Peter Leven was forthright in his assessment of Aberdeen’s performance at Dens Park.

“We weren’t good enough. First half we were really poor. We started better in the second half but the goal killed us. We started poorly, dropping too deep, we never got near anybody, Main was causing us problems by holding the ball up, we never passed the ball, it was just a poor performance.

“I can understand why the fans were upset and I can only apologise to them. They pay their hard earned cash to follow us all over Scotland, all over Europe, and that’s not good enough for them.

“The players have to realise we’re in trouble. We have to find a win, we’re running out of games, we’ve got to start pickling up points. We could blame VAR, the penalty looked harsh, but the truth is, we weren’t good enough. People have to stand up and be counted now.

“We have to get to work tomorrow, pick ourselves up and go again at Motherwell on Saturday. It’s about desire now, playing for the badge, playing for the fans. I’ve said that to them, we never picked up second balls, we never tested them. We have to be better than this.”