Stuart Armstrong spoke to the media on Friday morning ahead of Saturday's game against Kilmarnock in the Premier Sports Cup.
RedTV subscribers can watch in full now.
One win from Hampden
"I think in football you’re only one win away from being a little bit happier. We've got a chance to get to Hampden tomorrow, and that’d be huge for the club. Obviously they had the success of a couple of years ago, so that would certainly make us as a group happier, and the fans."
Role within the team
"I think rhythm is always good in football, and then of course you build relationships with the people around you. It’s still very early on in the season, so we’re still working out what’s best. "For me personally, I’m happy to contribute where I’m asked, be that starting or off the bench."
Rugby Park
"I’ve saw a couple of clips of the pitch. It looks really nice. I’m old enough to have played on grass before they put the astro down, and yeah, it should be nice. "I never enjoyed playing on that astroturf. I thought it was horrific. So, yeah, no excuses for us. We certainly need to up our game. We’re all aware of that, so it’s a good test for us."
Remaining balanced
"I think you have to take note of it (fan reaction). Certainly after the game, we could obviously feel the discontent from the fans, but also from us as players. We know we can perform a lot better than that, and we’re here to win football matches. "So when you don’t, it’s always disappointing for us and everyone else around. But experience has taught me that you can’t dwell on disappointments too much. It’s such a fast game, you need to sort of ride in that medium section. Never too high, never too low.
"It’s sometimes difficult. Of course it is. Sometimes you want to enjoy the really good times, but you need to sort of be level-headed when things are good and things are bad.
"I think pressure’s there all the time in football, to win, to perform. So that’s nothing new.
"I think what it is, it’s a good opportunity for us to produce performances, get results and get everyone certainly around the club feeling positive again."
Working hard
"But within the group, we’ve been working on a few things this week to try and regain that positivity. And the frustrating thing for us is we see the quality and we see the good things. We just need to put that onto the pitch for everyone to see.
"Obviously, we did really well in the cup and then beat Hearts first game of the season.
"Disappointed with our Dundee away game, of course. That was not a great one. And then we bounced back in the cup, then a tough couple of fixtures.
"So I think we’re not a million miles away. We see that as a group. It might appear differently on the outside, but I think the positive thing for us is that we’re not scratching our heads to think why things are not going our way.
"I think we just need to address those things, and hopefully, as more games come, the better we get at doing them.
"I think there’s a genuine belief here that, as I said before, we see it in training. We’ve shown glimpses of that in games. It’s just having that consistent approach to perform and take our chances."
The Red Army
"It's a tricky cup tie. The support means a lot to us. Aberdeen fans always travel in numbers, always very vocal, always very loud, always very supportive. "And for us as a group, our ambition is to make them happy. And if they’re happy, it means we’ve won. "A good performance, a win and entry into Hampden would be the ideal weekend for us."
