After the game at Tannadice, Jimmy Thelin had this to say about the incident that left Jack MacKenzie injured.

“First of all, what happened to Jack is totally unacceptable. It’s actually a bad injury, but he is ok. What can I say? It’s really, really bad. I haven’t seen the facts of what exactly happened, but it doesn’t matter. Our player got hurt. Bad. He’s had treatment already. The medical team has done really well.

“Of course, you feel a bit of a shock when this happens. You’re a football player in a football game and you get hit like that. We need to just take care of the player now and take it from there. We need to find out the full facts.”

Turning to the game, he set the result in the context of the season.

“I think that the game, in one way, summarises a bit the season we have played. Dundee United didn’t have to do enough to win this game. We played and started the game really well. We created chances and controlled the situation.

“Then, we didn’t manage some moments well enough. That has been the inconsistency during the whole season. Sometimes we drop too deep. Sometimes it’s just 10 minutes, but it’s two goals. It’s happened before. We have tried to find a solution during the season. We haven’t done it. We have identified things we have to change for the next season. We have to work really hard in the summer to try to work with this thing we have identified to be a much stronger team next season.

“Right now, there is a lot of disappointment everywhere. If you are an Aberdeen supporter or someone who works in Aberdeen football club. But sometimes, my job is also to think positively about the future. There are also a lot of good things. We have progressed from the last season. We are in Europe again.

“But when it’s tough, you have to think about the future in an optimistic way and try to achieve better things. I’m 100% sure we’re going to do that. But right now, in this moment, it’s my job also to think about the energy we put in for the future and try to be better next season.

“It’s not only about defending the box. It’s more about how you manage the situation inside the pitch as a team. And if something bad happens, you get a goal against you, how you control the situation after that, and don’t let the game slip away and take too much time to come back into the game again.

“I’m the manager of this club and it’s my job to try to help the players. I think I also have to say that from June last year, they have pushed a lot. They have tried a lot. They’re working really hard about their mindset and trying to get better. That’s good. But we have to just do more.

“We must remember we’re coming into this from a really tough season last year. We had to put us first back in the top six and then try to be as high as possible for the European qualification. It’s progress, but still, we have more to do. Everybody can see that. We know it.

“We have to be more brave in the future. Sometimes we think too much about the past and then it repeats itself. We can talk too much about what’s happened before, so it’s just repeating itself. We have to try to find a way now to break this circle and look more optimistically to the future. That’s important in football, how you cope with setbacks, how you cope with a tough moment, how you prepare yourself.

“And all this is not only mentality. It’s a lot of things. It can be the balance how we play, it can be the balance inside the squad, how we put the team together. And we try to get better in every part. It’s a lot of things, but the progress has been there. But this year, we didn’t deserve more than a fifth position because of inconsistency.

“Next week at Hampden is a huge game. I know everybody is really, really disappointed right now. But I think when we started this season, we could play a maximum 51 or 52 games in front of us. We missed playing one final, that’s all, we have played virtually every game available to play. We have been involved in a lot of games this season.

“We have reached the Scottish Cup final, only two teams do that. It doesn’t happen every year. I can’t see that anyone will have a problem to get the spirit or the bravery to play this game, because we know what people think what is going to happen. We can’t be afraid of this game. We have to be brave and we have to do it much better as a team to give us a chance to win the game. We know what everyone is expecting, so we have everything to gain.”