ABERDEEN boss Mark McGhee believes his players must learn how to win ugly.
The Dons were booed off after a humiliating loss to Raith Rovers in the Active Nation Scottish Cup on Tuesday night.
And McGhee insists his players must be prepared to roll up their sleeves in order to beat more physical teams who sit in and defend deep.
He said: "We have lost against the likes of St Mirren, Falkirk, Motherwell and Raith Rovers already this season and what those teams have done is get stuck into us. They have been right in our faces and we have not coped with that.
"It has put us on the back foot and that is not good enough. On a night when we aren't going to play well we need to roll up our sleeves and win the battle and we didn't do that against Raith Rovers."
Raith joined Queen's Park, Queen of the South, Dunfermline and Dundee as lower league sides who have all knocked Aberdeen out of cup competitions in recent times.
McGhee says he intends to change his squad in a bid to bring success to Pittodrie after another humiliation.
He said: "If you were to draw up a list of criteria for a player such as pace, being good in the air, having a good shot or a certain type of character, some of them don't tick enough of the boxes. I need to get a better balance."
Source: Team Talk
Source: Team Talk