Goodwin admits not even he was at it in wake-up call
Jim Goodwin admits his Aberdeen players suffered a reality check in defeat against Motherwell after a promising start to the season.
The Dons breezed through their League Cup group stage and limited Celtic to two goals in defeat on the opening day at Parkhead.
Then last weekend they turned on the style to thump 10-man St Mirren 4-1 at Pittodrie.
That had the Dons fans anticipating a return to the top four, where they were during the entire Derek Mcinnes era. But this was a disappointing setback.
They were out-thought and out-played at times and, overall, it’s just three league wins in 15 games since Goodwin took charge.
He said: “I’ve explained that to the players after the game – this is a reality check for us.
“We’ll take the criticism. There’s been a lot of plaudits recently.
“We had a great League Cup group stage and had a good performance last weekend against St Mirren and got plenty pats on the back.
“Today we weren’t at it and too many had belowpar performances. It was as simple as that.
“You can afford to carry one or two and still get a result, but I just felt there were too many who weren’t at it, myself included.
“There was too many below-par performances, but we just need to make sure we don’t have too many days like this.
“It’s not time for pushing the panic button or anything like that.”
To be fair both defences were at fault for a number of the goals but Goodwin wasn’t in the mood for excuses.
He was honest in his assessment of the 90 minutes and full of praise for Steven Hammell in his first game after being formally appointed Motherwell manager.
Goodwin added: “We deserved to go behind because they were the better team, although I think the goal is avoidable.
“We found ourselves getting back into the game with a really good goal but I thought we were very lucky to go in level at half time.
“We hoped for a better performance in the second half but the same issues that were there in the first half crept back in.”
Aberdeen were without injured pair Hayden Coulson and Connor Barron and that list was added to during the 90 minutes.
Winger Matty Kennedy limped off with a hamstring strain in the first half and Liverpool’s on-loan midfielder Leighton Clarkson suffered a similar fate in the second.
Goodwin is keeping his fingers crossed that some of those will recover in time for the trip to face St Johnstone on Saturday.