Dundee United moved up to the third in the Scottish premiere and reaped a great deal of pressure on Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin with a 2-0 win over Dons at Tannadice.
Measure on each side of the half -time from Ivan Dolcek and Bert Eslink left Aberdeen rooted to the bottom of the table without target in five matches.
Thelin had demanded that his side perform the basic elements of football better after Saturday’s League Cup defeat by Motherwell, but they were ultimately undone by two air balls and could have admitted more as United moved over Hibernian in the table.
Stuart Armstrong hit the bar to the visitors, and Jesper Karlsson forced two rescues, but there was no lasting threat from Thelin’s side as they suffered a sixth defeat in nine games this season.
Aberdeen has now won only five of their last 32 league matches, and Thelin could have run out of credit with Dons Board after the club’s Scottish Cup Triumph in May. The united fans definitely thought as they shouted “fired in the morning”.
Aberdeen has started their worst start to a season of 26 years
Aberdeen fans filled the ‘shed’ end at Tannadice and gave their team greater support in the first half while locking themselves to short signs of a resurgence in the second period.
But some fans vented their anger after the break, and the Aberdeen board is likely to go into crisis talks ahead of Saturday’s trip to Motherwell.
Thelin made three changes in midfield with Captain Graeme Shinnie among those who fell to the bench, but United started on the front foot and Will Ferry was close to converting Zac Sapford’s driven ball over the goal.
Karlsson sent a free header wide and forced a rescue, but most of the first half pressure was at the other end. Dimitar Mitov saved well from Sapfords deflected efforts, and Eselink went wide from a corner.
Mitov saved a one-on-one from Dolcek after Sapford brilliant to put his strike partner up on the break, even though Australians got a yellow card and punished for a mistake on Sivert Nilsen after Judge Steven McLean delayed his decision.
The opener came in the 45th minute when Dolcek fired his fifth goal of the premiership season into the lower corner from 18 meters after a header fell into his way.
Dolcek has scored five goals in five league games since he came to the summer
Nicolas Milanovic curled widely when Aberdeen tried to fight back in the second half, but they were two down within five minutes when the unmarked Eslink went home from six meters after Vickko Sevelj turned on a corner.
The game threatened with spiral further out of the range of Aberde. Mitov pared well from Dolcek, Krisztian Keresztes fired into the side of 20 yards, several blocks prevented United from hitting the target in a magic form with sustained pressure and Sevelj shot just wide from long reach.
There was signs of a rally when Armstrong hit the cross bar from 25 yards, and Yevhenii Kucherenko refused Karlsson with the feet of rebound.
But Aberdeen couldn’t seriously threaten to break their Premier League Duck again, and Thelin and his players stood and examined the stage with a half -empty growthative that largely showed their anger after the last flute.
Thelin: We have nothing to lose
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Aberdeen chief Jimmy Thelin talks about his future in the club after their 2-0 defeat at Dundee Utd
After the defeat, Thelin claimed they can’t fall down and told his players that they now have “nothing to lose” when traveling to Motherwell on Saturday, seven days after they were knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup by Steelmen.
After facing anger from the visitors of visitors after the game, Thelin said, “We feel the same thing we feel anger, we feel frustration. But the only way to solve this is to step up and do much, much, much better on Saturday.
“You can’t hide. Towards the end some players stepped out and showed more. We’re starting to create more, but at first we were pretty stiff as a team.
“You see Stuart Armstrong, he plays with experience he wants the ball. When he misses a passport, he takes the ball again and finds his calm as a player.
“On Saturday we have nothing to lose, we have everything to win and we have to have this feeling as a team. Because right now we play a little too stiff because of the pressure around us.
“Now we’re last in the table, we have a point, zero target so you have nothing to lose. You have to go out on the field and play much, much more without this tension.
“Fans, we don’t live up to expectations right now, so we’re already there, rock bottom. The only thing we can do is do better, so we can’t go deeper now, we have to go better, which is why you can hopefully get this excitement from your body.”
On the fans’ reaction he added: “When you see the emotions, you see anger, you see the frustration, of course it hurts.
“But the only thing to give something back is to make a better achievement. As a manager and as a team our job is to put a smile on fans’ faces.”
Goodwin roses ‘great resistance’
Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United is up to third place in the Scottish premiere
United Manager Jim Goodwin was facing the same anger two and a half years ago before being fired by Dons, and he admitted he had feared his former club’s fortunes would turn to Tannadice.
“I know what the man is going through and I sympathize with every manager in this situation,” he said.
“We all talked about Hibs and David Gray last year when they were at the bottom. David found a way to get a tune out of the team.
“Aberdeen has invested well, they spent a fortune in the summer, which is why I was a little nervous in this game because the race cannot continue with the quality they have.
“We were on a little bit of hiding to nothing, but I’m sure Jimmy will respect my concern not Aberdeen.”
Goodwin, whose side moved up to the third, added: “Consistency in the 11 was important, but this was probably the most pleasant we have felt for a number of weeks.
“The last 10 minutes we get deeper and nervous natural, Aberdeen threw every attacking opportunity against us, but the guys showed great resilience.”