Sunday 8 May 2016 16:54, UK
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes says he is proud of his side after they pushed Celtic all the way for the Scottish Premiership title this season.
The Hoops secured their fifth successive league title with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over McInnes' side at Celtic Park on Sunday.
However, the Dons manager was pleased with the efforts of his team, who came from three goals down to almost snatch a point against Ronny Deila's side.
Aberdeen have now finished runners-up to Celtic in two consecutive seasons and McInnes says his players have done well to challenge the Glaswegian giants in the absence of usual rivals Rangers.
"The league campaign certainly has [been a success]," McInnes said. "We're the one team that's taken the responsibility to mount a challenge and it's not an easy thing to do.
"People are telling me that Rangers, coming up next year, are going to have to spend millions to bridge the gap.
"But their budget is three times mine. There's not a huge difference between what I've got to work with and other teams but we're the team the last couple of seasons who has given them work to do to win it.
"You've got to credit Celtic - their points tally has been fantastic this year. We'll congratulate them because they deserve it.
"They found a way to win it today - their attacking threat has been there and it's been clear but overall, if we can finish above the points tally of last season, that will suggest to me that we've made improvements."
Aberdeen threatened to be blown away inside the opening half hour on Sunday and soon found themselves two goals down thanks a brace from impressive Manchester City loanee Patrick Roberts.
Mikael Lustig added a third for the Hoops shortly after half-time but a spirited fightback, which included goals from Niall McGinn and Andy Considine, almost secured an unlikely point for the visitors.
"I thought we started the first five or ten minutes well - we had a good chance with Niall and then we lost a goal," said McInnes.
"It's disappointing because we spoke about Roberts and trying to stop the service into him. It's a terrific strike - you've got the acknowledge that but you've still got to try.
"I thought it was pretty even and then out of nothing we're pulling the ball out of our net again.
"The whole second half I thought we were good value with the chances we created. The third goal - I turned round to Tony [Docherty] and said 'that goal will come back to bite us', because I always felt that we were capable of scoring.
"3-0 down, all to do, it was party time for them and they started to get the crowd into it but we gave them something to think about, as we have done all season, but we just fell a bit short."
