DISTRAUGHT Aberdeen star Derek Young last night described his team as having plunged off a cliff as their fans fear being dragged into a relegation battle.
The midfielder did not try to pretend Saturday's latest home defeat, a 1-0 reverse at the hands of Hearts, was anything other than a warning sign that this season could be all about survival.
Aberdeen are only nine points above bottom dogs Falkirk but have now gone eight matches without a win with no suggestion they can lift themselves out of this slump.
And Young, in his second spell at Pittodrie, admitted the Dons' dressing room had better wake up to the fact they have a fight on their hands.
Young said: "It's a horrible time. This is a run we don't want to be on. There was a time not so long ago when we were beating good teams so to take such a dip is frustrating. I don't think we deserved to lose to Hearts, although there weren't a lot of chances in the game and, to be fair, they scored a fantastic goal.
"Even last week after we lost to Falkirk, the exchange of views was calm and everyone said what they wanted to say. But the boys know a hell of a lot of responsibility is on ourselves to get the finger out. The performances on the park have not been up to scratch.
"The manager did not have to say anything after the Hearts game. We need to have a right good look at ourselves because we're not too far away from the teams below us. We are going to have to start picking up points and soon.
"From the Celtic game to now, there hasn't been a gradual difference. It's like we fell off the edge of a cliff.
"The thing is we've twice been on good runs, scored a lot of goals and we hope we have turned the corner. The manager and Scott Leitch are doing everything in training to get us back to where we were. We have got to look over our shoulder, even if as a footballer you need to try to look forward. We want to get up this league.
"Hearts are a few points ahead of us now and St Johnstone have a few games in hand. So we need to concentrate and watch what we're doing. Hopefully that will pull us through.
"There are games to be won so we can't rule out the top six. It's not impossible to get there but it's going to be tough.
"Let's not kid anyone on, we have put ourselves in a difficult position."
Dons boss Mark McGhee believed that not all his players had been pulling together in the same direction, something the long-suffering Aberdeen fans have believed for years.
But Young insisted that despite the team's short-comings, that wasn't one of them.
He said: "I don't accept that. He is the manager and maybe he has seen a wider picture than me. Everyone gets on well.
"There are no cliques and even after the bad performance at Falkirk, everyone was back in and training was good.
"As a whole, we are pulling together. We have been doing well enough but we are just not clicking."
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/2010/03/01/derek-young-latest-dons-defeat-has-pushed-us-over-the-edge-86908-22077561/