And their cause against Motherwell wasn’t helped by going down to ten men after Slobodan Rubezic’s first-half red card.
The Dons have now lost five games in a row, scoring just two goals in that time, and have relinquished third place to Dundee United.
Jimmy Thelin has asked Aberdeen fans to “keep believing” and bemoaned a poor minute spell that handed the victory to the Steelmen.
They already trailed to Ewan Wilson’s opener at Fir Park but going down to ten certainly didn’t help and Tawanda Maswanishe made it two minutes later.
Rubezic’s ordering off came for an off-the-ball incident with Tony Watt, who certainly wasn’t innocent, but it was the Montenegrin’s reaction that earned him and early bath.
Former English top flight whistler Dermot Gallagher has now given his take on the incident for Sky Sports’ Ref Watch.
He insists Rubezic can’t really have any complaints over the decision as he gave the referee a decision to make, with one camera angle particularly damning.
Gallagher said: “We’ve said many, many times ‘why would you give the referee a decision to make?
“If you see this angle here, why would you give the referee that decision to make?
“You’re taking such a risk. And he’s lost, hasn’t he? Because the referee has produced a red card.”
Thelin said post-match: “I haven’t seen it yet. But I think it’s always important for players to have emotional control in difficult times to be on the pitch.
“I don’t want to talk about that now, but I say it’s also important to have emotional control when you play football.
“I haven’t seen the situation, I don’t know exactly, but for me it’s always important that you don’t give the opponent some extra energy or give them some extra to play 11 vs 10.”
