Paul Hartley claims the Aberdeen players are still behind boss Mark McGhee in the wake of their 9-0 thrashing by Celtic on Saturday. The Dons skipper was red-carded for conceding a penalty at Parkhead before the visitors crumbled to the heaviest defeat in the Pittodrie club's history.

At a press conference at Pittodrie on Monday morning, a touchy Hartley said: "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 him down, there is 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.

"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."

Hartley admitted to feeling foolish at using his hands to block a drive from Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-yueng.

He told RedTV: "I let myself, my team-mates, my manager and the supporters down.

"It was a stupid thing to do. It was a reaction at the time. I felt the ball was going in and I put my hand out.

"Looking back, it was a silly thing to do."