Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove insists he and his team-mates are not feeling the pressure of playing at Pittodrie.
The Dons have gone five league matches without a win at home and have won just once in front of their home support in 2019 when they beat Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup.
The form at Pittodrie is in stark contrast the away record with Aberdeen having won all of their last seven games on the road.
A shock 2-0 home defeat to Hamilton Accies extended the poor home run and with the Dons due to host Rangers in the cup quarter-final on Sunday Cosgrove knows his side must respond.
Cosgrove said: “There’s not a burden. The boys are aware of it. It’s something that we can’t put our fingers on. We don’t know what’s going on.
“We come to the home games in the same mindset as away games. Whether it’s just pure coincidence or whatever, we don’t know.
“If we want to be where we want to be where we want to come the end of the season, games like Hamilton are the games we’ve got to win at home. We’ve definitely got to sort our home form out.”
The alarming drop-off in home form could not have come at a worse time ahead of a crucial game for the Reds.
Victory this weekend will give them another trip to Hampden and one game away from a second cup final this season. Defeat will leave the Dons with only the league to focus on and ensuring they secure European football for next season.
Cosgrove said: “It’s a massive game on Sunday. I’m sure there won’t be any problem getting us up for that. It doesn’t need any more motivation.
“Rangers are a good side and it’s always a great game but we’ve shown we are up to the task against them this season.
“The fans are frustrated but I’m sure they will be there on Sunday and right behind us.
It is always a competitive and feisty game but we’ve shown we have the quality to score against them but we have to be wary of their threat. They’ve come up here and scored four and are scoring a lot of goals against them so we will have to be ready for them.
“We can take a lot of confidence from our performances and results against them. The game doesn’t need any extra motivation. We’ll be up for it.
“This game is the first thing we need after a bad result. We want to go and make it right and if we get a win against Rangers, which we are more than capable of doing, the season will be turned right on its head again.
“After a bad result I’m sure everything would be forgotten if we win so that’s our main aim now; to go out, get a good result and get through to the next round of the cup.”