Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes insists his players have the mental toughness to last the distance in the Scottish Premiership title race.
The Dons moved level with champions Celtic on 55 points after a dramatic 4-3 win at St Johnstone on Saturday and McInnes believes the resilience shown by his players in withstanding a late rally from the Saints to take all three points proves the mettle of his side.
He said: “I’m delighted with what our players have given us, there’s no one here not giving everything. I have complete trust in the players and they have trust in me, we’re just being as competitive as we can.
“We are on a brilliant unbeaten run and want that to continue. At this stage of the season wins are vitally important, so we’re just enjoying the run we’re on.”
Celtic captain Scott Brown insists his side is certainties to be crowned champions come May but the Aberdeen manager is content to let his players’ performances provide the retort.
Saturday’s win means the Dons are unbeaten in 12 matches, the longest unbeaten run of any side in the Premiership this season, with attacker Adam Rooney’s 10 goals in the 12 league matches helping the Dons reel in the league leaders.
McInnes said: “It was important for us to win at St Johnstone because the script was written if we hadn’t.
“People would be saying ‘there’s Aberdeen, they can beat Celtic but drop points in the next game’. But we ground it out and showed bundles of spirit to get there.
“That’s what required sometimes. The mental strength has been there the whole time.”
McInnes believes Saturday’s game was a more challenging task for his side than last week’s 2-1 win against the champions at Pittodrie.
The Dons manager was concerned if the energy exerted in beating the Hoops would lead to a hangover for his players but he was delighted with their resolve at McDiarmid Park and thanked the 3,000-strong travelling support for roaring the team to victory.
He said: “The team was picked with the intention of imposing ourselves early in the game and getting on top of St Johnstone early and it worked well.
“But St Johnstone deserve credit for how they responded in the second half. They asked more questions of us but we gave them encouragement by being sloppy once or twice.
“Our response to them scoring was excellent mentally. At 2-1 we had to respond and the players did just that. The legs were starting to go and a lot of players were running on empty in the last 20 minutes but they deserve so much credit.
“It is great to be able to come to grounds and three parts of the stadium have Aberdeen supporters there. We needed them on Saturday and they came through us for especially towards the end.”