Saturday 12 March 2016 20:39, UK
Derek McInnes says his Aberdeen players are relishing the opportunity of battling for the Scottish Premiership title over the final few weeks of the season.
McInnes' comments follow his team's 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock on Saturday, when Shaleum Logan headed a 71st-minute winner which took the Dons back to within one point of leaders Celtic.
The Hoops, who beat Partick Thistle by the same score at lunchtime, do have one game in hand over Aberdeen but McInnes says his squad are full of confidence.
He said: "We are all really enjoying it and loving being where we are. We just want to keep it going.
"My players are looking forward to games, feeling confident about games but recognising that it is important to keep bringing individual performances.
"Rather than people talking about character and bottle, it is more individual performances, that will make the difference whether we can win games between now and the end of the season."
At Pittodrie, Ash Taylor fired the hosts ahead before Josh Magennis equalised for Killie against the run of play after 47 minutes.
But Logan stooped to conquer on 71 and McInnes added: "We did it the hard way but we dug deep to get all three points.
There was a real upturn in performance again and the players deserve an enormous amount of credit
"I felt we were the better team in the first half and Jamie MacDonald had a couple of good saves in the game. We also hit the post and the bar and you hope it does not come back to haunt you.
"I was bit annoyed with their goal, with us allowing the cross to come in, but similar to the Partick game on Tuesday, there was still enough time for us to respond to that and we did immediately.
"There was a real upturn in performance again and the players deserve an enormous amount of credit."
Meanwhile, Kilmarnock boss Lee Clark accused his players of lacking belief during the first half.
He stressed: "I told the players at half-time that they had wasted a half of football.
"They played with a bit of fear and showed Aberdeen too much respect. You don't go out there and play with fear on the park. It is a pointless emotion.
"We did much better in the second half and got the goal and had other chances. We gave Aberdeen lots of problems and I'm frustrated because I felt we deserved something from the game but we have wasted 45 minutes of football.
"From now until the end of the season, we cannot afford to waste any minutes of football. We have got to be right at it
"We were not aggressive without the ball or with it. It was half-hearted in everything we did but it was full-throttle in the second half and we caused problems.
"It shows me that we can compete so there are positives but it is points over performance. That is the case at any stage of the season but it certainly is now."
