Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes insists his players still have plenty to play for when the Scottish Premiership run-in resumes after the international break.
The Dons’ title aspirations were dealt a hefty blow on Saturday when they were beaten 2-1 by Motherwell at Fir Park.
Tom Rogic’s late winner for Celtic at Kilmarnock means the Hoops are now four points ahead at the top of the table with a game in hand.
The Dons have also played one more game than third-placed Hearts but hold a nine-point advantage over the Tynecastle side.
McInnes’ Reds are not back in action until April 3 when Hamilton Accies visit Pittodrie but the Dons manager says his players will keep pushing Celtic right until the end of the campaign.
He said: “We just have to deal with our own games. We are in between Celtic and Hearts and we are trying to catch Celtic and keep ourselves away from Hearts.
“There is plenty for my team to keep interested and keep going. We are obliged with the support we have to keep going all the way and try to get as many wins as possible.
“We will recharge over the break and then come back with a real determination to finish the season strongly.
“We will just keep going and we will finish where we deserve to finish.”
However, McInnes accepts his side must win all seven games remaining and reach the 86-point mark if they are to have any chance of preventing Celtic winning the title.
He added: “I still feel, with the nature of the league at the minute, points will get dropped and there will be a few surprise results along the way.
“We still have 21 points to play for and we will try to win them all.
“There is work to be done but that is only our second defeat in 18 games, so we are not going to start getting too disturbed by it all.
“Playing Motherwell away at any stage of the season is a tough game.
“For 70-odd minutes we looked the better team and like the team going to win the game, but it wasn’t to be.
“We knew prior to Saturday there was not a lot of room for error but there were too many errors during that final 15 minutes on Saturday which culminated in us losing the game.
“We still back ourselves with seven games to go to win as many of them as possible.”
