Stephen Glass claimed Aberdeen need stability as he told angry fans he would not walk away in the wake of their Scottish Cup exit at Motherwell.
The Dons took a third-minute lead in the fifth-round encounter through Christian Ramirez but the hosts turned the game on its head late in the first half thanks to goals from Kevin Van Veen and Connor Shields.
Motherwell could have extended their lead but needed a brilliant stoppage-time save from Liam Kelly to deny Ramirez.
Some of the 2,000 visiting fans stayed behind to vent their fury at Glass and many of the players as they walked up the staircase in the Tommy McLean Stand after the 2-1 defeat.
Aberdeen sit ninth in the cinch Premiership after taking one point from their last four games and a Premier Sports Cup exit against Raith Rovers sparked a poor run earlier in the season.
Glass said: “If I didn’t think it was working I would walk away but I feel like you see the fight in the team at times. I think we have enough.
“Any time the club here has done well there has been stability. If instability is the answer then you know what will happen.
“I’m fully aware of the pressures of the club. I came into the club full-time at 16, there was pressure to get in a team, into a team that was fighting relegation. I managed to help them stave that off, won a cup, and since I left there’s been one trophy come back.
“Nobody needs to tell me how big this football club is, nobody needs to tell me what it takes to get out of sticky situations, and if instability is the answer then you know what will happen.
“The club has seen what happens when you chop and change managers every couple of years, like they did when I was playing. You end up where you shouldn’t be.”
Glass, whose chairman Dave Cormack was at Fir Park, added: “I think I have got the backing of the board and everyone else that’s here. I have certainly got the backing of the players, I think you can see.
“I believe in the players. I think they believe in themselves but we have not won enough games and you know what happens when you don’t win enough games.
“But of course I believe in myself. I have done it since the day I was born, I never give up on a football pitch and I’m not about to start now.”
Motherwell boss Graham Alexander felt his side were “brilliant” when they realised what they had to do deal with the wet and windy conditions.
“I think that was a win for our character and personality, because we have had a difficult month and going 1-0 down after two minutes, it could have been worse,” he added.
“But we spoke on Thursday and Friday about character and personality and every single one of them showed that. They were brilliant.
“You could see we were tired at the end after the month we have had but none of them gave in and threw their bodies in front of everything if they could. If they didn’t get to it, Kells did.”
