CRAIG BROWN insists Aberdeen will take heed of their Scottish Cup warning after avoiding another embarrassing KO.
Scott Vernon's 11th goal of the season earned a replay at Palmerston after Scott McLaughlin had fired First Division strugglers Queen of the South into a second-half lead.
Now Brown has vowed to win the replay and book a trip to his old club Motherwell in the quarter-final.
He said: "I won't offer excuses because on the day it just wasn't good enough.
"But unlike in the past, we are still in the Cup with the chance to make up for a bad performance — and I'm convinced we will.
"I don't know the reason because only one player, Andrew Considine, was left from the team which lost to Queen of the South four years ago.
"I can't point the finger at any player for not doing his best.
"But we were clearly lacking the imagination and the creativity that was required for us to go through."
Brown admits he was just as furious as the Pittodrie supporters at the home side's dismal display.
They have suffered against lower league teams in the past and gave the team pelters as they trudged off at full-time.
But Brown insists there will be no heartbreak on Valentine's Day when Dons head to Dumfries.
He said: "The main word used when I spoke to the players in the dressing room afterwards was humility. I told them they had better be humble after a display like that.
"It was to the point of embarrassment.
"Our fans had every right to be annoyed because there is no way we should have struggled as much as we did against a side near the foot of the First Division.
"I accept we should have had enough in our armoury to do much better than we did.
"The fans were right to make their feelings known and complain because that didn't happen.
"But it could have been much worse and I admit to being worried when they went ahead.
"We will have to smarten up our act now to make it to the last eight.
"It wasn't another cup disaster, but it was a major disappointment and I'm not going to attempt to kid the fans on. They are not daft, they saw the game the same as I did.
"It was clear we didn't do enough to get the win we wanted."
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