A week is a long time in football. But luckily for Aberdeen this one has been far more enjoyable than any experienced last month.
The Dons put a miserable run of form behind them by beating Dundee United 2-0 at Pittodrie last weekend.
In getting back to winning ways manager Derek McInnes will be hoping it’s a turning point in what has been a pretty wretched run.
How the Dons managed to go from eight wins in a row to one draw and five defeats is a mystery and one which could well become the stuff of legend in years to come.
Judging by the nonsense I’ve heard in the last month I’m not surprised.
The conspiracy theorists have been out in force to have their say as all sorts of nonsensical rumours and Chinese whispers were shared in taxi cabs and on messageboards.
I know I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had someone approach me asking whether any of the daft stories were true.
Silly season is what we tend to call the transfer speculation but Aberdeen for a few weeks have had a whole new category of their own to contend with – rampant fantasy.
It’s sad that football has come to this. A team loses a few games so there must be something going on behind the scenes. Players must be fighting amongst themselves; the manager has lost the dressing room; there are personal issues at play.
Aye right.
If that was the case then why did all the Dons players so quickly agree to give up their free time in the last international break to put in extra hours on the training pitch in the hope of finding a solution?
But the fact the club captain Ryan Jack and Jonny Hayes both felt the need to comment publicly speaks volumes of what the players have thought of it all.
As boring as it may sound the truth of the matter is this – too many players in red shirts went off the boil at the same time.
The loss at Hibs in the League Cup dented the confidence which Caley Thistle exploited in Inverness but it was the five goal hammering at home to St Johnstone which hurt the most.
Teams don’t recover quickly from their pride being hit as hard as Aberdeen’s was and that has proven to be the case with the loss at Ross County and the defeat at Celtic.
But as much as their critics revelled in the wretched run they knew Aberdeen is too good a team for this to be anything other than temporary.
Drastic times still called for drastic measures though and the call to leave Niall McGinn out of the starting line-up against United was a big one by McInnes.
It paid off though as his side got back to winning ways.
If the Dons can build on it and win at Hamilton Accies next week it will repair some of the fragile confidence further.
It is important they do as Hearts now stand between Aberdeen and the tag of challengers to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
That won’t be sitting well at Pittodrie and you can bet the Dons will be determined to establish themselves as one of the dominant teams in the country as quickly as possible.
It’s in times of adversity you find out about the character of your team. It’s time for Aberdeen to show what they are made of.