It’s time to put any talk of title challenges to one side and focus on the immediate task facing Derek McInnes and his Aberdeen players – winning a game of football again.
It seems like it has been an eternity since Dons fans last celebrated a win for their side such has been Aberdeen’s surprising and alarming run of results.
Five league defeats and a draw in the last six matches is not title challenging form; it’s a run more akin to a team fighting for survival at the bottom of the league.
But it this run which has taken the Dons from the dizzy heights of the Scottish Premiership just a few weeks ago to third place, seven points adrift of champions Celtic.
But for now, it’s time to forget about closing the gap on Ronny Deila’s side and concentrate on winning games again.
Worryingly, that is a task which is easier said than done at the moment but the Red Army will be hoping the visit of Dundee United to Pittodrie on Saturday can be the result which breaks the cycle and gets their side going again.
The international break, which Scotland will not be playing in sadly, will be a long time to wait between matches if the wretched run is not brought to an end this weekend.
But it will be easier said than done against a United side which is making progress under new manager Mixu Paatelainen.
I was at Tannadice on Saturday to watch the Tangerines beat Ross County to move to within two points of Partick Thistle at the bottom of the league and saw enough in the game to see the potential dangers which lie ahead for Dons skipper Ryan Jack and his team-mates.
United are no great shakes at the moment either but they will have their tails up after recording their first win under Paatelainen and they will be fancying their chances of making it back to back league wins by inflicting more misery on the Dons this weekend.
Defensively there are questions but in terms of attacking play United were lively and energetic and that spells trouble for a Red defence which has conceded 15 goals in the last six games.
In fact you could say the Dons backline has gone from watertight to bursting its banks such has been the generosity of the defence in recent weeks. How else do you explain Ashton Taylor’s wild, reckless and plain daft lunge on Kris Commons to gift Celtic a penalty in Glasgow?
With each passing game the scrutiny and pressure is building on the players and manager at Pittodrie to answer the questions their dire sequence of results is raising but McInnes and his players have been working overtime to put it right and you get the feeling they just need to break the run to get going again.
But breaking the cycle is easier said than done. Despite Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Parkhead there was positive passages of play to provide cause for optimism but fits and bursts are not enough; the Dons need a 90 minute performance.
Saturday would be the perfect time to produce it.