There were no excuses from Jim Goodwin as he analysed the 3-2 defeat at home to Motherwell.

“We can’t have too many days like today, that’s for sure. We were really poor on the day. When you have performances like that, you can only hold your hands up and say the better team won. We started extremely sloppily in terms of possession, cheap turnovers, passing the ball out of the pitch at times without being under any real pressure. That gave Motherwell a lift and they fed off it.

“We knew they’d sit off and try and hit us on the break, which they did on a number of occasions. We deserved to go behind, they were the better team at that point, but it was an avoidable goal for us, the distances between the full-back and the opposite centre-half were far too big.

“We got back into the game with a well worked goal, a great ball in from Scales and a great header from Miovski and we were very lucky to come in level at half-time.

“We were looking for better in the second half, and couldn’t have got off to a better start. But the same issues we’d had in the first half crept back in and we got the result we deserved. There’s been a lot of plaudits of late, collectively and individually but we’ll have to take the criticism that comes our way from this one.

“Today, we weren’t at it. Too many players with below par performances, simple as that. You can carry one or two in any given game and still get a result, but there were too many of us that were below par, myself included. It’s not a time for pushing a panic button, but we have to analyse it properly and make sure that we don’t repeat the mistakes we made today in the games coming up.”

Motherwell produced a very professional second half display in particular, running down the clock to the annoyance of the fans at Pittodrie. But Goodwin accepts that their approach was only to be expected in the situation.

“We’d all do the same as Motherwell if you’re winning with not long left on the clock. You do what you have to do to get the result. They didn’t win because of time wasting, I thought their game plan was excellent, Stevie Hammell’s approach was spot on and that was a bit of a reality check for us. We’ve had it all our own way at home so far this season but when it’s a game like this, we have to find a way to break the opposition down.

“Most teams will come here and be compact, try to deny us space and hit on the break. We made too many mistakes, we didn’t move the ball quick enough, we played into their hands and we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

There were too more injuries to contend with too, with Matty Kennedy and Leighton Clarkson both coming off.

“We’ve not carried a lot of luck in terms of injuries, Barron and MacKenzie picked up serious injuries in pre-season, last weekend Callum Roberts picked up a serious one and looks like he’ll be out for ten weeks, then today we’ve picked up a couple more. I don’t know what the prognosis is on Kennedy and Clarkson as yet, but I’m hopeful it’s nothing too serious.”