Ross McCrorie vents on Aberdeen struggles against Dundee United as calls for higher Pittodrie 'standards'

Ross McCrorie is still raging almost a week on from Aberdeen ’s worst performance of the season. That 4-0 defeat at Tannadice on Saturday night, topped off by an own goal from the midfielder that typified the entire display, has been put to bed during a week of training at Cormack Park ahead of Hearts’ visit tomorrow.

But it hasn’t been forgotten, that’s for sure, and McCrorie reckons the only way to get it out of their system is to come away from Pittodrie with three points this weekend. “We all know it wasn’t good enough, the performance wasn’t anywhere near the standards of Aberdeen,” he said. “It was just a bad day at the office, we have done the analysis and we know what we have to do for the Hearts game this weekend.”

The 24-year-old is delighted to be back at Pittodrie, where Aberdeen’s form has been the polar opposite of many of their displays on road. They’ve taken five off Livingston and four from Kilmarnock at home and McCrorie is looking for more of the same against Hearts after their midweek exertions in Europe.

He added: “The home form has been great this season, we have banged in quite a lot of goals. Hearts played in midweek so will have been travelling, but their eyes will be on us now.

“It’s two big teams going at it, so it’s something to look forward to. It was a bad game at the weekend, the result wasn’t there and the performance wasn’t there but we have to park it now.

“We have a lot of strong characters here and personally I just take each game as it comes. We have Hearts at home this weekend so the away form doesn’t come into it.”

He accepts, however, that an improvement does have to be made on their travels if their aim of finishing in the top three is to be realised. “Where we want to go