Ebbe Skovdahl kept his counsel on a Tennent's Scottish Cup exit by Livingston, stand-in skipper Darren Young apologised to the Red Army (demobilised) and chief executive Dave Cormack wrung his hands at losing a potential £500,000 windfall when already £3million in the red.

Along the waterfront at a local hotel, Willie Miller was being championed as one of the figureheads of the Aberdeen Supporters Trust - the former shareholders group which has seven per cent in the club and dreams of overtaking Stewart Milne as second-largest shareholder.

Poor Miller seems to grow greyer and balder with each passing season as he watches through BBC spectacles at the nightmares revisited upon Pittodrie Street, with perhaps the only consolation being that the worse they fare, the better player he becomes in the memory.

Alan Hansen enjoyed the same reverence on Merseyside during a lean decade for Liverpool and, 19 years after their infamous collision at the World Cup in Spain, the pair are in harmony over something - 'You win nothing with kids.'

Only Sir Alex Ferguson has been the exception to prove Hansen's rule and he had David Beckham and Ryan Giggs, where Skovdahl has David Rowson and Phil McGuire.

The side that finished against Livingston had eight players aged 24 or under, with four 20-year-olds after the departure of Thomas Solberg through injury. Solberg isn't fit to lace Miller's boots - even a fortysomething Miller - but his experience was missed.

Visiting winger David Bingham reported that team-mate John Anderson had joked: 'Should so many of them be out after 9pm?' with reference to Aberdeen's youth team appearance and while it wasn't meant to be an insult it was a point well-made.

How to fund some experienced, leader-type recruits must have occupied Cormack as he raked over the torn-up asset sheets from a home quarter-final with Peterhead and a possible live TV semi-final appearance.

'I am not going to suggest the club should dig themselves into a bigger debt black hole but we need a strong board to drive the club forward,' said Miller, as the Aberdeen Trust asked fans to pay £10 to help them buy them a share and 'bond' those outwith the major board-room players.

'If they can't afford to spend money now I can't tell them to, but I would agree that is obvious those kids need help. I've said all along they could not rely on them all season because young players always suffer a form-dip.

'I've been party to it and I've seen it, lads do magnificently well at first and are fresh and then suffer a loss of confidence or in their legs. Aberdeen do not have a strong foundation there to help them and the last thing fans will want to see is the kids going backwards.

'Funds have to be generated and this was an opportunity to maybe reach another cup final. It isn't an easy job being a director but if you take it on you must supply answers.'

Miller remains less than impressed at no investment in a training ground/youth academy and mentioned Caley Thistle and Livingston by name for their spirit and ambition while Aberdeen delay on facilities.

Cormack, at Pittodrie only four months since arriving from America to replace Gordon Bennett, knows Aberdeen are already losing cash through a lack of Saturday fixtures. They will be in SPL action for the next three Tuesdays, with a drop-off in crowd figures expected after the Cup exit.

'This is a serious blow because we had hoped for a big gate against Peterhead and a real chance to reach the last four,' he said. 'We made a lot of money out the cups last season and I really feel for the fans in this situation. We have a young team though and I don't feel its my place to have a go at the team.'

Darren Young, captain in Derek Whyte's absence, said: 'I'm totally embarrassed and our performance was a disgrace. We hardly played any football and the fans were right to have a real go at us as we came off.'

The Aberdeen Supporters Trust believe if fans ally themselves together they can eventually out-strip Milne's shareholding of around 26 per cent behind Aberdeen Asset Management (around 36 per cent).