Aberdeen forward Simon Church will not accept defeat in the Premiership title bid, despite falling eight points behind Celtic with just five games left.
The Dons were defeated 2-1 by Hearts at Tynecastle on Friday night, despite taking an early lead through Church’s sixth goal since arriving on loan from English Championship side MK Dons in February.
Celtic took advantage with a 2-1 defeat of Motherwell on Saturday which puts Ronny Deila’s side firmly on course to retain the title.
Church knows Aberdeen’s prospects of catching the Hoops are now slim, but the Wales international says Derek McInnes’ side cannot afford to give up hope of clawing back the deficit.
Church said: “We’ve got to keep going, that’s the only thing we can do now. We’ve got a couple of weeks now until the next game, and I think it’s going to be a long two weeks after Friday.
“We’ve got to move on like we have done in the past, focus on the next game and go again.
“The games are running out now, but we’re not giving up at all. We’ve got to do better when we’re up in a game, hold on to the lead and see them out.
“We created chances against Hearts and we deserved to be 2-0 up. That’s the little things that have cost us, not many times, but a couple of times since I’ve been here.”
Church reckons he and his team-mates owe supporters a response to their latest setback, and the 27-year-old added: “They will stay with us, they deserve a lot more and we’re going to be working hard to try to put things right. Whether we’ve got enough time, I don’t know.”
