Boss Stephen Glass accepts his struggling Aberdeen team are letting supporters down every week.
The Dons have crashed into the Premiership bottom six after a return of just two points from four games.
A damaging 2-1 loss away to Livingston was the latest set-back.
Travelling fans made their displeasure clear during and after the defeat at Livingston.
Glass warns the Red Army’s reaction must act as a ‘shock to the system’ to jolt his side back into form.
That Livi loss continued Aberdeen’s dismal away form, with the Dons having now won just twice in 14 domestic games on the road this season.
In the wake of another miserable away day, Glass also questioned his team’s mentality.
He believes his team went into the game against Livi with the wrong attitude – thinking they ‘are slightly better than we are’. And it cost them.
He has challenged his under-pressure side to haul themselves out of their slump in a pivotal week to the club’s season.
Aberdeen host league leaders Celtic tomorrow before a Scottish Cup fifth round clash at Motherwell on Saturday.
Glass said: “We are letting people down week on week at the minute.
“We need to be better than that and there is an opportunity to put it right.
“We have Celtic at home and then a huge cup game at the weekend.
“They know how it feels after the loss to Livingston and it’s important that doesn’t keep happening.
“Days like that (Livingston), they get a real jolt and realise how important it is.
“We are all aware of that. However, I think there was a shock to the system of actually getting beat and the reaction of the fans.
“It’s something we don’t want to replicate.
“There is an important time coming up and we need to look after it properly.”
Cup concern due to away form
The Reds go into their cup tie against Motherwell with dismal away form.
In 14 domestic games on the road this season (13 Premiership, one League Cup), Aberdeen have mustered just two wins.
They had a glorious chance to make up ground in the battle for European qualification with three successive games against bottom six sides.
However, they collected just one point from the away triple-header against Livingston, Ross County and St Mirren.
The result at the weekend dropped the Dons into the bottom half of the table, level on 29 points with Livingston and St Mirren.
Ross County, threatened with a relegation battle for much of the season, are now just three points adrift of the Reds.
Glass and his squad are under pressure to end the slump in form.
Mentality wrong for Livingston game
In the aftermath of the Livingston loss, stand-in skipper Ross McCrorie said Aberdeen are often ‘too nice’.
Glass says his side didn’t approach the game right and failed to do the ‘ugly’ side against Livingston.
Glass said: “The disappointing thing is that we were not surprised by what the game became and what gave us problems.
“We have handled it a couple of times already this season, once at Livingston and once at home.
“There was no reason for it not to be the case again other than the mentality – thinking we are maybe slightly better than we are and not handling the ugly side of the game.
“Once we started doing that late in the game we looked like a team.”
