Jimmy Thelin was clear that his Aberdeen side have a summer of hard work ahead of them if they are to close the gap on a Celtic side that inflicted a 5-1 defeat on them at Pittodrie.

“Myself and the staff and the players, we talk about it in the dressing room, and of course it’s not acceptable. Even if Celtic is a really strong team, to get five goals against us at home, in front of our fans is something we cannot accept again in the future. It’s not only the back line, it’s how we work together as a team, how we defend together. It’s my responsibility to push this through now in the last games.

“We have to think now of what we can do together to do better next time we play against Celtic in two weeks. Celtic is a good team and when they arrived in the last third, to our box, they are really sharp. In the next game we have to deny them these situations. We have to believe we can find a situation in the final.

“But first of all, we have to put our focus now to the next game against Dundee United. We have reached Europe this season and we have to focus on the last league game, and try to get the right result that we finish fourth to put us in a better position for Europe. We have pushed hard this season and we’ve done a lot of good things, so we must finish fourth, which gives us something for our work.

“Dundee United is still a strong opponent, but it’s a different kind of game that we need to manage in a different way and believe in ourselves. And then we’ll have one week to recover and put all that energy into the final and try to find a way to give us an opportunity to perform and get a good result in the final.

“Then in the summer, we have a journey to do to close the gap to the other teams and that’s what we have to focus on in the summer and work really hard. When you train as a team, as an individual player, you grow and you get better. That’s the only way because right now, Celtic are better. It’s obvious in the league, so we have to do better in the future.”