Aberdeen midfielder Barry Robson has urged his team-mates to make sure there is no repeat of last night’s display against Hamilton Accies.
The Dons were well beaten by Accies at New Douglas Park as the Scottish Premiership leaders ran out 3-0 winners.
Robson knows the display fell short of standards expected and does not want to go through the experience of last night’s performance and result again.
He said: “We’ve got good players in the team and we knew this was going to be a tough night, but there are no excuses.
“I won’t accept the pitch was a factor as both teams played on it, they played really well and deserved to win.
“We’re Aberdeen and we have to uphold our role of representing the club. We have to do better than we did here.”
The poor display will have Dons supporters fearing the worst when Accies visit Pittodrie in the quarter-finals of the League Cup a week on Wednesday.
But Robson insists Hamilton will face a very different Dons team to the one they beat with ease last night.
The veteran said: “When Hamilton come up to play us in the League Cup we have to show them we are a better side than we showed here. We have pace in this team and can counter-attack well, but we just didn’t do that. We have to show the real Aberdeen when we play them again.”
While Robson was quick to critique his own team’s poor display he insisted Aberdeen’s poor showing should not detract from what was an impressive performance from Accies, who kept their fifth clean sheet in a row and are now unbeaten in 10 matches in all competitions.
Tony Andreu struck early in both the first and second half and Mickael Antoine-Curier sealed the victory late on to move them four points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Robson said: “We missed a couple of chances in the first half, but defensively as a team we were not good enough and we have to address it ourselves. But take nothing away from Hamilton. They played really well and deserved to win, but we have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”