By Scott Burns

Copyright dailyrecord

Jimmy Thelin admits he and his misfiring Aberdeen team need to find a way to win sharpish. The Dons have been anything but dandy this season, failing to score a league goal to sit bottom of the table with just one point from a disappointing home draw with Livingston. They’ve also dropped out of the Europa League and into the league phase of the Conference League. That’s been in sharp contrast to five months ago when the Swede was the toast of the Granite City after he took the Scottish Cup back there for the first time in 35 years. Thelin turns his attention to knockout competition again this weekend with the visit of Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup. The pressure is ramping up on the manager with more fans becoming disgruntled by the lack of progress and wins. That is against the backdrop of heavy investment in the summer window to bring in players such as Kevin Nisbet, Stuart Armstrong and Jesper Karlsson late on. Thelin said: “Yes, goals are important. We have to have the capacity when we play to know the expectations are really high to play within this club, as a manager or as a player. “We have really high expectations every season to arrive in Europe and to try to win a trophy. Nothing’s changed there. “We’re trying to be strong in the direction of how we are building the squad for the future in the long-term. Right now, our focus is to get wins. “We have long-term goals but in the short term we have to win games. When you see how much it means … “Our fans are there and we have to give them a little bit more performance-wise and then hopefully also results.” Aberdeen are still to click and Thelin knows he and his players need to move that process forward quickly, especially with a cup tie against Well and potential trip to Hampden on the line this weekend. He added: “Right now, the rhythm is not there. You see this player coming in today they have quality but now we have to be better as a team. “Right now it’s a little bit hesitant and we have to do better. We have to play a little bit faster and quicker than we are just now. “We have to handle this pressure that arrives on the team when we are in this position. You have to handle it and not lose the line of how we grow and try to do better. “We now have the cup game at the weekend. We play at home again and we have to give our fans more and to create more opportunities while maintaining the defensive part as we did on Saturday.”