Barry Robson responds to Aberdeen boo boys as Derek McInnes relishes late Kilmarnock winner

David Watson’s injury-time goal sealed a 1-0 win for the Ayrshire side at Pittodrie

Kilmarnock's David Watson (centre) celebrates after scoring an injury-time winner against Aberdeen at Pittodrie. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Under-pressure Barry Robson said there was “no excuse” after his side suffered a 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock in the cinch Premiership.

The Dons enjoyed the better of the play and had a Bojan Miovski first-half effort ruled out for offside, but it was Killie midfielder David Watson’s superb 20-yard strike in stoppage time that gave the visitors the points.

The Aberdeen fans made their frustration clear, with the final whistle met by a chorus of boos, and Robson understood the reaction after his side’s winless run was extended to six matches in all competitions.

“It wasn’t good enough in either box,” the Dons boss said. “We had a lot of possession without threatening too much. We need to be better in both boxes.

“Kilmarnock are a difficult team to play against and when we changed our system to open up our full-backs we got a bit of a spark, but if you’re not going to win then don’t lose – we needed to defend the goal better.

“There’s no excuse. We need to start picking up points.

“The fans are frustrated – they want their team up the league. I get that, I understand it, and have no problem with that.

“The only way we can do that is by winning games and we’re aiming to do that against Hearts at the weekend.”

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes admitted that he thought his side’s chance to win had come and gone against his former club.

He said: “I thought we’d passed up the best chance of the game from Stuart Findlay’s first-half header. We lost the game against Hearts at the weekend to a mistake, a lack of concentration.

“It was good to win today with a real moment of quality. It’s probably that last wee bit that David needs to add to his game because he’s physical, and he was terrific throughout.

“It was a tight game today, and there wasn’t a lot in both boxes.

“We didn’t need to be brilliant tonight – we needed to be efficient. Every manager, every team needs a moment of quality and thankfully wee David did that.”