Gavin Rae has denied that Aberdeen have been distracted from their league form by their upcoming trip to Hampden.

 

After going on a 13-match unbeaten run the Dons have now suffered three consecutive defeats without registering a goal.

 

With next weekend's Scottish Cup semi-final match against Hibernian the subject of supporter attention, the former Scotland international has said his team-mates are still focused on the league.

 

The former Dundee and Rangers player said: "It is pretty hard to put your finger on why the results have been poor recently. It is disappointing after being so solid for a while.

 

"As well as not keeping clean sheets we have not been scoring enough.

 

"The performances have not been up to the standards that they should be. We need to do a lot better.

 

"People might look at the results and say the players have one eye on the semi-final but I don't think that is the case."

 

Top scorer Scott Vernon shared his team-mate's thoughts, telling the official club website: "The lads are speaking about the semi-final. It is human nature as it is a big game.

 

"But they are also professional enough to take each game as it comes.

 

"We know we are going to finish it in the bottom six but we want to finish as high up the league as possible."

 

The Aberdeen top scorer added: "We basically have not been performing these last few weeks. We have gone out meaning to put in a good performance and to win the games but things have not been going for us.

 

"I feel we are only one game away from correcting it, we might go out this Saturday and create a few chances and score a few goals and then all of a sudden it changes. Confidence can change quickly.

 

"At the moment obviously it is down but we need to make sure that we change that."

 

While the Englishman hopes to add to his 12 goals this season, he knows that he and his team-mates must create more opportunities if they are to get back to winning ways.

 

He said: "I am feeding off scraps at the moment. I have not had many chances.

 

"I had one late on against Hearts that I would have expected to do better with it.

 

"The football is not very flowing from us but we are working at it and we have put in good performances before this little run of defeats.

 

"The performances were there so we know we can revert back to it. We need to pull our fingers out and start doing it."

usual blah blah blah

 

Almost would have preferred it if they had just come out and said, we can't get relegated, so really, we're not that bothered about the league games. It's all about the Cup.

 

usual blah blah blah

 

Almost would have preferred it if they had just come out and said, we can't get relegated, so really, we're not that bothered about the league games. It's all about the Cup.

 

We can still get relegated.

Given there's additional cash for each league place would be pissed off if they admitted that.

Doesn't any extra money for league places go direct to the players anyway?

 

Seen as all bottom 6 places are unacceptable to me, I'd rather we fucked the league so that we win the cup.

 

#weareallsamanthamumba

As far as I'm concerned you have to play for the jersey and the fans in EVERY game ,,,, as it's us that pay our money and come to the semi that they are seemingly saving themselves to raise they're game for ( unless they play Queen of the South or Celtic that is ) .... We're also hearing about wage demands, players playing for contracts etc etc ,,,, play well, WIN some games and get a win bonus , get a new contract for playing well .... problem solved !!!!!!!!