Barry Robson rues Aberdeen FC Europa League 'missed trick' but boss resets for Conference League after Hacken blow

Gutted Barry Robson reckons Aberdeen created enough chances and missed a real opportunity to continue in the Europa League.

The Dons went for it at home but lost 3-1 to BK Hacken and went out 5-3 on aggregate to the Swedish champions. The one fall-back is the Dons can now look forward to Friday's Conference League draw in Monaco and guaranteed European football until Christmas. Robson said: “What a brilliant performance from my players, I was so pleased with them. Hacken are a top team, everyone saw the front players they have. I believe over the two legs we should have gone through with the amount of chances we created. Duk was one-on-one and Bojan was too. Great chances. Hacken created chances too, don’t get me wrong. But we created loads and it’s frustrating. The boys are gutted, they know they missed a trick out there."

Robson claimed his team gave their all. He added: “The way we passed, the way we pressed and the way we ran, the speed - I thought we were a great watch out there. When you go in against a team like that who normally have 75% of possession, they had one counter attack and a wonder goal.

“We don’t want to sit here and sit in, we wanted to have a real go and you can see over the two legs how we performed. When we come against top teams we are not going to go gung-ho and lose loads of goals, we're built on structure. You have to get that structure and cohesion. I'm not naive enough to think you don't need the defensive side of the game.

“We didn't want to sit in tonight and I felt we did enough to go through but they will probably say the same. We got the job done of getting to the Conference League and it’s going to be great for the club and the city. Sadiq is a top player, a real top player."