Paul Hartley says players are behind Aberdeen manager
Aberdeen captain Paul Hartley says that the Scottish Premier League club’s players accept the blame for their 9-0 defeat against Celtic, adding that the squad were all behind under-fire manager Mark McGhee.
The Dons travelled to Celtic Park on Saturday, 6 November, with the hope of putting a poor start to the season behind them.
But that was not to be as Hartley received a red card in the first half for conceding the penalty which led to the first goal. Aberdeen then lost another eight goals to make up the heaviest loss in their history.
McGhee took charge of training on Sunday as usual, but several media reports have claimed that if he does not win at Pittodrie against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Tuesday, he will be sacked.
Aberdeen have claimed just 10 points from 11 SPL games this season and are just two points ahead of last-place St Mirren.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the game, Hartley told reporters, "I am not here to speak about Mark McGhee, but of course we do (support him). It is important for us (that McGhee stays). We are behind him, no question about that.
"We let the manager down, we let ourselves down and we let the supporters down. I take responsibility for being the captain. The only thing we can do now is try and get a good result tomorrow night. It is embarrassing."
Hartley, who will miss the game against Inverness after being sent off for a handball, added, "Everyone will remind us it's the worst result in the club's history and we are all hurting and embarrassed, but we can't do anything about that. We've got to look
forward to tomorrow night's game, which is a very important game for us.
"We can't feel sorry for ourselves, people will keep reminding us of the result but we can't dwell on it. I will miss the game but we have to dust ourselves down and hopefully we can get a good result."
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