Boss Derek McInnes called for calm at Aberdeen following damaging back-to-back defeats in Glasgow.
The Dons were lacklustre in their 3-0 defeat to Celtic in the Betfred Cup final at Hampden, and while their performance improved against Rangers in the Ladbrokes Premiership on Saturday, they left with a 2-1 defeat which leaves them five points behind the Ibrox club who moved into second place.
But the Granite City club have two games in hand over Rangers, the first of which is against Kilmarnock at Pittodrie on Tuesday night.
And although McInnes acknowledged the disappointment among the Red Army, he believes it is time for cool heads.
He said: "It's been a tough week but it's important we all stay calm. It's two defeats in Glasgow to Celtic and Rangers and we're back now at home.
"We've not been back at home since October so it's good to get back to Pittodrie.
"We've now got three home games, which we want to try to maximise.
"If we can win all three home games, and there are no guarantees, then we'll go back to second in the league.
"We know exactly what the team is capable of and hopefully we can show that starting with tomorrow night.
"Only Celtic have beaten us here this year and we want to continue our strong home form."
After the Killie game, Aberdeen welcome St Johnstone and then Motherwell before facing Ross County in Dingwall with a trip to Fir Park also scheduled before Christmas.
A home game against Hamilton and a trip to Tynecastle to face Hearts completes the Dons' fixture list before the winter break.
McInnes insists there is no need for despondency in the Granite City but stressed the need for unity.
He said: "There are still a lot of good things going on here, I know people are disappointed.
"I think the fans have had a tough nine days or so and I get that and feel for them.
"But it is important that we all stick together and get some wins on the board and come out of December in good shape.
"I like home games under the lights and hopefully we can take advantage of that.
"We're used to winning at home, we enjoy playing at home, none more so than midweek games. It's a busy spell for all teams but especially for ourselves."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article