Niall McGinn was delighted to prove the doubters wrong by helping Aberdeen maintain their perfect start to the season with a 3-1 victory against Hearts.
A David Goodwillie double and a superb solo effort from McGinn earned the Dons a first win at Tynecastle since 2010 with Igor Rossi netting a second-half consolation for Hearts.
The Dons, who have made a flawless start to the season, have a five-point advantage over Celtic, who defeated Dundee 6-0 yesterday.
McGinn was pleased the Dons managed to keep the momentum going with a ruthless display at Tynecastle, with the Reds scoring three times in a superb first-half performance.
The Dons have won all eight of their opening matches in the Scottish Premiership ahead of Wednesday’s third round League Cup encounter against Hibernian.
McGinn said: “There have been questions asked and we keep answering them which is good.
“We just want to keep improving on every season as much as possible and, thankfully, we seem to be doing that. We have had a great start but it is a long season.
“It’s obviously new for us to have this run this early but we know from being in similar situations before that we just want to concentrate on each game and keep on winning hopefully.
“We’ll take each game as it comes.
“We’ve got an important week coming up now with the cup game on Wednesday at Hibs and another tough game in the league against Inverness.
“We will have to prepare right.”
It was Aberdeen’s first win at Tynecastle for five years and McGinn was pleased to send the 1,475 Dons supporters who made the trip to Edinburgh back home happy.
He said: “I think in the last few seasons when Hearts were in the league this has always been a difficult place to go.
“We were delighted to be 3-0 ahead at half-time.
“It is always a great atmosphere here and even the players were talking about how much we were looking forward to playing here.
“That gave us an extra spring in our step. We thrive on these big games and, thankfully, we came here and did the damage.”
Goodwillie had not scored for the Dons since a 4-0 win against Ross County in February.
McGinn added: “I thought he was outstanding. It just shows the strength in depth of the squad.
“Goody has been out of the squad but I thought he was excellent in the European games this season.
“He has been patient and I was delighted for him to come in and get his two goals.”