We showed the doubters were wrong

Derek Mcinnes saluted his Aberdeen players for a fourth consecutive second-place finish in Scotland’s top flight, insisting they had provided the perfect response to those who questioned them this season, writes Stephen Halliday. Andrew Considine scored the only goal of the game at Celtic Park to give the Dons their first league victory there in 26 attempts, clinching runners-up position.

They finished just nine

points behind the champions in the final analysis and three points clear of thirdplaced Rangers.

Aberdeen were unbeaten in their post-split fixtures, finally taking their first points of the season against both Rangers and Celtic.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction which comes from people doubting us,” said Mcinnes. “We’ve had that hanging over us because of the Old Firm games. It’s been said about the bigger games but it was in the Old Firm matches we let ourselves down.

“Hibs and Hearts only beat us once. I felt with the way the post-split worked out we’d have to beat one of Celtic or Rangers to get second. We played well in both games. We were competitive from the first minute today.

“The players demand so much credit for their effort but also their resolve. The motivation was clear. It’s been aimed at us from Hibs players saying we didn’t have the mentality, or they had better mentality and we feared Hibs.

“We had Rangers players saying they were the second-best team – or Celtic players saying Hibs were the second-best team. Whatever motivation we needed, it came out in our performance today.”

Mcinnes is already preparing himself for another challenge to maintain Aberdeen’s current status next season.

“Three years ago, when Hearts came back into it, there were a lot of noises made there, that we wouldn’t get it all our own way and we ended up 19 points clear of Hearts that season,” he said.

“Rangers came back into it last year and we dealt with that again, ten points, we’ve dealt with it again this year. We are proud of the fact. I expect Hibs to improve, I expect Hearts to go again, and Rangers you would expect their improvement to be more each year if they make good decisions. Steven Gerrard as manager looks a good decision because he’s an impressive guy. If they get the funds and use their funds wisely they should be ten, 15 points clear of Aberdeen and Hibs.”