Vice-captain Ross McCrorie says Aberdeen must eradicate “silly mistakes” if they are to fight for a third place Premiership finish.
The Reds were left reeling after slumping to a shock 4-0 loss at then bottom club Dundee United last weekend.
Midfielder McCrorie, 24, netted an own goal for United’s fourth to pile on more misery in a dismal derby defeat.
Next up Aberdeen face Hearts at Pittodrie on Sunday, the club who finished third last season.
McCrorie reckons third, and subsequent European qualification, is up for grabs this season.
But to achieve that the Reds must cut out costly errors.
McCrorie said: “Third place is up for grabs every year, whoever can get that consistency.
“It will be hard though as you have us, Hearts and Hibs all going for it.
“However, if you can get a run of wins you give yourselves a good chance.
“If you can do that, no silly mistakes, not drop points then you will be all right.
“Hearts are a big team in the league.
“They were third last season and we have aspirations to be at the top end of the table.
“So these are the games we have to win.”
‘It was just a bad day at the office’
Aberdeen conducted a postmortem into the heavy loss at Dundee United.
It was a shock loss the form books could not have predicted.
The Dons had brushed aside Kilmarnock 4-1 at Pittodrie just seven days earlier.
In contrast Dundee United were rock bottom of the Premiership and had yet to win in the league.
McCrorie accepts Aberdeen must quickly find consistency if they are to win the race for third.
He said: “Where we want to go and with the aspirations we have to be at the top end of the table, we must have consistent wins in a row.
“You can’t have this win one, lose one and draw – or whatever.
“We all know it wasn’t good enough against Dundee United.
“The performance wasn’t anywhere near the standards of Aberdeen.
“It was just a bad day at the office.
“We have done the analysis and know what we have to do for the Hearts game.
“We have to be more consistent, that’s what we have to aim for.”
Home and away form imbalance
Aberdeen’s home form this season has been in stark contrast to their struggles on the road.
The Reds have won three of four Premiership games at Pittodrie and scored 15 goals.
Away from home they have won just once in five, scoring three and conceding 10.
It is a problem that stretches deep into last season as the Reds have won just twice in the previous 23 away league matches.
It is an imbalance that is threatening to derail this season.
McCrorie said: “The home form has been great this season, we have banged in quite a lot of goals.
“The away form hasn’t been good enough and we haven’t picked up enough points on the road.
“That’s something we need to sort out.
“We have to rectify it quickly but that’s for another time when we have an away game coming up.
“This weekend we have Hearts which will be a tough one, a challenge, but we are confident
“It’s a game of football at the end of the day, 11 against 11.
“So it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away we have to be bang at it from the start.”
Hearts in Euro action days earlier
Hearts will travel to Pittodrie just three days after suffering a heavy 5-1 Europa Conference league group loss at Italian club Fiorentina.
The Tynecastle side have failed to win in any of their four games in all competitions this month.
They lost 3-0 to Fiorentina at home, were dumped 4-0 by Rangers at Ibrox and drew 2-2 away to Kilmarnock.
McCrorie said: “Hearts played in midweek so will have been travelling, but their eyes will be on us now.
“It’s two big teams going at it, so it’s something to look forward to.”
Move on from the Tannadice shocker
Aberdeen sit sixth in the Premiership table, four points behind third placed Hibs.
McCrorie insists there are “big characters” in the Dons squad who will recover from the defeat at Tannadice.
On the Dundee United defeat he says after analysing what went wrong the Dons now have to “park it” and move on.
Victory on Sunday would leap-frog Aberdeen above Hearts.
He said: “It was a bad game at the weekend, the result wasn’t there and the performance wasn’t there but we have to park it now.
“We have a lot of strong characters here and personally I just take each game as it comes.
“We just have to get a run of wins together.”
Manager’s eight-game ban no excuse
Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin watched the defeat to Dundee United from the stands as he served the first of an eight-game ban.
Goodwin was hit with an immediate six game ban by the SFA with a further two suspended until the end of the season.
The Dons boss was given the hefty sanction by the SFA for comments made about Hibs’ defender Ryan Porteous following a 3-1 loss at Easter Road.
McCrorie insists the absence of the manager from the dugout and dressing room is no excuse for the loss at Tannadice.
He said: “We do our work Monday to Friday, the gaffer does our analysis and game play.
“So we all know what our jobs are going into a game.
“We know last weekend wasn’t good enough so it’s up to us to go again.
“The manager’s ban isn’t an excuse.”
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