HERO CONSIDINE GIFTS HIMSELF PERFECT PRESENT

UNLIKELY hero Andrew Considine gifted himself an early birthday present after scoring his first-ever hat-trick in Aberdeen’s rout of Dundee. The defender, who turns 30 today, found himself on the scoresheet alongside Adam Rooney, Kenny McLean, Ryan Jack and Niall McGinn as the Dons blew their hosts away — and avoided handing the title to Celtic before their trip to Tynecastle tomorrow. ‘I’ve never scored a hat-trick before. I’ve scored two goals before but never three,’ said Considine. ‘It’s a fantastic early birthday present. I thought the team was fantastic. We got in about them early, got in their faces and took it from there. The quality we have in this team is incredible.’ Delighted boss Derek McInnes claimed Considine should have scored even more. ‘I never thought I’d live to see the day Andy Considine scored a hat-trick — but he should have scored four as he missed an early chance,’ said McInnes. ‘It was a perfect night for him and us. To produce a performance like that at this stage in the season is really impressive and says so much about the team. It was a fantastic performance. ‘We said at half-time the second half didn’t need to be as eventful as the first but it played out the same way. It was great to have so many Aberdeen fans here and send them home happy.’ Dejected Dundee boss Paul Hartley said: ‘We were shambolic. It was deeply disappointing. ‘I’ve had to gather my thoughts to try to explain where that performance came from and I still can’t quite believe it. ‘We worked all week on stopping crosses coming into the box but we didn’t do the basics. ‘The players should look themselves in the mirror. We have a real battle with eight games to go and nobody can say we’re too good to go down.’