THE storm clouds hung in the air and the mood darkened around Aberdeen. Without a win in the league since the football returned from its winter break and now out of the top-six, it could already be time to file this season away in one of the history books at the back of the cupboard.
These are tough times for Stephen Glass and the Dons. That’s certainly how the away fans were seeing it on Saturday and they wasted little time in venting their fury during the 2-1 loss at Livingston.
Chants of Glass “getting sacked in the morning” and being told to by his own supporters to “get to f***” couldn’t be missed, despite a helter-skelter contest on the park that gave us three goals, 13 yellow cards and a late red for Cristian Montano.
It could all have been so very different had a late flurry earned Aberdeen a draw, with more thrown at Max Stryjek’s goal in the final five minutes than those Visigoths did the sacking of Rome. But they were left to rue an hour or so of “poor mentality”, as the manager put it, and Ross McCrorie agreed.
“The fans have every right to be frustrated with the result and the performance,” the defender said. “It’s not been the standard we expect at Aberdeen.
“At a club like this we should be up challenging at the top end of the table. We have Celtic coming midweek and then another big game on Saturday.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to stand up.”
When asked what was needed from the Aberdeen players when Celtic come calling on Wednesday, the former Rangers man was in no doubt.
“At times we are too nice,” McCrorie, 23, said. “As a team we need to be more of a team together. We are in the trenches now and need to battle more.
“We had a few words at the end of the game and know we are in a difficult position now. We stick together and we will get ourselves out of it.
“There’s a frustration there. We are an experienced bunch and it’s time we start picking up the results to get us up the table.”
With only Edinburgh City of League Two having been put to the sword by Aberdeen in 2022, it was just a matter of time before they dropped out of the top-six. Saturday’s result was the nail in that particular coffin.
The Dons are now 15 points and three places worse off than this time last season, but McCrorie is sure they can turn things around and end this one closer to the league’s best.
“It’s not where we want to be,” he said of their current seventh-placed standing. “Come the end of the season we want to be up near the top end. There are still some games to play and we will take each as it comes.
“We have a big game on Wednesday and will pick ourselves up and go again.”
One man who won’t need picking up is Bruce Anderson, the diminutive Livingston forward who wreaked havoc against his former team on Saturday. A thorn in McCrorie and David Bates’ side from the off, he well and truly showed Aberdeen what they were missing.
The result took Livi to within a single point of the top-six and, crucially, opened up an impressive gap on the relegation places.
“We have to be looking up instead of down,” said Anderson. “We are all buzzing in the dressing room so we need to be thinking that we can go and catch some of the teams above us. It feels massive.
“We will take huge confidence from it. The manager won't let us get too far ahead of ourselves. We just need to keep trying to get the three points and see what happens at the end of the season.”
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