Stephen Robinson pointed to an improved second half display as the blueprint for how Aberdeen can dig themselves out of trouble this season.

“The positive I can take out of it was the second half performance was much better improved compared to the first half. The first half performance wasn't good enough. What I've seen on the training pitch during the week with the boys who started wasn't what I've seen in the game.

“We made the changes, we got a reaction. I'm certainly not saying it was a performance that I want my Aberdeen teams to look like going forward, but it was an improved reaction because we had more physicality in the front areas. We played positively and we put balls in the box, and we had three or four chances we should score from, which changes the game.

“But if you don't score, you can't concede from set plays and we've conceded from two set plays today, one from a second phase where we don't clear properly and one where we change markers. That's been our Achilles heel all season. No matter how bad the performance was in the first half, you go in at 0-0, you make the changes then you're still in the game.

“It's something we have to rectify very, very quickly. It's something that's affected Aberdeen all season. I can't change personnel at this moment in time, so you look at different things, you look at ways of fixing it. We can't just accept that will continue to happen. We work on it every day and we have to have an improvement to it.

“I repeat, no matter how poor we were in the first half, if you go in at 0-0, you're in the game. At 1-0 down we were the better team, we were on top of the game, we were creating chances, but you go 2-0 down and the game's dead. That's something we have to constantly work on for the next six games.

“There's size and there's plenty of physicality there, but you can be the biggest team in the world, but you have to go and want to win and head the ball. You have to have the desire to go and win it. Players have to do their job. It's my job to make sure they know that. I have to take my responsibility in that as well. It's something we have to change in the next six games if we're to get out of this position.

“I'm amongst this now as well. It's about all of us, we're all under pressure. I'm under pressure, the players are under pressure, the staff are under pressure. It's about who will stand up and be counted. Again, you've got to have a glimmer of hope. What I've seen in the second half was boys that will stand up and be counted at this football club, and they're the boys that we will rely on for the next six games.

“I've been in this situation before. I inherited the St. Mirren job three points off the bottom. I inherited the Motherwell job when they were bottom, so I've been in this situation many times, so I know how to deal with it.I'm under as much pressure as the players and I'll be fighting with them and helping them as much as I possibly can.

“I certainly don't think any club is ‘too good to go down’. I do feel that there's been a lot of negativity. People are waiting for the players to fail at Aberdeen. People say because it's a big football club, it shouldn't be down there. But we are, we have to deal with that situation, and we have to realise. And they do, the players realise, believe me.

“People think the players don't care about the situation that we're in, but they do. As I say, I have a bit of hope after what I've seen in the second half. Again, I reiterate, it's not the kind of performance that I want going forward as Aberdeen manager, but it certainly was an improvement, there was energy and people running behind and creating chances. That's what we have to do in the next six games.”