Aberdeen midfielder Kenny McLean fears his team could win all of its remaining matches and it would still not be good enough to bring the Scottish Premiership title to Pittodrie.
The Dons are six points behind leaders Celtic with 11 matches remaining, but missed the chance to reduce the deficit to four when held to a 1-1 draw at home to St Johnstone on Saturday.
Time and games and running out, but McLean believes his team-mates are still confident although he conceded the destination of the championship remains in Celtic’s hands.
He said: “We can go on a good run and win every game if we play well. We know we can do that, there is a belief here we can do it.
“If we did win every game where would we finish? That’s hard to say, but we’re confident we can.
“Celtic have it in their own hands so we just look at ourselves and our performances and results.
“At the start of the season we won the first eight matches, then we went 12 unbeaten. So there has to be a belief we can do it again.
“It’s just about breaking the games down and taking it one step at a time.”
The Dons’ ability to go the distance with the Hoops was questioned when they failed to capitalise on Celtic’s draw at Hamilton on Friday, but McLean insists there is no lack of belief or courage among the players.
He said: “When we drop points people say we’ve blown our chance, it’s our bottle or whatever.
“But we’re not looking too far ahead, getting three points in every game is our only objective then we move on to the next match.
“We have dropped points at the wrong time so people are talking about it. But the players have a lot of character.
“We have shown that this season and we’ll do as well as we can in every match.”
The Dons travel to Dundee United tonight hoping to close the gap again on the champions and McLean knows it is results more than performances which matter.
He said: “Any time we drop points we want the next game to come around as soon as possible so it’s good we’ve got one just a few days later after the disappointment of the St Johnstone match. We want to take it out on Dundee United now.
“Every game is going to be tough, the pitches are not great and matches have been scrappy.
“But we need to be up for the challenge because it’s not always going to be about nice football.
“At this time of year it’s about getting the sleeves rolled up and digging in to get the results we need.”