Barry Robson was left proud of the effort put in by his players against St Mirren tonight, but pointed to Ross McCrorie’s seventh minute red card as the game’s pivotal moment.

“I haven’t seen the red card back, so I won’t comment on that, but at the time it happened, I just presumed it was a free-kick for us, because of the way their player came across to block Ross as he went past him.

“So we’re six minutes gone and we’ve lost our quickest defender, the one with most experience of playing at this club. He’s out of the team, you’ve got to play with ten men, having lost the game plan we’ve worked on for the last two days. With all of that, after that, I thought we were outstanding, especially for the next 70, 75 minutes. In general we defended brilliantly given that we lost Ross so early and Angus and Mattie have only had a couple of days up here.

“I would have loved to have seen a proper 11 v 11 game because I think it would have been a good game of football. I thought we started brightly, the crowd was with us, we were energetic, the new faces brought a bit of freshness to us, but obviously the red card changes the game before you’ve really started.

“We had a lot of set pieces to deal with tonight and that is hard work when you’ve got 11 men on the pitch. That’s St Mirren’s game and credit to them, they put balls in the box and they ask you a question. We defended a lot of them very well tonight, but not the one for the first goal. We should have set up for a corner not a free-kick, but it’s hard to get that information on sometimes.

“But having gone behind, we responded the right way. The boys have had a rough couple of weeks. Their fault, we’re not getting away from that, but when you’re down and everybody is on top of you, then to have a man sent off and to come out and perform like that is outstanding.

“I’m not happy that we lost the game, but from where that team has been, to have the character to come back to equalise, I was proud of that. That spirit, and the way they fought, is what I expect from Aberdeen. There are obviously things we have to do better, but that commitment is what we need every game. I’ve got to be pleased with the way they performed, but still frustrated that we were beaten.”

Angus MacDonald and Mattie Pollock were installed in central defence with Liam Scales and Anthony Stewart having left the club on loan, a decision that Robson explained.

“My decision was that I didn’t think that Anthony would feature for us and at his age, I know I wouldn’t want to sit on the bench. He’s a really good guy and he’s got qualities that he can add to another team. That opportunity came up and I believe it was the right thing to do for him and for the club. I’m here to make those decisions at the moment and I won’t shy away from that.”