Barry Robson was raging at Aberdeen’s capitulation against Celtic - but had to remind himself of what they’d already achieved this season.
The Dons gaffer was far from pleased with his side’s defending as they conceded five at Parkhead on the Hoops’ title party day. Kyogo and Oh grabbed doubles, along with a Carl Starfelt header as the champions dished out a drubbing. Robson says that kind of display WONT’ be accepted next term. But after his team secured third spot in the Premiership on Wednesday night, he refused to be too critical of his players.
He said: “I’m angry. But I think it looked like a game too far for us today. We’ve really squeezed what we could out of the group and after all the emotions of midweek, we got more tired as the game went on today. But it’s still a reminder to the players that I’ll not accept that. For as good as they’ve been and the praise they’ve had, next season we need to be better than that. It’s hard for me when the players have given me so much, they’ve been so good.
“But the game today, it did concern me a bit beforehand. You’ve got to give Celtic some credit. Their players turned up today. Ange has probably had a go at them and they’ve fired into gear against us.
“It’s really hard to come up against a team like Celtic, but we can still try and be as strong as we can be. As frustrated as I am right now and the way I am as a person - I’ve still got to remember how good they’ve been. I think the fans will remember that as well.”
Despite losing five, Robson absolved keeper Kelle Roos - who was at fault for Kyogo’s second goal - of any blame and claimed the Dutchman is the best in the Premiership.
He said: “Kelle, in my opinion, is the best goalkeeper in the league. He’s outstanding. So I’ve no issue with that at all. He’s been brilliant for us.”
Big decisions will be made on players’ futures at Pittodrie over the coming weeks. Back-up keeper Joe Lewis appeared to say his goodbye to fans at full-time, while Ross McCrorie could be on his way to England. And the Dons are reportedly close to sealing a deal to bring Leighton Clarkson back on loan next term from Liverpool.
Robson will take a well earned break but insists they’ll come back stronger next season.
He said: “We’re going to try our best (to get closer to the Old Firm next season) and be as good as we can possibly be. We know the differences in finance between teams in the league. I’ve played for teams challenging the Old Firm and I’ve played for the Old Firm myself, so I know how difficult it is.
“But we need to be as good an Aberdeen team as we can be, which we’ve done, and also perform well in Europe. We need Celtic to do us a turn at Hampden next week (to guarantee them Europa League group stage qualification). That today wasn’t our fight. Our fight was getting to third. But we want to make it a fight (next season).
“There’s a lot of speculation surrounding a lot of players but I can’t tell you anything on that. We don’t know exactly where we are with Europe just yet. We’ll find out next week and, of course, players will want to come and play in Europe for Aberdeen.
“You’ve seen how good the fans and the city have been in the last few weeks. It shows you that when you get the club going, it goes. We need to do that again, keep fighting in the top half of the table and it will be good to be in Europe again. Look where we were when we came in and where we’ve ended up.
“If anyone had said that, no-one would have accepted it. §We’ve finished third and had the fans at Pittodrie bouncing again. We’re alright - we just want to get a bit better.”
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