Aberdeen midfielder Ryan Jack is adamant his team will bounce back strongly from their 4-0 defeat by Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic at Parkhead.
The Dons had hoped to move level on points with Ronny Deila’s side with a victory in yesterday’s eagerly awaited match between the country’s two form sides but it was the Hoops who eased to victory.
What might have been as the Dons were denied a clear penalty at 1-0 when the ball hit Nir Bitton’s hand in the box.
Jason Denayer, Leigh Griffiths, Gary Mackay-Steven and Stefan Johansen got the goals that ended Aberdeen’s 13-game unbeaten run.
But Jack remains confident the Dons can finish the season strongly. He said: “The goals we lost were pretty poor but we shouldn’t forget we have been on a great run.
“We were feeling confident as we were going into this game in such good form but this has been a reality check.
“We just need to dust ourselves down and look forward to the Motherwell game a week on Friday.
“I have never said we would win the title or push Celtic all the way – we are just taking every game as it comes and looking to win them all.
“Hopefully, we can improve on where we finished last season in the league.
“We are never going to give up and we will go into every game trying to win – I am sure we can do well.”
It was a miserable day for Aberdeen, who had made an encouraging start but failed to make the breakthrough when they were in the ascendancy.
Jonny Hayes, who was a surprise inclusion after recovering from a hamstring injury, was at the heart of most of Aberdeen’s best play until he had to substituted because of a calf complaint after 32 minutes.
Jack felt losing the midfielder was a major setback but said poor defending ultimately cost them.
He added: “Jonny had made an excellent start and was getting crosses in
“The way he started was terrific and we knew he could cause problems if we could get the ball to him.
“It was a real blow to lose him when we did.
“I thought up until we lost the first goal our game plan was going very well.
“We were doing our jobs well and we were getting on top but we lost the goal before the break and then in the second half we weren’t good enough.
“We had worked all week on set-plays because we knew that would be important as Celtic have a lot of big, strong players.
“To lose the first goal was very disappointing. That was frustrating because we had made a good start and it would have been an entirely different game had we got the first goal.”