Keeper Dimitar Mitov has revealed the Aberdeen players’ rage in the Tannadice dressing room after the dramatic defeat at Dundee United.
The Dons conceded a late winner four minutes into time added on to lose the New Firm derby 1-0.
It extended a winless run to eight games, with the Reds taking just three points from the last possible 24 in the Premiership.
Bulgaria international Mitov said every player was furious after the match.
He reckons this shows how much Jimmy Thelin’s team care about the slump in form and are driven to end it.
Mitov says Aberdeen will channel their rage towards ending the winless crash in form when facing Ross County at Pittodrie on Thursday.
The keeper said: “It was a very angry changing room.
“People were upset, you can see it in their eyes – that’s because we care.
“And I think that’s a really good sign.
“I’ve been in teams when you lose games and you walk in and it’s like a shrug and simply ‘another loss’ – but not here.
“I guarantee you, every single player in that changing room was upset and really cares.
“Everybody cannot wait until the next game because in football there’s another opportunity round the corner.
“And for us we can use that anger and generate it for a positive energy to go out there and hopefully win.”
Winning mentality of boss Thelin
Aberdeen’s collapse in form is all the more stark when contrasted with their record-breaking 16-game unbeaten start to the season.
Has confidence been affected by the winless run?
Mitov said: “Me personally? I don’t feel like that.
“That’s because I still feel we’re playing at times the kind of football we did earlier in the season.
“We’re just being punished for every little mistake we do at the moment.
“Football is a game of mistakes – everyone makes mistakes over the pitch.
“It’s all about us covering for each other, playing for each other, and you can see we’re starting to do that again.
“All these winning ways, all these games we’ve played really well and won, it will come back.
“Taking points changes everything.
“Ultimately, we play to win every single game. It doesn’t matter who we play against.
“That is the demand and mentality of the manager.
“Yes, we’re going through a bad period, like any other team does.
“We want to end it and we can hopefully win the next game.”
Mitov addresses defensive frailty
Aberdeen have registered just three clean sheets in 19 Premiership games this season.
Mitov accepts that defensive vulnerability needs to end.
However, the keeper says talk is cheap – and they have to deliver in games to end the nosedive in form.
Mitov said: “First and foremost, we’re conceding way too many goals. We know that.
“If we don’t concede goals we give that foundation to the front players to win us the game.
“Obviously, that was the case earlier on in the season – but we don’t become a bad team overnight.
“We’re still a very good team – but we need to show it on the pitch.
“It’s all good talking, saying this and that, but we need to perform on the pitch.
“The good thing about football is that there’s another game coming in… and it’s coming really fast.
“It’s another opportunity for us to go on the training pitch, see what we did well, not so well and work on it, then show our fans on Thursday.”
Frustration at conceding late goal
Mitov recently returned to action in the 4-0 loss at Kilmarnock having been ruled out for three weeks by a hamstring injury.
He delivered a series of impressive stops against Dundee United, including a sensational double save.
On his own performance Mitov, said: “It doesn’t really matter now because we lost the game.
“It was a really frustrating way to lose the goal, from a throw-in, and we should’ve defended better.
“But the most important thing for me was that we actually looked much better than in the previous games.
“We’ve been working really hard on the training ground to get our game-style a bit better.
“We’ve learned from mistakes.
“We defended the box brilliantly, people were putting their bodies on the line – what we’d been doing earlier in the season.
“You can see it’s coming back.
“Then to lose a goal like we did… I’ve got no words.”
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