Aberdeen forward Adam Rooney has challenged his team-mates to play so well that poor refereeing decisions become irrelevant.
The Dons players were aggrieved by a number of referee Willie Collum’s decisions during Monday’s 3-1 Premiership defeat at Caley Thistle.
Derek McInnes’ side will try to bounce back from defeat when they head to Glasgow this evening to take on Partick Thistle.
Rooney, who has scored 56 goals for the Dons and will make his 100th appearance for the club tonight, believes bad decisions even themselves out over a season.
The Dons forward profited from a refereeing blunder on Aberdeen’s last visit to Firhill when official Stephen Finnie failed to spot the ball had struck the Irishman’s arm as he netted in a 2-0 win in August.
He said: “We don’t pay attention to who the referee is before a game.
“We have to make sure we get ourselves into a position in a match where decisions don’t matter.
“We’ve got to take things into our own hands.
“Decisions went against us on Monday but that happens over a season and we’ve probably had ones in our favour this year.
“The last time we went to Partick I got a lucky one with a handball, so they equal themselves out.
“Sometimes they go for us, sometimes they go against – that’s football.
“It’s frustrating at the time when it goes the other way, but we can’t dwell on them and just have to get on with things.
“We have looked at our own performance as well, we had time to get back into the game against Inverness but didn’t do that.
“So we have to learn from that. We are going to Thistle focused on our own performance and not thinking about anything else.
“Referees have a difficult job as they are under pressure to make decisions.”
Monday’s 3-1 defeat was Aberdeen’s first loss in 13 matches but Rooney claimed morale in the squad remains positive as they try to cut the gap on leaders Celtic this evening.
He added: “When we win a game everyone says we’re going to win the league and when we lose one people start calling us brutal.
“So we don’t pay much attention to what’s being said, we just focus on ourselves.
“We have 12 games to go and we want to get as many points as we can.
“There are plenty still to be gained, so we’ll see where we finish.
“The mood about the place is great, we had a blip on Monday but we had been on a good run and were 12 games unbeaten.
“We just want to get back on track now.”
The Dons will be without Jonny Hayes for this evening’s match after the midfielder injured his hamstring in Monday’s defeat at Inverness.
Hayes, who had only recently recovered after requiring 18 stitches after being bitten on his hand by a dog, has been one of the most creative players this season.
Rooney added: “Jonny has been excellent this season and has been one of the best players in the league.
“He’s been through the wars recently, after getting bitten by the dog as well.
“The players had a good laugh about that one, it was one of the strangest ones I’ve heard.
“There was one a few years ago with the Spanish goalkeeper Santiago Canizares broke his foot after dropping a bottle of aftershave on it – and there have been others.
“But Jonny’s is right up there as well, he’s some lad and we never know what we’re getting from him.
“Losing him to injury is a blow, but we have to just get on with it, it’s a chance for other players to step in and do a job.
“We have seen in the last few weeks as Cammy Smith and Peter Pawlett have come in and done really well.
“So it’s an opportunity for someone to step in and stake a claim.”