Jamie McGrath says he and his Aberdeen teammates understand the pressure they are under ahead of facing Dundee this weekend.
The Dons were humiliated by Celtic at the Premier Sports Cup semi-final stage on Saturday as Jimmy Thelin tasted his first defeat as boss.
Aberdeen had gone an incredible 16 games unbeaten but fell to Celtic’s superiority after managing to earn a 2-2 against them two weeks prior in the league.
It’s Dundee next for Aberdeen as they resume their Premiership title charge – but McGrath knows now that all eyes will be on whether they can bounce back with a win at Dens Park.
McGrath on Dundee ‘smelling Aberdeen blood’
Speaking to the press, McGrath said: “I think everybody watches every Aberdeen game so we can’t let the semi-final affect us. We’ve played Dundee already but no game in this league is easy.
“Every team can take points off everyone and we’ve seen that so far this season. They’ll be coming here, probably smelling blood so we have to be on it from minute one.
“We know the pressure of playing for Aberdeen. We’re just looking at one game at a time and Dundee is next so we have to obviously not let last weekend affect us too much.
“We have to bounce back on Saturday and give the travelling fans something to shout about because they were on our side singing at the end of the game.
“They could have easily turned on us but to see them standing there, not leaving and singing right to the end, it was very pleasing.
“I can only speak from my time here and they’ve been brilliant. Even last season when things weren’t going amazingly, they still backed us. There’s a real togetherness in the fans this season even more.
“You’ve seen that with Pittodrie getting packed out and the atmosphere that’s been generated, and the travelling support every week has been unbelievable so far. I think Saturday is probably the first time we’ve not done them justice.”
Aberdeen always ‘learning’
McGrath says Aberdeen will learn from the Celtic thrashing but will remain true to the principles that Jimmy Thelin has delivered since joining the club in the summer.
The Irishman went on: “We’ll take a lot of learning from it but of course we’re very disappointed to lose in the manner we did. We are disappointed not to bring the fans another trip to a cup final but like the gaffer touched on, it’s a bump in the road.
“We’ve had a brilliant start to the season so we can’t let this affect us majorly. The manager said there’s a lot to learn from it and we can agree but we weren’t, as a team, at our brilliant best.
“If you’re a few percent off against Celtic, they’ll punish you in a matter of minutes. We have our principles and we’re never going to go away from them and every week we’re adding something to the mix.
“We’re learning constantly. It’s still very early days under the manager and we have to learn quickly. I think we have learned quickly so far.
“I think we look like a right good team on our day, but we can still obviously improve. We’re trying to catch the likes of Celtic and Rangers so yeah, there’ll be blips in the road but hopefully now that’s us for a while.”