In the build-up to this Premier Sports Cup semi-final, Aberdeen captain Kevin Nisbet spoke about the players needing to step up and deliver.

On a woeful run of form as they arrived at Hampden, and with huge pressure mounting on Stephen Robinson, Nisbet insisted the players owed the manager a performance and a result.

Just to take the heat off as much as anything else. With 76 minutes on the clock in this tense and cagey affair with Rangers, Nisbet had a golden opportunity.

With the score locked at 0-0, Stuart Armstrong fed a pass into Nisbet’s path and the ball was crying out to be struck first time.

Nisbet could probably see the whites of Ivor Pandur’s eyes. In the context of the game, it was as good a chance as Aberdeen could have hoped for.

But his finish was absolutely awful. Nisbet hesitated when he should have pulled the trigger straight away, allowing Olwethu Makhanya to make a block.

On such moments are cup semi-finals won and lost. Just seven minutes later, at the other end of the pitch, Ryan Naderi prodded home from close range to send Rangers through to the final.

Nisbet will surely be haunted by his miss. He has scored 13 goals this season. For all Aberdeen’s struggles, some have even touted him for a Scotland recall.

But he is not up to scratch at the top level. In some respects, he finds himself in the same boat as Lawrence Shankland.

Any time Shankland has been given an opportunity with Scotland, he hasn’t really taken it. Particularly in the World Cup in the summer.

Nisbet is a decent enough striker at Scottish Professional Football League level. But in the big moments in big games, he’s not good enough.

It was a chance he had to take. In the end, Aberdeen were left to rue what might have been as Rangers, who were poor for much of the game, edged through to the final.

All in all, this is a defeat which just piles more pressure on Stephen Robinson. His team did not play poorly but they did not win.

There is no sense in trotting out excuses about being competitive and unlucky. Aberdeen were not unlucky.

They had a glorious chance to go in front late in the game and their captain wasted it. That is not misfortune. It is profligacy.

Robinson and his players now face a huge game against Hibs at Pittodrie next Saturday.

With the international break just around the corner, a time when clubs invariably change manager once the rot has set in, it could well be last-chance saloon for Robinson.