Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes says his Reds have it all to play for in their final 11 matches of the Scottish Premiership campaign.
The Dons, who have spent the week training in Tenerife, have not finished second in the top flight since 1994 but have a four-point advantage and a game in hand over third-placed Caley Thistle.
St Johnstone’s 1-0 victory against Celtic on Wednesday has also given the Dons fresh hope that they can push the Hoops all the way in pursuit of a first league title for 30 years.
But for manager McInnes, the main target is ensuring they better last season’s third-place finish.
He said: “We just want to keep getting improvement from last season and we will certainly look to improve our points total.
“We are on course to do that but we need to finish the season strongly to show what we are capable of.
“There is still plenty to look forward to. The challenge now is to keep our performance levels as high as possible until the end of the season. Aberdeen teams should always be doing that and going into every match setting out to win.
“We want to secure European football and improve upon last year.”
The break in Tenerife has given McInnes and his players time to ponder on what might have been at Parkhead on Sunday. The Dons dominated the early stages but failed to make the breakthrough and paid the price as Ronny Deila’s side ran out 4-0 winners.
McInnes said: “For an hour we showed exactly what we are capable of as a team and then for the last half hour we were extremely disappointed with our performance.
“We allowed the second goal to really impact on what we were doing. The first goal was a real blow because we were dominating.
“It was Celtic’s first corner, and we knew how dominant they could be at set-plays, but we didn’t manage to deal with it.
“Looking back, for an hour of the game there was a lot to be pleased about, but for the last half hour we allowed the nature of the way the game was going to affect what we were doing.”