Barry Robson has urged his Aberdeen side not to dwell on their defeat to Celtic as they seek to return to winning ways.
The Dons suffered a 4-0 loss against the Hoops at Parkhead, after falling behind to Callum McGregor’s opener just two minutes into the game.
Robson was taking charge of his third match as interim manager, following the departure of Jim Goodwin last month.
After opening with a 3-1 loss to St Mirren, in which the Dons were reduced to 10 men following the early dismissal of Ross McCrorie, Robson guided the Reds to a fine victory by the same scoreline against Motherwell.
Robson is eager to ensure the heavy loss to Celtic does not inflict a dent to his side’s confidence, as they prepare to host Livingston on Saturday.
He said: “I said to them afterwards – ‘let’s just get ready for the next game.’
“It’s not a case of turning around to these boys and saying to them: ‘why are you not doing this?’
“They have had a hard time of it. I’m just in, and I’m trying to help them.
“What I saw after we went behind was boys who wanted to fight, show a bit of character and be brave.
“We saw that when we went down to 10 men for 85 minutes against St Mirren.
“It has been a really frustrating time, for me and for the players because we really want to get on a run of games to show what we really are.
“We need to get ready for a game that we can try and impose ourselves on, and start trying to move up that table.”
Dons need to string together form in order to combat fragility
In the wake of the loss to Celtic, Robson highlighted fragility in his squad which was still lingering from some bruising recent defeats.
Despite ending a five-match losing streak with the victory over Well, Robson feels the Reds need a sustained run of results in order to find their stride again.
He added: “In the last two games I really liked what I saw in them. It doesn’t just come back in one game, or two games though. It takes a bit longer than that.
“I have been there as a player, and it takes those small steps to keep going.
“When we lost that early goal we could see it came back a wee bit, but the pleasing factor for me was that in the second half they really started to come out again.
“We really hung in there and fought.”
Miovski decision was purely tactical
Robson made a tactical change at half-time against Ange Postecoglou’s side, who were leading 2-0 at the time.
Having changed to three-man backline from the start, Robson reverted to a back four when he brought on Hayden Coulson to replace striker Bojan Miovski.
North Macedonian attacker Miovski is the Dons’ leading goalscorer, with 16 strikes to his name this term.
Robson says the decision to withdraw Miovski was purely a reaction to the way the game was unfolding.
He added: “It was nothing to do with him. It was just Celtic’s shape, their movement and rotations can kill you.
“I thought Jonny Hayes wasn’t getting close enough to Jota, balls were coming in too easy and we had to move Duk over.
“We put Jonny back into a midfield four, we took Hayden Coulson on and we looked a lot sharper.
“We put Duk up top because we thought he might be able to hold the ball in a bit better and get us up the pitch.
“Bojan is more of a finisher than that, but I spoke to him and told him to keep his chin up. He will be fine and ready to go again. Sometimes it’s just what you need to do in games.”
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