Manager Stephen Robinson spoke to the media at Cormack Park on Friday morning as he previewed Saturday's clash with Hibs.

RedTV subscribers can watch both the pre-match press conference's online now.

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"We received some bad news on Mats (Knoester). He is going to be out for a minimum of 10 weeks. The same with Emmanuel (Gyamfi) after he got a scan.

"They're two big blows to us when they were just coming back and Mats was finding really good form.

"Good news on Brad Lyons. He took a bad knock which looked bad, but actually didn't transpire into anything serious. He'll train today, so he'll be fine for tomorrow.

"They (Mats & Emmanuel) just can't seem to get a run of games, unfortunately. I feel for them mentally as well. It's so, so tough when you're just back.

"Emmanuel had an injury previously before he came to the club, a thigh injury, and it's gone again, unfortunately. So it's just constant muscle injuries with him. Mats is a tendon injury, which is a big blow for us.

"The illness side of things hasn't cleared, Ayoub Mouloua won't be available. He's picked up the bug now as well, so he probably won't have any involvement on Saturday. We were hoping he'd be in today, but he's still not better from it. So at the minute, he's the only new casualty, and we hope that's the end of it, the last of it, fingers crossed.

"Dan (Happe) is good. He's trained the last two days. Obviously, he had the virus and couldn't play on Saturday. We have Toyosi (Olusanya) available again as well. He wasn't available on Saturday.

"Some positives within that as well, and it is what it is. We just have to deal with it."

Players taking their chance

"People don't want to hear excuses. The facts are on the table in terms of injuries. We want to go and put a performance on. We want to go and win the game. We know we need to.

"Nobody really cares about what's going on in the background. It's about putting the best team out that we have available, and they're going to try and win the game.

"I've not had injuries in one position, probably as many times as this. You can sometimes have them spread out.

"They're all different injuries, not even injuries that can be prevented from training. Sometimes you look and study your training and ask if that's what's actually bringing injuries on, but it's not. It's previous injuries and people being reinjured with the same things again. It's testing in terms of the injury front.

"But I keep saying somebody else gets an opportunity. I thought Jack Milne was outstanding last week. He's still a boy in the early stages of his career. He's only had one full season in the game as a centre-half."

Saturday night at Pittodrie

"It's a big game. We need to win. As I've said previously, every game you go into as Aberdeen manager, you need to win.

"I believe that, to give us a little bit of breathing space and let us get into the international window to reset ourselves, and hopefully maybe get Chris Cadden back and a couple of others closer to fitness, we need to win the game.

"Every game with Aberdeen, you need to win. There's no excuses. You're expected to win, especially home games. That comes with the territory.

"I think it's a game we have to win. We have to try and take the game to them, and we'll pick as positive a team as we possibly can.

"You can't get away from the fact that we've not won as many games as we should have. There were aspects of the two home games that we felt we should have won and expected to win. So they were two massive disappointments for us.

"But you have to react to that, and we look at the things we can improve, and we're constantly working on them all the time.

"We've got a group of boys I love working with. They love playing for Aberdeen, and the support we got on Saturday and the atmosphere was incredible. We're desperate to get a run of form and give the fans the success that they deserve."

Improving our attacking play

"I thought we were really good defensively (on Saturday at Hampden), really well organised and disciplined, as you need to be in every game.

"But we need to start putting our opportunities away. We've got into some very good positions, and that's what you're constantly working on.

"Sometimes it needs to go in off somebody's backside or something just to give you a little bit of luck, and hopefully that'll start changing soon."

The challenge of Hibs

"I've always looked at Hibs as a team with an excellent squad. I think they've got a really good group of players.

"It's surprising to see them struggling in the early stages of this season, but we have to be at the top of our game, as we do every week, to beat them.

"They've got some very, very good players. They've also had a good result against their rivals on Sunday in the semi-final, so they'll come here on a high. It's up to us to meet that and go and produce. We know what we need to do. We're not hiding away from the fact that we need to win the game."

"I'm not hiding away from the fact that we need better results. There are good points. Not everything is disastrous. Football is unlike any other business. It's judged by one thing and one thing only. A lot of good things have happened, and we now need to try and get an end product to that."