Saturday's Premier Sports Cup semi-final with Rangers would be the perfect place for Aberdeen to ease the tension of a disappointing start to the season, says head coach Stephen Robinson. The Dons head to Hampden on a run of just one win from their past five games. However, Robinson, who led St Mirren to the trophy last year, takes confidence from his own record and the unity he sees at Pittodrie.
"You haven't got time to feel sorry for yourself, if there is a moment to put it right a semi final at Hampden is that time," he said. "As a footballer you always get another chance, sometimes as a manager you don't and what a chance it is to go to Hampden, a full house with a big support with us. It is certainly the right place to do it and we believe we can.
"Every semi-final that I've been in with Motherwell and St Mirren, we were not expected to win. So I know how to motivate teams and the staff know how to get teams to believe. "It's certainly an opportunity.
All the pressure will be on Rangers, and the expectation will be on Rangers." Wednesday's 1-0 home loss to Falkirk ended in a chorus of angry boos and leaves the Dons ninth in the Premiership, three points above the bottom. "It's a great great group of boys that want to be successful and no-one was hiding away from the fact results haven't been good enough," Robinson said of the post-game talks with his squad. "The players know it needs to be better and they are all in that together.
There are no factions, there are no people going off on their own, everyone wants to turn that around. "There was a good performance in that as well but ultimately we deserved the criticism we got, we can't get away from that. I deserved the criticism.
I don't hide behind that. I don't try and throw players under the bus. We have to respond to that." Robinson, who joined Aberdeen in March, insists he has "normal conversations" with chief executive Adrian Bevingston and chairman Dave Cormack, when asked if he had sought any assurances from the Pittodrie hierarchy about his position.
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