Tuesday 13 October 2015 16:27, UK
Aberdeen winger Niall McGinn has been named SPFL player of the month for September.
The award caps a remarkable period for the former Celtic star who was part of the Northern Ireland squad which secured their place at the finals of Euro 2016 over the weekend.
McGinn has been in outstanding form since the start of the season, helping Aberdeen to eight straight victories in the Scottish Premiership.
Despite stuttering over their last two games - defeats to Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St Johnstone, the Dons still top the fledgling table, one point clear of champions Celtic.
The 28-year-old was happy for the international break to arrive, not just for Northern Ireland's success, but also for Aberdeen to take a step back following their turn of form.
"I think it's just been a magnificent start for us, personally," McGinn said. "We got eight wins out of eight, although recently we obviously didn't get the results we wanted.
"The international break came at the right time for us and it's given us a chance to get back to the drawing board and get back to working on things in the training ground.
"There is always those times you can dream about, but being realistic we've obviously improved majorly on each season, and I think we've done that this season but we lost those two games, but it's going to be a difficult season for us but it's one we're looking forward to."
McGinn caught the eye in the recent Sky Live encounter against newly-promoted Hearts, a game which Aberdeen won 3-1 and one where the Irishman believes his side lay down a marker.
"There was a lot of talk going into that game, Hearts had been doing well, we had been doing well, and I think people were saying, is this time for Aberdeen to collapse?" he said.
"But we went there and put on a strong performance especially in the first half and we saw the game out and showed great character in that game. The last two weeks have been very disappointing, but we just want to get back to winning ways as quickly as we can."
Aberdeen will begin that quest with a trip to Dingwall on Friday night to face Ross County, another team who have improved much this season.
We want to take each game as it comes... and look foward to Friday night as we just want to get that win as quickly as possible again.
But McGinn has played down talk of a title challenge to Celtic, and simply wants to focus on the next game, and enjoy what he describes as a his greatest week.
"We've just got to keep building on each season, which we have done, and we all work tremendously hard behind the scenes and the manager does as well, but we've definitely improved on last season," he said.
"We want to take each game as it comes, more importantly for us we just want to look forward to Friday night as we just want to get that win as quickly as possible again.
"Probably the last week has been the best week of my life. The international stage, qualifying for a major tournament, and picking up this personal award as well."
