Aberdeen star Kenny McLean says Dons need to shape up fast if they want to finish second again this season after defeat to Hibs
Derek McInnes' side are now in third place after Rangers beat Hamilton and are just five points clear of Hibees in fourth
KENNY McLEAN has admitted Aberdeen need to shape up fast if they want to finish best of the rest again.
The midfielder couldn’t hide his frustration as a second half collapse saw their gap over Hibs cut to just five points.
And with Rangers going second after beating Hamilton, the Dons can’t afford many more slip-ups.
They welcome champions-elect Celtic on Sunday and McLean — one of five visiting players booked and maybe lucky not to go off — said: “We were nowhere near it against Hibs, but we need to try to put it behind us as quickly as we can.
“We’ve bounced back from defeats before, we’ve got a good bunch of boys who stick together and we are still in a good enough position.
“We need to see where we are in the league, remember how hard we’ve worked to get to this stage then channel those positives into the Celtic game.
“I’d definitely say this is the biggest challenge we’ve had for second place.
“Across the board, all the squads are getting stronger, so it’s up to us to meet that challenge.
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“No one can say we did that here. We were nowhere near it, in the second half especially. It’s very uncharacteristic, but that’s not an excuse.
“Everybody was deflated in the changing room.
“We let Hibs enjoy the game too much —their good players came to the fore while none of us showed up.
“Our best player was our goalkeeper, which says a lot.
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“The warnings were there towards the end of the first half.
“To be honest, the break came at a good time for us – so to go back out and put in the performance we did is just not good enough.
“There’s no too much you can say except that it’s just not acceptable.”