the players because they showed good fighting spirit and quality.
“Individual errors and bad decision making have cost us. We didn’t deserve to go through but we won’t feel sorry for ourselves. We will reset and come out fighting again on Saturday.”
The Gers right-back opened the scoring with an assured penalty five minutes after the interval before half-time substitute Scott Wright fired in a second five minutes later.
A trademark curling free-kick from Tavernier in the 64th minute made it three, with Hearts skipper Lawrence Shankland scoring from the spot late on, as Philippe Clement’s side sealed a place in the December 17 final against Aberdeen.
Midfield Lundstram said of Tavernier: “He is some player. I don’t think I can give him any more praise.
“He is captain of the club and he gets unfair criticism sometimes from you guys (in the media) and people outside and sometimes he doesn’t get enough credit when he gets us out of tough moments.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He is a man mountain – when the pressure is on he steps up.”
Clement is unbeaten in five games since taking over as manager from Michael Beale last month.
Lundstram described confidence at Ibrox as “really high” and added: “He has been so good since he came in.
“It’s hard to put your finger on just one thing. He has been a breath of fresh air. The mood around the place is just so much better.
“He has been fantastic with everyone and has emphasised how important everyone is in the group.”
