Neil Warnock told his Aberdeen players to “stop feeling sorry” for themselves as they prepared for the visit of St Johnstone on Wednesday night.
The Dons have yet to win a cinch Premiership game since the 75-year-old took over from Barry Robson at the start of the month and the 2-0 defeat by Kilmarnock at the weekend was a blow, following draws at home to Motherwell and Hibernian.
Warnock wants his players to have a “right go” against Craig Levein’s struggling Saints, who have lost their last four games and sit in 10th place, three points behind the Dons but having played a game more.
The Aberdeen manager said: “It’s an important game. I think we’ve got to get on the front foot now and stop feeling sorry for ourselves and have a right go and try and get the crowd behind us by doing what we do on the pitch and not waiting for the opposite way around.
“We’ve got to get more out of the players that we’ve got and I’ve got to find more out of the group myself.
“I read about how I’ve come up for a holiday – make no mistake I would have picked a warmer place if I wanted to go on holiday.
“I think it’s a challenge and I’ve always wanted a challenge. I’m going to be working my socks off now to find a formula that can get us a winning team.
“That’s what I’ve come up for, there’s no slacking off or anything. What we’ve been doing, we’ve just got to keep going.
“Yes, one or two things haven’t worked out. So I’ve got to look at alternatives if that’s the case.
“I was disappointed with both of the home games that we didn’t come out with all three points.
“I thought we played quite well at times in those games. I just think that on Saturday it was a bit of a knock back because we were never at the races really.
“They played better than us, they were more physical, they passed the ball better than us and they were better than us in every aspect.
“I have no problems with that but we move on now and like I say, if I have to change one or two things, I will.”
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