Defender Nicky Devlin was player who spoke to the media ahead of the cinch Premiership fixture away to Motherwell.
“On Thursday everyone was still extremely disappointed. We are the same as everyone else who was at the game or connected to the club. Today though, the training was good, the boys were all upbeat today, but we have said enough times this season that training was good and the boys looked good going into games and then not produced.
“Tomorrow we need to start fast. We did not do that on Wednesday night and then we found it difficult to get up the pitch and create anything. The start of the game will be important, but we also need to finish the game strongly – we need to play well for 90 minutes.
“The last game at Motherwell, in the league especially, it was one of the only complete performances we have put in. We know we can go down there and win, we have shown that we are capable of doing it. We have to try and produce a similar performance and hopefully that will be enough to get us three points.
“We know how difficult it will be. Motherwell have been on a decent run. The game at Pittodrie recently they raced into a 3.0 lead so we know they can score goals. They have scored five against us in the two games we have played. They have got threats all over the park but if we can all perform, something we have not done often enough this season, and turn up and produce a team performance then we will feel we can win the game.
“When you play for Aberdeen there will always be a demands, no matter where you are in the league. The supporters demand that you go and win games of football. Unfortunately we have no done that often enough this year. When you get to this stage of the season, the points become that little bit more valuable, that little bit more important.
“Teams that are down the bottom of the table, and used to being there, that is when their season comes alive, this is when their season kicks into gear. We have to be able to match that and then rise above it.
“We have to get enough points to get away from the position that we are in. It won’t be easy because all the games we have got are against teams who are fighting for something. None of teams we play before the split are in the situation where they have nothing to play for. We just need to make sure we pick up points.
“We still have nine league games to play and 27 points to play for and we have to try and pick up as many of them as we can.
“There is not an explanation for the inconsistency unfortunately.
“It is a frustration for us as players and I am sure it is for the fans, we have shown we can perform in games this season. We have just not done it enough. That consistency has not been there all season. We produce a good performance one week, and the following game we don’t. We produced a good performance against Kilmarnock in the cup but were not then able to go and do it again against Dundee on the Wednesday. That is down to the players. No one else can do that for us. That is something we have to figure out and make sure we change it before the end of the season.
“We are the only ones you can change it.
“It is a position a lot of the boys have not been in before. especially at a club like this. The only way you can answer it by going out and proving it. There is no point in saying we have good characters, saying we have boys who can get us out of the position we are in if you don’t go and do it. It is down to us as players to go and show that.
“Our character has been questioned for obvious reasons, we have not won enough games of football. We have lost too many games. There is obviously a reason why people question you. You get praise when you are doing well and when you are not doing well you get criticism. The players are the only ones who can show what character they have.
“There is no point is keep talking about it. We need to show that we can fight and are ready to get the club out of the position it finds itself in.”
