The mood around Pittodrie on matchday has been far from jovial of late.
Supporters have understandably voiced their frustrations at a series of shot-shy performances, with their only goal coming via a late penalty against League 1 side Dumbarton.
Lewis Ferguson is aware of the displeasure coming from the stands. As a player, he tries to block it out, but could see why some of the Dons’ new arrivals may be taken aback.
Ferguson said: “I don’t particularly feel it myself because I tend to block it out whether we are away and getting booed or at home and getting abuse. I can understand why the gaffer has said that. You can hear the pressure from the fans and although I do block it out it can still play in the back of your mind.
“There are some new players as well and Wednesday was their first game at home and that must have been difficult, coming into a home game and the fans are on your back.
“You have to block that out because we are professional footballers and we should be used to fans shouting at us. We should just focus on the game and nothing else.
“We need to be a bit more selfish take on a bit more responsibility on the pitch, as players, to give our all to get into the next round.”
Aberdeen take on Kilmarnock today in the Scottish Cup fifth round, with the Red Shed again in operation in the Merkland Stand.
Designed to improve the atmosphere at Pittodrie, it could easily turn sour should the Dons fail to deliver again.
Ferguson added: “We are not lacking the quality of players. What we have is a lack of confidence in the side and it is hard to get that confidence from somewhere. You need to pull it from somewhere, whether it be scoring in training or anywhere we need to get that confidence into our front players.
“Hopefully, we can go and create a lot more chances than we have done recently. We don’t look like scoring but our defence is one of the best in the league.
“We don’t concede too much and are pretty solid and we just need to get the confidence at the other end and our front players can start to create chances and score goals.”
It will be 30 years this summer since Aberdeen last lifted Scotland’s oldest trophy, with Alex Smith’s side triumphing on penalties over Celtic, with Brian Irvine netting the decisive spot-kick at Hampden Park.
They have had several near misses, notably the 2017 final under Derek McInnes, with semi-final defeats to Motherwell and Celtic respectively in the last two seasons.
Ferguson said: “It is incredible that a club of this size haven’t won this cup for 30 years now but we have been close to ending that in recent times.
“Hopefully now we can go that one step further and actually win it this season rather than just getting to semi-finals and finals.
“It’s not going to be easy to end that run and it’s a difficult tie against Kilmarnock but if do win we are going to have to beat either a Rangers or Celtic to lift the trophy.
“The positive thing is the performance at Ibrox was more like the real Aberdeen as we were pretty good in that game and probably should have won.”