Jamie McGrath in Aberdeen 'shooting ourselves in the foot' confession as one star told he was due an off day

Jamie McGrath has warned Aberdeen need to stop shooting themselves in the foot if they want to blast back into the fight for the top three.

Barry Robson claimed the 2-0 defeat at Hibs on Sunday was his team’s best performance under him but sloppy defending and a lack of a cutting edge left them empty-handed. Defender Slobodan Rubezic was caught badly out of position for the first and then let Will Fish get above him for the second from a corner.

Aberdeen have invested heavily in their defence this season but have only four clean sheets. And McGrath, looking for a reaction against Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, claimed: “We conceded from a set play, that is not normally us. We have been brilliant defending our box.

“It was a key time in the game when it was 1-0. We shot ourselves in the foot and the first goal was just one ball over the top when we were on top. The first goal in this league is important, it allows momentum and confidence to grow.”

The Dons created a number of chances but couldn’t find a way past man of the match David Marshall – even from the spot, where Bojan Miovski was denied by the keeper.

McGrath said: “To be fair, after the sucker punch we dug in and created chances and could have gone in level at the break, at least. The second half, we created five or six very good chances to score and Bojan missed a penalty.

“It was a very frustrating day. We created numerous chances and for some reason we couldn’t put them in the net. Their keeper got man of the match so that tells a story as well. It is very disappointing but on the plus side we have created a lot of chances at a tough place to come.

“On another day we’d have taken the victory. We are shooting ourselves in the foot a bit, conceding sloppy