St Johnstone have “three winnable games” ahead of them, according to manager Craig Levein.
And the Perth boss believes his players can put the disappointment of losing their opening two post-split matches behind them and complete a Premiership survival hat-trick.
A “soft” second half penalty, put away by Bojan Miovski, gave Aberdeen victory.
However, Levein has sent out a dressing room message not to dwell on the Pittodrie frustration, and to keep the faith that Saints can get out of the play-off position Ross County’s win against Hibs has put them into.
“It’s soft,” he said, reflecting on Nicky Devlin being awarded a 69th minute penalty after Connor Smith and Andy Considine challenged him as he drove into the Saints box.
“I’ve watched it back and Connor does have his hand on the player.
“Nicky, I think, has used that to go into Andy and the referee has given the penalty – simple as that.
“That was the thing that split the teams and that’s a hell of a frustrating.
“Listen, if it was our team in the box and that happened, I’d be asking for a penalty or hoping for a penalty.
“I said to the players that if you are where we are in the league and fighting for survival, these things can go against you.
“It’s how you respond that is most important. I consider we’ve played the best two teams in the bottom six.
“The next three games, if we win all three we will be fine.”
Livi up next
Livingston were officially relegated following their loss at Motherwell.
David Martindale’s side are Saints’ next opponents.
“We have a decent record against Ross County and Livingston,” said Levein. “We’ve drawn all three against Motherwell.
“I didn’t raise my voice in the dressing room because the lads were gutted not to get anything from the game.
“We have to roll our sleeves up, have another good week’s training and see if we can put on a decent performance.
“I feel the players’ frustration. They didn’t do an awful lot wrong.
“The important thing is to keep trusting and believing in each other.
“You need grit, determination, trust in each other and you need confidence – which is the thing that we can get back by winning one game.
“That’s all it takes.
“And we are going into a period where we have three winnable games.”
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