Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin apologised to the travelling fans after his side were beaten at Falkirk, saying the Dons need to give more to every game. 

“What is football about? Football is a fantastic sport because you have different ways of playing the game, you have different ways of tactics but the foundation is always the desire and competitive side of the game.

“You can play good or bad, you can lose sometimes, but the fans have to feel that you have given everything, that you give so much that you almost can’t walk off the pitch. Right now, the opponents are outfighting us down in some moments and that’s hurting us a lot when you lose a game that way. 

“I’m talking about playing for something that’s bigger than yourself, it’s a big club, it’s your teammates, it’s your fans. You have to have that mentality, you’re going to run a little bit more, you’re going to sacrifice yourself more, and these kind of things we have to do better. We have to show a different side of ourselves.

“The thing we talked about after the game is that we have some games in a row now where we have too much ego on the pitch. We have to play more for each other and for our club. Sometimes football is strategy, tactics and technique and these kind of things, but I think the last couple of games we have lost because the opponents have more desire in critical moments of the game.

“You see some decisions from the referee go against us and we stop playing but the game is still on. These kind of small situations is the difference in the games right now for us and that’s only about us, it’s not about someone else. 

“Me as a manager and my staff, of course we need to work on this, but also the players sometimes have to look in the mirror. They have to do more in a 50-50 or when it is a second ball situation, when we have to sacrifice to get that goal or defending that goal. The opponents right now are better than we are and that’s why we are not winning or scoring. 

“We changed the system, it’s my responsibility, the first half is not good enough, they outrun us totally and we were wrong in our positions. The second half was not so bad, Topi had some really good crosses but they were first on every ball. That cannot happen.

“The Hibs game was similar and even the game before that, so after a quite good run, now we are back to where we were, the same behaviour is coming back, these bad behaviours and we have to stop doing this. 

“We have a journey to do now to lower our own ego and fight for each other and fight for the club and that has to change really quick because we have a really important week in front of us right now.”