Derek McInnes admitted Aberdeen were second best against Rijeka – although blamed referee Harald Lechner for nailing the final nail in their Europa League coffin.
The Dons lost two goals from their own attacking set-plays and in between that Funjo Ojo was also sent off within a mad, opening 32 minutes at Pittodrie.
That effectively ended the tie and gave the Croatians an impressive 4-0 aggregate win – although McInnes was dismayed that Ojo had been ordered off for Aberdeen .
He said: “I don’t think Funso is naïve. He’s been caught on the ball and put a challenge in.
“The second one is maybe more of a yellow card than the first one but I still shake my head at it.
“The referee hammered the final nail in the coffin by sending him off.
“I’m not blaming the referee, I need to stress that – but Christ he had a big part to play in that tonight.
“After the sending off, it’s unfair on my players to be criticised. The game was effectively done.
“It was an awful decision, to deem that two yellow card offences. “I’ve never seen the like.
“There were other challenges that he didn’t deem yellow cards, which surprised me, given what he did to Funso.
“There were Rijeka players with four or five fouls who didn’t get booked.
“It’s poor decision making from us – and an awful decision from the referee has made it a very disappointing night.
“You don’t find yourself in that situation very often, a goal down and down to ten men so early, when your fans have turned up ready for a big yeeha and get in about it.”
McInnes was more annoyed that his side lost both their goals from their own attacking positions.
He acknowledged: “We just made some really poor decisions, even from the first minute.
"The first goal comes from our corner kick, a poor delivery and then the second phase, we let ourselves be hit on the counter.
“Losing that first goal was like a balloon popping because the fans had turned up and played their part.”
McInnes also admitted he had tried to con Rijeka coach Igor Biscan by saying Sam Cosgrove was injured.
He confirmed: “He was fit. I wasn’t totally honest because we hadn’t ruled him out totally. I apologise to you boys for that.
“I wanted them to not know he would be in until they saw the team sheet.
"We wanted to see if Sam reacted today. He was keen to give it a go.
“He was a fit but we got him off after 50-odd minutes so we didn’t put it more at risk for Sunday.”
