Aberdeen have given themselves a great chance of finishing second again in the Premiership and it’s important they take advantage of their game in hand against Motherwell.
The Dons travel to Fir Park tomorrow looking to move three points clear of rivals Rangers in second place.
The Steelmen’s 2-2 draw with the Gers and the Reds’ 4-1 win over St Johnstone means the sides are now level on points.
With the game in hand, Derek McInnes’ team are favourites to finish second in the league for a fourth successive year and it is a credit to them that they are once again in this position.
The head-to-heads with Rangers have not been good enough this term, but what has been good enough is that Aberdeen have got themselves in a position that looked like slipping away from them.
If they take care of the game in hand, which won’t be easy, they have every chance of finishing second – if they maintain their form.
Motherwell showed again on Saturday against Rangers what they are capable of.
The Dons know it will be a tough, physical encounter, but they have enough physicality in their squad to deal with it and if they leave Lanarkshire tomorrow with three points it’s a fine result.
Aberdeen’s squad seem more reliable than Rangers, even when they haven’t played particularly well they have managed to get results, and they have the know-how to gather points.
The league is all about consistency and they’ve shown that consistency against everyone except Rangers and Celtic.
The results against the Glasgow sides is something that will be gnawing away at them and something they will want to put right after the split.
Saturday’s game was probably the best the Dons have played for seven games, in terms of creativity.
Although it didn’t look that way until they scored the first goal. It was lacklustre for 35 minutes, but I thought St Johnstone did well for the first 35 minutes.
Once the goal went in, it was a different performance and one that the fans could probably recognise more than the last six games.
In the last six games there hasn’t been a lot of creativity and they had only scored two goals from open play in the six fixtures prior to Saturday.
But I thought the performance after the first goal was excellent.
It sets the Reds up for a tough run-in and finding this form at this time of the season indicates that the run-in to the season – with seven league games and a Scottish Cup semi final – will be a good one for the Dons.
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