Aberdeen defender Mark Reynolds enjoyed the cheers and endured the jeers.
From the high of being applauded from the field after the Europa League campaign ended with defeat by Spanish club Real Sociedad, to the low of jeers following the opening-day 3-0 Scottish Premiership loss to Dundee United on Sunday, Reynolds will not allow the brickbats or bouquets to sway his performance.
Tonight’s game at Kilmarnock gives the Dons the chance to make amends for that opening-day demise but Reynolds will remain his own harshest critic.
The 27-year-old said: “I wasn’t really surprised by the crowd reaction on Sunday. The supporters pay their money and with the expectation they have that is always going to happen.
“It’s understandable. Football is a passionate game and emotions run high. As a player I just get on with it. That kind of thing has never really bothered me, what the supporters say.
“That’s no disrespect to supporters and saying I don’t care. They are the lifeblood of the game but I have always tried to analyse it and concentrate on my own game.
“If you start to get hung up on what people are saying or what is in the press you start picking apart your game and it can really get to you.
“It works both ways. Everyone was quick to praise the team and the atmosphere has been great.
“It’s the football we have played that has got supporters through the doors and is what they expect to see.
“Last season they didn’t see a side that was out-fought and that was not what they expected to see on Sunday, so I understand.
“It’s already out of the system. Sometimes you need a reality check and that was a slap on the face.
“It’s the kind of result that can happen if we don’t turn up. We are not a world-class team than can pick and choose the games and expect to keep clean sheets and win games.
“If we don’t give 100% and don’t out-work teams, then we will get beaten and that’s what happened on Sunday.
“It was a reminder we are far from the finished article.”
The Europa League campaign took Aberdeen from Latvia to Holland and on to Spain. Six matches which tested mental and physical strength before the Scottish Premiership campaign started but no excuse for Sunday, according to the defender, who said: “I don’t know if it was a hangover. These games can blindside you sometimes. Football is like that, you don’t know what is around the corner.
“To say it could’ve been expected was a cop out.
“Any time it happened last season it was because there wasn’t the effort or too many players were not on the top of their game.
“We can’t afford to carry four or five players and I can’t think of the last time we had a result like that.
“The goals were cheap which wasn’t like us. The defence has been the hallmark of Aberdeen teams since I’ve been here.
“We are usually tight and hard to break down and we are always confident in the players we have up top we can pinch goals at the other end.
“The only positive is we have this game to get it out of our system quickly and get the season under way properly.”
Playing on the artificial surface at Rugby Park is far from popular but Reynolds believes away games suit his team.
He added: “The onus is on the home side to have a go while at Pittodrie teams come here and sit in and try to pinch a goal on the break or even settle for a 0-0. But at their grounds they are expected to come out more and it suits us as a team with the way we can come out and attack with pace.
“Teams are going to come with a game plan and it will be up to us to work out a plan A and plan B to combat that.”