Derek McInnes: "Lewis Ferguson was born to play at Hampden"

Aberdeen match winner Lewis Ferguson was “born to play” in big games, according to his manager, Derek McInnes.

The Dons boss, who signed the 19-year-old signed from Hamilton in the summer, described him as “a dream of a boy” after he headed the only goal in Aberdeen's Betfred Cup semi-final win over Rangers.

The goal came against the club that Ferguson's father, Derek, and uncle, Barry, starred for during their careers.

McInnes said: “He's a dream of a boy. He's a natural footballer, he was born to play at Hampden, to play games here, and he's going to have a fantastic career.

“I always felt he was going to be an important player for me quickly.”

The Dons boss added: “Any time you win a semi-final, especially with a late winner, you've got to try and enjoy the moment.

“It was a brilliant moment for us because we had to dig in at times. It is a new team again having lost a few players and it's good we can still get to cup finals while we're still working together.”

Steven Gerrard said Rangers did not deserve to win the game and challeneged his players to improve.

He said: “It's a setback and it'll take a while to get over, certainly for myself, because I don't like losing, I don't like losing to our rivals.

“This one doesn't taste nice but as I said I'll take responsibility for it and we'll move forward and we'll try to improve and keep going and the players need to bottle this."