The Aberdeen squad were taken in and told "some home truths", caretaker manager Peter Leven has revealed.

Leven, 40, is the latest man tasked with the unenviable job at Pittodrie this season. The Dons are languishing three points away from the relegation play-off spot following Wednesday's 1-0 away loss against Dundee and alarm bells are ringing across the Granite City.

Aberdeen are without a permanent boss and are amidst a dreadful 11-game winless run in the Scottish Premiership. Leven admits the recent form has been damaging for their confidence but backed his team to show the fight required to avoid dropping out the league for the first time in their history.

He stated: "It wasn’t good enough (the Dundee game). We had a meeting the next day, there was some home truths. The players had a meeting themselves, they know what we expect and it’s a good chance to to bounce back.

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"I’ve said it before, you’ve seen it in bits this season but it’s not been enough that inconsistency. The cup form has been great, getting to the final and in Europe we did well. We need to transfer that into the league, again it comes down to consistency.

"First and foremost we’ve got to work hard, we’ve got to fight for every ball, compete for every ball and yes, hopefully a wee bit of the rub of the green goes with us. That’s the fundamentals of being at this club, you’ve got to work hard.

"I 100 per cent believe the players have got enough fight in them. We’ve got a great captain in Shinnie but as I said to them yesterday, and today, actions speak louder than words. There’s no point in telling us, you’ve got to go and do it. That’s not just the players and the staff, everybody get behind them and give it a right go.

"We spoke about that today (the previous victory at Fir Park last November), especially with Kilmarnock on Saturday, we scored early and it gives us confidence and hopefully we will look to do that again. It was a great performance against Motherwell back then. As you say, we lost two goals late on but the performance and scoring four goes away from home was good."

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Asked to provide further details of his crisis-struck team meeting, Leven confirmed his players know the seriousness of their current situation and once again underlined the need for strong characters on the pitch if they want to avoid plummeting further down the table. 

He said: "Show them their form, show them the league table, show them how we get better, show them the fans are hurting, we’re hurting. The players are hurting, we’re all hurting. 

"We can only change and it’s showing them the video, showing them what position we’re in and showing the qualities we have got in the dressing room. We’ve got quality players and they can do it. We’ve seen them do it this season. It’s just getting that consistency.

"They’ve got to prove to themselves and to the fans, how good they are. As I said we’ve seen it but to be honest, the boys have came in on Thursday and Friday and have trained well.

"As I said before, we have had good honest chats and what we expect for them. There might be a couple of changes, there might be a couple of tweaks but in the main they know what they want and they know what I want from them.

"Of course it is (a test of character). It’s tough. It’s always going to be like that at a big club like Aberdeen. When we’re not in the position we should be but it is my job and the staff to build them up and give them that confidence and show how good they are. We need that fight and that character.

"The fans pay their hard earned cash to come and watch us. They travel all over. A lot of them won’t get back until late at night after the game and then they are up for work the next morning. They are paying their cash, they expect better and the players know that."