Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fan view: Disjointed and barren Aberdeen are in a scrap for third – and they’re the only challengers trending downwards

Aberdeen skipper Joe Lewis spills Julien Serrano's cross into his own net.
Aberdeen skipper Joe Lewis spills Julien Serrano's cross into his own net.

Typical. You fix the floorboards, then the roof springs a leak.

The frantic activity in the final days of the transfer window, with the result that all five of the centre forwards who were on the Dons’ books at the start of October were gone, represented a forceful throw of the dice, and constituted obvious acknowledgement by Derek McInnes that his attacking plan had become a hindrance in a defence-led press for Europe.

So to be two behind, courtesy of horrid defensive mistakes, before any of the new strikers had taken so much as a shot at goal, was as hard to swallow as it was to explain.

It is a source of some frustration that, having toiled estimably but fruitlessly in the shadow of some unarguably excellent Celtic sides, Aberdeen have become a disjointed and barren lot at just the moment where a run of half-decent results would have seen them right on top of a suddenly and extraordinarily feeble Parkhead outfit. After seven years of chapping at the door without reply, McInnes has left the step just as Neil Lennon threw it wide open.

Worse still, the Dons’ continuing sterility has seen them finally succeed not only in the long-threatened ceding of third place to Hibs, but also in dragging Livingston back into the Europa League race.

All three clubs will be keenly aware of the importance of a top-three finish, but only one is trending diametrically away from it.

With as few as twelve games to come, McInnes’ new recruits may well have fleeting Pittodrie careers, but they will need to make a major impact if the Dons’ podium ambition is to live much longer.

The manager has pushed in all his chips on three of a kind: he needs to generate a return or he will be out of credit.