Defender Anthony O’Connor knows the importance of keeping the Dons’ winning run going against Caley Thistle after the international break in preparation for the Betfred Cup final.
The Dons responded to successive 1-0 defeats against Hamilton and Celtic with a hard-earned 2-1 victory at Firhill against in-form Partick Thistle on Friday night.
O’Connor opened the scoring for the Dons before Adam Barton got Partick back on level terms.
But Jayden Stockley’s sumptuous goal earned the Dons all three points to get the league campaign back on track.
Derek McInnes’ side have only one match left before their Hampden final against Celtic – an away trip to Inverness – and O’Connor believes it is important to go into the final on the back of another strong performance.
He said: “After being on such a good run of wins recently it was tough to take the way we lost against Celtic and the Hamilton game, so it was nice to get back to winning ways.
“We’ve been saying it would be nice to take a few wins into the cup final so Friday night’s win should give us a bit of confidence and hopefully we can win our next league game going into the final.
“We didn’t start well at Hamilton and it was the start that did for us. It was probably the same against Celtic.
“It was nice to start well against Partick, we dominated the early stages of the game and when we got the goal it settled us right down.
“We didn’t let them scoring affect us and Jayden Stockley came up with an incredible finish.
“I’ve no idea where it came from, I was telling him to head it on the floor as that’s his strength but fair play to him it was a great finish.”
O’Connor was also thrilled to notch his first goal of the season following his summer move from Burton Albion.
He added: “I knew as soon as I hit it as I had caught it sweet but the most important thing was to get back to winning ways.
“I’m hoping there are more goals to come.
“I’m more than happy to chip in with a few but my job is to keep them out.
“It’s a nice feeling to get off the mark. Everyone wants to score goals but I get more satisfaction from keeping them out of my own net. Making a challenge is like scoring a goal to me.
“But to pop up at the other end to chip in with a goal, I’m thrilled and hopefully I can get a few more.”