Jimmy Thelin vows to do more to protect Aberdeen players after St Mirren defeat

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin vowed to do more to protect his players after a 3-0 William Hill Scottish Premiership defeat to St Mirren extended their winless run to 13 league games.

Toyosi Olusanya fired St Mirren ahead after a mix-up between Slobodan Rubezic and Ross Doohan and then created a second for strike partner Mickael Mandron. As the Dons pushed for a way back into the game Mandron clinched victory with a superb third goal.

Thelin said: “We always want to support our players. They want to grow and they are ambitious. We had a good run at the start of the season and now we are having a really challenging time.

“Pressure comes with that and I, as the manager, need to take the pressure. Then I need get it out from the players and work with this to protect them so they can do a good performance on the pitch again – that’s my job.”

Meanwhile St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson feels his side have worked through a sticky spell of their own and can look up the league table.

The Buddies had lost their last four league games ahead of this morale-boosting win.

Robinson said: “A club of our size that gets into Europe, it’s a real push for us both on and off the field. We also had off-field problems meaning we’ve not been able to bring players in until now to bolster the squad.

“To be in this position, I’m so proud of the players. We’ve a group of players who keep believing and keep doing the right things even when we’re losing games, and when you have that mentality, you always have a chance.

“If I can help them by bringing players in that will improve the squad then we’ll certainly try and do that.”