Stephen Robinson called on his side to have greater belief in themselves after being beaten 3-0 at Celtic Park.
“We got beaten by a ruthless side, we made mistakes and we were punished for them. We didn’t have the belief in the first half, and if you don’t have that, if you don’t get ownership of the game, it’s difficult to get out.
“I was disappointed at half-time because I see how good these boys can be on the training pitch. It’s getting them to do that in games, be brave on the pitch the way you have to be at Aberdeen. We did it better in the second half, but it was too late then.
“At 2-0, we hit the bar, they go up the other end, we make a mistake, they score from it and the game is over. To an extent we got a response second half, they showed they can pass the ball under pressure, that they are good players, and we have to take that positive. Our season won’t be defined by getting beaten here. I’m hugely disappointed of course, because we are better than what we’ve shown.
“I see some of the stuff that we've done, pressing really aggressively in the second half, we've played out and played through them at times, but that has to be done when it’s 0-0. We have to have that belief. It's a tough place to come. We’ve got tested very early with three really hard fixtures. We haven't quite stepped up to that yet but I have full belief in the group of boys.
“The fixture list hasn’t been kind to us, we’ve had no settling in period with a new team, after we’ve had a heck of a turnaround. You can’t get instant success from that, it has to be a work in progress, there will be bumps in the road. Winning games, that's how you get belief. It's up to me to give them the belief to keep doing that, to keep believing in what we're doing.
“As I say, there's a transition period for a lot of boys who come from abroad. They adjust to Scottish football and it's up to me to try and encourage them and see them through that, take the criticism that we'll rightly get after the defeat. I'll take the brunt of that and try and take that off the players.”
The manager also revealed that the team suffered a late injury that changed the approach to the game.
“Dan Happe was injured at the last minute yesterday, the last kick in training, which probably forced me to change what we were doing completely, because I didn't feel that Mats Knoester was ready to start in a back four after being out so long. We got a bit of protection around the sides of him, but I don't think it was the system that caused the problem. We made individual errors for two, if not three goals, and we got punished for it.”
